Bob Marley’s Music & Vision Live On
Remembering the reggae icon on what would've been his 79th birthday
“Don’t bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality.”
— Bob Marley
The 2-lane highway from Portland’s western suburbs to the Oregon Coast was exactly 72 miles.
It usually took about an hour and a half. It was a little faster if traffic was light and we were in a fast car. Or a little longer if we were in my friend Matt’s VW bus. It never bothered us, though.
It’s hard to be in a hurry when the sun’s out and you’re with your friends.
No one ever felt the need to check their watch while moseying through the Coast Range listening to Bob Marley.
At this point, Marley’s “Legend” compilation record is the default reggae record. If you can’t name a single other title or artist, you invariably at least know this one. Released posthumously, it’s the best-selling reggae record of all time, racking up millions of copies sold as of this writing.
At least a dozen of those sales were from us.
Most of us wound up going deeper into Marley’s discography, but like so many others, “Legend” was our on-ramp to his music.
There we’d be, singing, “Every little thing’s gonna be all right,” while the bus wheezed and gasped, struggling to carry us over the hills. We sang “get up stand up” and would wind up doing just that through the years. The Bush family derisively referred to Portland as “Little Beirut.”
We wore it as a badge of honor.
On Highway 26, those concerns were a million miles away- our only worries being gas money and hitting the waves.
Today, we remember Marley on what would’ve been his 79th birthday.
Four decades plus is a long time to have been gone from this life, yet Marley’s music & vision resonate now more than ever.
If we want every little thing to be all right, we need to get up and stand up.
Have a favorite song or memory about Marley? Let me know in the comments below!
Thanks for being here,
Kevin—
While I understand how and why Legend would be the intro to Bob Marley for many fans, especially casual ones, his studio and live albums as well as the posthumous releases just offer so much more.
Here’s a selection of my favorites (non-Legend tracks) from the ten albums issued on Island Records between 1973 and 1983 (the last being the posthumously released Confrontation):
- Concrete Jungle from Catch A Fire (1973)
- Burnin' and Lootin' from Burnin (1973)
- Rebel Music (3 O'Clock Roadblock) from Natty Dread (1974)
- Johnny Was from Rastaman Vibration (1976)
- Crazy Baldhead from Rastaman Vibration (1976)
- Turn Your Lights Down Low from Exodus (1977)
- Misty Morning from Kaya (1978)
- Babylon System from Survival (1979)
- Forever Loving Jah from Uprising (1980)
- Stiff Necked Fools from Confrontation (1983)
One of my favorite Bob Marley memories came from a Ziggy Marley concert in Bermuda in 1990. He closed with Redemption Song in an absolutely transcendental performance that’s probably one of my top ten concert experiences of all time.
What a loss at 36 years old. One can only wonder what might have been and how he would have changed the world musically and otherwise.
My introduction to reggae was the artist Jimmy Cliif, and his movie The Harder they Come. Early 1980s, on a Boston vacation, in an old movie theatre. A hunch. Independent film. Synergy between the 2 artists - Cliff age 16 got Hendrix age 14 into a recording studio ( if YouTube history is to be believed ). And great recap about Marley music and driving. Never in a hurry listening to Bob Marley.
The other movie I saw that week was Kentuck Fried Movie. A precursor to Airplane. I still remember the goosebumps from those 2 films. They were that good.