marco
01-09-08, 11:16
This is an interview published on a newspaper on august 1980
May be some mistakes and errors during the transcription from a pdf file
Mike Strand talks to Bob Marley
SMASH HITS
LONDON, 7 August 1980
IF THE FIRST time you heard Bob Marley and the Wailers was when, "Could You Be Loved" came skanking out of the radio you probably thought something undramatic like "That's nice". And probably quite appropriate too in those relaxed "circumstances.
But when I got the chance to do a short interview with Marley recently I can tell you that my knees were knocking and my one prayer to the journalistic gods was "Please don't me make a fool of myself". Because Bob Marley means a lot - in fact I'd venture to suggest that worldwide he's the most important artist working in any aspect of rock: I’ m sure there are a couple of dozen groups who've sold more records in the last few years, but that's not the point
It s not even of the greatest significance that he 's the major infuence behind the white reggae of The Police Elvis Costello The Clash and Joe Jackson. The really impressive thing about Bob Marley is the status he has achieved in the black nations of the Third World as champion df social and political change. He's acquired this through a succession of-songs. summed up in one line from the Natty Dread album- "Them belly full but we hungry "
Just how deeply he'd touched people" was proved when he was invited to play at the Zimbabwe independence celebrations this year. When 1 asked Marley about it he smiled and
sort of glowed with quiet pride but said very little, as if the occasion had been a private one, although the concert and ceremonials were conducted in front of tens of thousands in a
football stadium
Jarring note
He DID ME NTI0N one jarring note though Before the historic 'midnight a disturbance among the crowds jostling to get in was answered by the police firing tear gas But Marley wasn't going to let a minor upset spoil the honour and happiness he felt. 'It was an experience for I an' I y'know strong feh watch the thing workin' out." he said in his calm quiet singsong
manner "And we feel good feh taste little tear gas in Zimbabwe get a little o' the oppression there ' Marley is no tourist talking about "oppression ' from a safe distance He grew up in poverty in Jamaica and even when he became an international "star", lie stayed so close to the frontline that in December 1976, gunmen in. Kingston attempted to kill him two days before a Wailers concert which was being organised by supporters of Prime Minister Michael Manley
Marley was wounded, but he played the gig. It s no wonder he's become a hero and an inspiring figurehead But when I suggested this to him he waved the idea aside" as if it was far too pompous to have anything to do with him. No music is the one that is the hero. We help the music. It is the universal language and we carry a certain message
But Jamaican people not look on you as 'star Them have love an respect an' t'ing To tell the truth I am not enormous person me just a man of the ghetto
' 19 yrs. recording
THE PLAIN man of the ghetto has been recording for 19 years now, and it's worth telling his story briefly He was born in 1945, -son of an English army captain and a Jamaican worn and by his early teens he had become involved with the dynamic music scene in what Toots and the Maytals christened "Funky Kingston"
There is some disagreement about when Marley cut his first disc, but tie earliest offering I've seen was a single called 'Judge Not" from 1961 which it described as "lightweight
pop". The big step forward came three years later with the formation of the Wailing Wailers then1 purely a vocal group, including legendary parley sidekicks Peter Mclntosh. (later
"Tosh") and Bunny Livingston (later "Wailer").Marley's Initial Jamaican hit "Simmer Down" was a ska number (covered this month by London band Mobster) He also came up with "Rude Boy", which >is reckoned to be the first song about the snappy dressing gangsters of Kingston's shanty town. Despite all the sunny romance the name conjures
up, it remains a violent city (over 200 deaths by shootings in the first six months of this year).'
The Wailing Wailers didn't sell enough records to feed five mouths and so they split up. Marley! then spent a while in America with his mother before returning to join up with
Tosh and Wailer. again in a short-lived attempt to go independent with their own Wailing Soul label
ITS COLLAPSE led to a confused phase for Marley which had one positive result- in 1967 he began working with Tex and soul singer Johnny Nash. Nash came to record in Kingston
and later had a series of 'reggaefied singles in the British charts culminating four years' later with "Stir It Up" which was written by Marley.
Marley and Bunny Wailer touched bottom "with jail sentences for possession of marijuana, then in '69 emerged into one of their classic periods Recorded by the most famous reggae producer of them all, Lee "Scratch" Perry, they came up with two LPs and the singles" "Duppy Conqueror" and "Small axe". (You can find later versions on their Island album
"Burnin")It was at this stage that their Rastafarian religion became the core of their music. I couldn't pretend to make informed comment on it, but -its -visible signj are the long tightly
wound dreadlocks (like Marley's), often piled up into a red, green and orange wool tammy.
Religion, politics
Their beliefs relate to Christianity while "including a faith in the late Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia as the Christ reborn One of its major practices is smoking marijuana '"ganja" or "kaya", the title of Marley's 1978 LP), which they see as having a mystical healing power.
