Bob Marley's music endures long after his untimely death in 1981 of cancer. I have always loved reggae's infectious beat and cool bass lines that evoke warm climates and easy going times. Carina and I honeymooned in Jamaica in 1992 and dream of going back again some day. Of all the places I've visited in the world, the live bands in Jamaica are still the best. Marley's Legend CD is one of the first I ever bought, back when Cd's were still the new thing, and there's no better driving music to play when you're on the road.
I noticed that Bob Marley's image now shows up all over the place, even in the souvenir markets in a place like Quito, Ecuador. He has a place alongside Che Guevara in the Latin conciousness as a voice for liberation and equality, and Marley has become more famous worldwide than he was even at the height of his fame in the late 70's.
Carina and I went to see the new documentary titled Marley on Sunday night at the Princess Cinema (and experience all it's own!). The film was co-produced by Bob's son Ziggy, and is a fascinating look at the man, his life, and the unique place he had in the political life of Jamaica and in African countries like Zimbabwe. It got me thinking of the power of the artist and his music to bring people together, to raise awareness, and to heal broken relationships. But before I get too sentimental on this idea, I must also observe how futile it is for artists to try and take on a mantle of 'messiah-ship' in this broken world we live in.
This film is a must-see for all fans of Bob Marley. It traces his mixed lineage (his father was white, his mother was black, so he was not-quite-a-part of any one group), the poverty and squalor of growing up in the infamous Trench Town slum in Kingston, and his struggles to make a career in the burgeoning music industry in Jamaica. We see his embrace of the religion of Rastafarianism with it's belief that President Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was the re-incarnation of Jesus Christ, an episode in the film that is a telling portrayal all it's own of a mortal allowing himself to be elevated to deification with the attendant and inevitable let-down that follows.
Still, as Marley's fame grows, we see the tensions on the home front with multiple love affairs (he fathered many children with many women) as well as his gradual realization that people look to him to be the glue that will hold a fractured country together. The high drama of a gathering of 80,000 Jamaicans for the Smile Jamaica concert in the midst of political violence is portrayed onscreen with grim intensity. Marley paid the personal price of an attempt on his life in the lead-up to the concert, and one has to admire his courage to take to the stage the night of the big show knowing there could well be people out there ready to try once again to kill him. Don't us musicians just want to play our stuff and let the rest of the world deal with politics? Marley for one realized he had a part to play, and he did so with abandon.
To watch him perform is mesmerizing. The concert footage gives a good look at his almost 'shamanistic' presence onstage, always moving, grooving, dancing, jumping, letting the music take over his body and soul. Other concert footage comes from a similar event that celebrated the newly independent Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), at one point interrupted by a teargas attack. While white middle class American young people were discovering Marley's reggae magic and sending him to Number One on the charts, he was performing for a nation of people who had come through a fierce war for independence and freedom. The film shows the swearing in of the nascent country's new president, Robert Mugabe, who asks God's help to lead with justice and equality.
Inevitably, all our heroes fall. Even the gifted artist with an almost god-like status. Even the well-meaning politician or president. I was reminded again of what Jesus said, that many would come in His name claiming to be Messiah, claiming to be Himself. Even someone as gifted as Bob Marley, able to bridge cultures and people groups with the power and passion of music, as legendary and iconic as we want him to be, is still at the end of all things, just a man. Bob's final days battling the cancer that took his life show this truth in a powerful way.
And so I listen to my Legend CD with fresh ears, reminded again that Bob Marley, like every other artist I admire, is after all a frail and broken human being.
To watch him perform is mesmerizing. The concert footage gives a good look at his almost 'shamanistic' presence onstage, always moving, grooving, dancing, jumping, letting the music take over his body and soul. Other concert footage comes from a similar event that celebrated the newly independent Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), at one point interrupted by a teargas attack. While white middle class American young people were discovering Marley's reggae magic and sending him to Number One on the charts, he was performing for a nation of people who had come through a fierce war for independence and freedom. The film shows the swearing in of the nascent country's new president, Robert Mugabe, who asks God's help to lead with justice and equality.
Inevitably, all our heroes fall. Even the gifted artist with an almost god-like status. Even the well-meaning politician or president. I was reminded again of what Jesus said, that many would come in His name claiming to be Messiah, claiming to be Himself. Even someone as gifted as Bob Marley, able to bridge cultures and people groups with the power and passion of music, as legendary and iconic as we want him to be, is still at the end of all things, just a man. Bob's final days battling the cancer that took his life show this truth in a powerful way.
And so I listen to my Legend CD with fresh ears, reminded again that Bob Marley, like every other artist I admire, is after all a frail and broken human being.
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