Bearing Bob’s Face

"Won't you help me sing these songs of freedom?" his hoarse voice asks the listener in one of his famous songs. And indeed for the rest of his life he was to sing songs of freedom. The songs he sang from 1967 onward call on the people to rise against oppression. 

By Alexander Martin Remollino
Bulatlat.com

There could be no mistaking that face that appears on T-shirts that so many young people wear these days. Who could mistake that gauntness, that dark skin, those gloomy eyes, and that hair that comes in dreadlocks?

That face belongs to the late Bob Marley, as any of those wearing T-shirts bearing it is likely to tell you. But who is Bob Marley? Why, he was a great reggae musician, they are likely to reply.

That is the only reply most of those wearing Bob Marley T-shirts are likely to come up with. Which is unfortunate, since Bob Marley, although undeniably a great reggae musician, was far, far more than that.

Robert Nesta Marley was born in St. Ann, Jamaica on Feb. 6, 1945. In the late 1950s, his mother brought him to Trench Town, a poor district of Kingston, the Jamaican capital.

Marley's interest in music was evident even in his childhood. He got his first taste of music from American radio stations, and in his youth was fascinated with the songs of Ray Charles, Fats Domino, and Curtis Mayfield.                               Bob Marley

He worked at a welding shop after quitting school sometime in his teens, but never lost sight of music as an ultimate goal. Instead of hanging around, he spent his spare time jamming with some of his friends, with whom he would later form a band.

New direction

Marley's musical career started in 1961. At first his songs were simply pieces of the normal stuff one could hear on radio. In 1967, however, his music began to shift in a new direction--the direction it was to take for the rest of his life. His songs began to take up the cause of the downtrodden, whom he called the "sufferers"--the oppressed blacks, the enslaved and the dispossessed.

"Won't you help me sing these songs of freedom?" his hoarse voice asks the listener in one of his famous songs. And indeed for the rest of his life he was to sing songs of freedom. The songs he sang from 1967 onward call on the people to rise against oppression.

Not only did he sing songs of freedom from then on -- he  also lent his presence to campaigns for human rights. He was a regular figure at concerts for causes.

His political involvement, combined with his prominence as a singer and songwriter, made him an influential figure in Jamaica. His influence was such that he was feared by people in high places. In December 1976 he became the target of an assassination attempt. But this did not stop him from continuing the pursuit of the causes he had given himself and his talent to.

Bob Marley died of cancer in 1981.

Yet he lives on. One of his songs, "Get Up, Stand Up", has become the theme song of the human rights group Amnesty International. His other songs continue to be performed by cause-oriented musicians.

And he lives on, yet in a way that is unworthy of him, in the T-shirts bearing his face, which so many young people wear today without realizing what the image they bear stands for.

Marley's popularity among young people these days is easily traceable to his deceptively danceable tunes and his unconventional hairstyle. This popularity is being exploited by the capitalists of pop culture.

Years ago wearing a T-shirt bearing Bob Marley's face would have been a powerful statement. Today this is not the case, as Bob Marley T-shirts are worn mostly by young people who have no idea what the face they bear stands for. Bulatlat.com

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