He came from a humble background and grew up in a slum, but his birthday was a holiday by his own country.
He indulged in drugs for many years, but he single-handedly exchanged his strength for the peace of the whole country, and was even called "the man second only to God".
He used his influence to turn the music of the Riba people in a small colonial country full of crime and poverty into one of the most mainstream forms of music in the world.
His name was Bob Marley, and his portrait was printed on the T-shirts of people all over the world.
Bob Marley was born in Jamaica in 1945, a colony far from the British mainland. His mother was a maid and his father was a white bad old man. He and his mother lived in slums, and at a young age, he not only had to endure hunger every day, but also learned how to survive the endless chaos and crime.
At the age of 14, he left home and wanted to make his own world in music. Although this young child who left home was gifted, the musical journey was painful and long after all, and after several years of upheaval and displacement, he found a group of like-minded people and formed a band.
Bob Marley and the band
In that era, "earthy" reggae music was often blinded by the mainstream music market. Although the band was not welcomed and the record company collapsed, this child from the slum still believes that this kind of music inherited from his hometown will be accepted and liked by more people.
God eventually took care of him, and in 1972, after he released two albums, Catch a Fire and Burnin," reggae became an overnight hit. Some say they opened the door to a new world with basses and drums!
In particular, after the legendary single "I Shot the Sheriff" was covered by Clapton, it reached the top of the British charts for the first time. This is tantamount to giving the arrogant mainstream music scene a loud slap in the face!
After this. Bob Marley's path can be said to be overwhelming, not only to produce a new album, but also to countless people to give him a world tour, his fans call themselves extremely fanatical, self-proclaimed believers.
Although his songs are based on Jamaican native music, they are mostly political proclamations against discrimination, violence, and love and peace. Because of this, his songs are not only loved by his own people, but also received unprecedented popularity among people of color around the world and in third world countries.
But he didn't expect that all this would invite the disaster of killing himself...
In 1976, Jamaica's People's Party and Labor Party launched a new round of elections, and the country was close to division in the midst of disputes between the two sides, and the country would not be a country. Violent killings, arson and looting, the jamaican people have killed red eyes in the chaos.
Bob Marley took it all in his eyes. In order to alleviate the contradictions between the people, he decided to hold a free concert to dispel hatred with music, which became known as "Smile Jamaica".
Smile Jamaica
However, just two days before the concert, he, along with his wife and agent, was shot by the mob at his home. Bob Marley's chest and arm were badly wounded, blood ran down the corners of his coat all over the floor, and Marley's wife and agent were shot so hard that they were in danger of shock at any moment.
Fortunately, the three of them survived. Everyone thinks he should give in...
What everyone didn't expect, however, was that two days later he stood on the concert stage, smiling and looking determined.
When asked why he did this, he said, "Those who try to make the world a mess have not had a day off, so how can I stop singing?" On that day, about 80,000 people were present, and Bob Marley stood on the stage, like Christ, singing his heart to the suffering people: "Rise up, stand up, and fight for your power!" Get up, stand up, and don't give up the fight! ”
Although the concert was an unprecedented success, the power was limited. By 1978, the original political struggle had intensified to the brink of civil war!
Unwilling to see the tragedy of cannibalism, Bob Marley returned to bullet-riddled Jamaica for another landmark concert, "One Love Peace."
At that concert, the unthinkable happened, he held the prime minister of the People's Party and his political enemy, the Labour Party, together and held them high above his head. Use this action to tell the people: the chaos is over, tomorrow will be a new day!
Bob Marley never stopped speaking out for the people of the Third World, and he went to Africa, where he called his "spiritual homeland." Africa was not the beautiful pure land he had envisioned, where he had seen with his own eyes the days of war, the flying corpses, and the white capitalists who had done nothing wrong and were desperately trying to squeeze and plunder.
To that end, he wrote what was probably his greatest album, Survival, in which he angrily shouted, "How can you still sit there?" Tell me you should care about that! ”
In 1980, a deteriorating Bob Marley began his last European tour. In the eyes of the audience, the black man on the stage is no longer a singer or a rock star, but a spirit and a faith.
They called him "the man second only to God"!
The last photograph of Bob Marley before his death
In 1981, lying in a hospital room, he passed away peacefully, and in his last days he wrote a passage: "On a sunny morning, I finished my work and flew back to my hometown. ”
As in the past, the hand is still there...
Maybe he really flew back to his hometown, who knows. From the little boy who left home with ambition, to the artist who returned home, his life was more like a life of inheritance. He took over the music of his predecessors, gave it a new spiritual connotation, and then handed it over to posterity, hoping to dissolve hatred in this way.
So when more and more people think that reggae is marijuana and Bob Marley is just an addict, it has to be said that it is really sad.
At the 55th Annual Grammy Awards in 2013, Bob Marley's son Leach Marley and Rihanna performed his father's famous song "Could You Be Loved". At that moment, I found that the word "inheritance" never left.
"Choose the life you love, love the life you choose." If his father had seen all this, he would probably have been very pleased...