Bob Marley

Bob Marley (by Maureen)

Bob Marley was born February 6th, 1945, in the parish of St Ann's in Jamaica. "I don't stand for the black man's side, I don't stand for the white man's side, I stand for God's side." Those are the words of Bob Marley. He was in fact quite religious. That's partially the reason he died. He refused to have a cancer infected toe amputated due to religion. He was Rastafarian.

At the age of 16, Bob released his first song called "Judge Not" which did not do too well. But Bob was not discouraged. In 1965, Bob formed a group called the Wailers with Bunny Livingstone (Bunny Wailer) and Peter McIntosh (Peter Tosh). Bob wrote most of the songs. In 1971 the Wailers finally got a break. Island Records forwarded them 8,000 British pounds for a full album profit. By 1976, Reggae fever had swept the nation. The Wailers were the first band from Jamaica that was a strictly rasta, meaning that they had their own kind of language, a strict diet, and they smoked huge amounts of marijuana.

In 1967 Bob married his long term girl friend, Rita Anderson. They had four children together. Their names are Cedella, Zigg, Sharon, and Stephen.

On December 3rd, 1976, an assassination attempt was made on Bob. But despite the gunshot wounds, Bob still performed at the concert. On 1981, Bob died at the very young age of 36. Bob's funeral was held on May 21st and thousands of people were there. The prime minister of Jamaica was even there. His body was taken back to his homeland in Jamaica, and it now rests in a musum. Even though Bob Marley is dead, his music will live on forever.