OF LATE The Wailers have been trying to express their rasta goodwill in action by investing some of the group's profits in community and youth projects, such as farms owned by
Jamaican people rather than vast, foreign (particularly British) companies.
"It won't solve all problems, but is a beginning," said Mar ley. Is something the government shoulda done, but them don t do it and them won't do it."
So their religion has its political side. However.' when I asked him about this, Marley was keen to stress its spiritual strength. "Politics - it dirty y'know. A politician never know you
till you ol’ enough to vote."
Despite the hostility their faith attracted from some of their fellow country men, the group's career was on the upward curve which is still pointing skywards. They launched their
own label. Tuff Gong, in 1970, successfully this time and enlisted the Barrett brothers, reputedly the hardest rhythm section on the island. Speaking of which, their breakthrough to recognition out side the Caribbean followed when they signed to the British label, Island, who promoted them through the albums catch a fire and Burnin .
In 1975 the Wailers went through then: last great upheaval with the departure, of' Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer who both went solo. Then the key album "Natty Dread" was released
Changed pop
MARLEY one of those small men who somehow look hug on stage. followed up with two stunning concerts at the Lyceum in London and triumphantly burst through the supposed barrier between British and West Indian musical takes Pop was never the same again.
Marley says quite frankly that he couldn't live in this country because he feels so strongly drawn to his African roots and I like to be able to just walk upon the concrete and be ,
dread," but he loves the music scene here. With a chuckle hacknowledged, "It rockin' in Englan'. Englan' is the placeman. And "Natty Dread" was a special album for us, the feelin of it Saying children get your culture, won't win no battle if you just sit there."
Those Lyceum concerts were recorded for an excellent Live album which produced the group's first UK hit single the tender love song "No Woman, No Cry". With their ideal
and seductive dance rhythms. The Wailers captured mind and souls everywhere.
While the chart ratings on five albums and numerous singles since "Live" have never looked back, and despite him remaining the favourite in Jamaica, British critics have gradually come t6 accuse Marley of various forms of "sell-but because of his moves away from Jamaican strict roots area style.
Sell-out
I ASKED Marley how he felt about the occasional slagging and he said with the gentlest of smiles: "We love them". Me (taken aback)- "And do you agree with them?"
Marley: "Sometime It not always really true, but we understand why people say these t'ing I figure 'is great help (chuckle) An yet music can't. stick to the same t'ing other wise it become mechanical: music have to have fluent, music have to have some kinda adventure, enjoyment, it go and you come I wonder; where he placed the new album. "Uprising" in his 19 years of recording. '
" 'Uprisin' come like the first album," he said "the first from now. It recorded in our own vicinity, it going forward. We work at all our records with full energy and..... full self
So when we finsh it we know what we put on it, we respect it
We don t record a song if we don't love it "
May be some mistakes and errors during the transcription from a pdf file
Mike Strand talks to Bob Marley
SMASH HITS
LONDON, 7 August 1980
IF THE FIRST time you heard Bob Marley and the Wailers was when, "Could You Be Loved" came skanking out of the radio you probably thought something undramatic like "That's nice". And probably quite appropriate too in those relaxed "circumstances.
But when I got the chance to do a short interview with Marley recently I can tell you that my knees were knocking and my one prayer to the journalistic gods was "Please don't me make a fool of myself". Because Bob Marley means a lot - in fact I'd venture to suggest that worldwide he's the most important artist working in any aspect of rock: I’ m sure there are a couple of dozen groups who've sold more records in the last few years, but that's not the point
It s not even of the greatest significance that he 's the major infuence behind the white reggae of The Police Elvis Costello The Clash and Joe Jackson. The really impressive thing about Bob Marley is the status he has achieved in the black nations of the Third World as champion df social and political change. He's acquired this through a succession of-songs. summed up in one line from the Natty Dread album- "Them belly full but we hungry "
Just how deeply he'd touched people" was proved when he was invited to play at the Zimbabwe independence celebrations this year. When 1 asked Marley about it he smiled and
sort of glowed with quiet pride but said very little, as if the occasion had been a private one, although the concert and ceremonials were conducted in front of tens of thousands in a
football stadium
Jarring note
He DID ME NTI0N one jarring note though Before the historic 'midnight a disturbance among the crowds jostling to get in was answered by the police firing tear gas But Marley wasn't going to let a minor upset spoil the honour and happiness he felt. 'It was an experience for I an' I y'know strong feh watch the thing workin' out." he said in his calm quiet singsong
manner "And we feel good feh taste little tear gas in Zimbabwe get a little o' the oppression there ' Marley is no tourist talking about "oppression ' from a safe distance He grew up in poverty in Jamaica and even when he became an international "star", lie stayed so close to the frontline that in December 1976, gunmen in. Kingston attempted to kill him two days before a Wailers concert which was being organised by supporters of Prime Minister Michael Manley
Marley was wounded, but he played the gig. It s no wonder he's become a hero and an inspiring figurehead But when I suggested this to him he waved the idea aside" as if it was far too pompous to have anything to do with him. No music is the one that is the hero. We help the music. It is the universal language and we carry a certain message
But Jamaican people not look on you as 'star Them have love an respect an' t'ing To tell the truth I am not enormous person me just a man of the ghetto
' 19 yrs. recording
THE PLAIN man of the ghetto has been recording for 19 years now, and it's worth telling his story briefly He was born in 1945, -son of an English army captain and a Jamaican worn and by his early teens he had become involved with the dynamic music scene in what Toots and the Maytals christened "Funky Kingston"
There is some disagreement about when Marley cut his first disc, but tie earliest offering I've seen was a single called 'Judge Not" from 1961 which it described as "lightweight
pop". The big step forward came three years later with the formation of the Wailing Wailers then1 purely a vocal group, including legendary parley sidekicks Peter Mclntosh. (later
"Tosh") and Bunny Livingston (later "Wailer").Marley's Initial Jamaican hit "Simmer Down" was a ska number (covered this month by London band Mobster) He also came up with "Rude Boy", which >is reckoned to be the first song about the snappy dressing gangsters of Kingston's shanty town. Despite all the sunny romance the name conjures
up, it remains a violent city (over 200 deaths by shootings in the first six months of this year).'
The Wailing Wailers didn't sell enough records to feed five mouths and so they split up. Marley! then spent a while in America with his mother before returning to join up with
Tosh and Wailer. again in a short-lived attempt to go independent with their own Wailing Soul label
ITS COLLAPSE led to a confused phase for Marley which had one positive result- in 1967 he began working with Tex and soul singer Johnny Nash. Nash came to record in Kingston
and later had a series of 'reggaefied singles in the British charts culminating four years' later with "Stir It Up" which was written by Marley.
Marley and Bunny Wailer touched bottom "with jail sentences for possession of marijuana, then in '69 emerged into one of their classic periods Recorded by the most famous reggae producer of them all, Lee "Scratch" Perry, they came up with two LPs and the singles" "Duppy Conqueror" and "Small axe". (You can find later versions on their Island album
"Burnin")It was at this stage that their Rastafarian religion became the core of their music. I couldn't pretend to make informed comment on it, but -its -visible signj are the long tightly
wound dreadlocks (like Marley's), often piled up into a red, green and orange wool tammy.
Religion, politics
Their beliefs relate to Christianity while "including a faith in the late Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia as the Christ reborn One of its major practices is smoking marijuana '"ganja" or "kaya", the title of Marley's 1978 LP), which they see as having a mystical healing power.
OF LATE The Wailers have been trying to express their rasta goodwill in action by investing some of the group's profits in community and youth projects, such as farms owned by
Jamaican people rather than vast, foreign (particularly British) companies.
"It won't solve all problems, but is a beginning," said Mar ley. Is something the government shoulda done, but them don t do it and them won't do it."
So their religion has its political side. However.' when I asked him about this, Marley was keen to stress its spiritual strength. "Politics - it dirty y'know. A politician never know you
till you ol’ enough to vote."
Despite the hostility their faith attracted from some of their fellow country men, the group's career was on the upward curve which is still pointing skywards. They launched their
own label. Tuff Gong, in 1970, successfully this time and enlisted the Barrett brothers, reputedly the hardest rhythm section on the island. Speaking of which, their breakthrough to recognition out side the Caribbean followed when they signed to the British label, Island, who promoted them through the albums catch a fire and Burnin .
In 1975 the Wailers went through then: last great upheaval with the departure, of' Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer who both went solo. Then the key album "Natty Dread" was released
Changed pop
MARLEY one of those small men who somehow look hug on stage. followed up with two stunning concerts at the Lyceum in London and triumphantly burst through the supposed barrier between British and West Indian musical takes Pop was never the same again.
Marley says quite frankly that he couldn't live in this country because he feels so strongly drawn to his African roots and I like to be able to just walk upon the concrete and be ,
dread," but he loves the music scene here. With a chuckle hacknowledged, "It rockin' in Englan'. Englan' is the placeman. And "Natty Dread" was a special album for us, the feelin of it Saying children get your culture, won't win no battle if you just sit there."
Those Lyceum concerts were recorded for an excellent Live album which produced the group's first UK hit single the tender love song "No Woman, No Cry". With their ideal
and seductive dance rhythms. The Wailers captured mind and souls everywhere.
While the chart ratings on five albums and numerous singles since "Live" have never looked back, and despite him remaining the favourite in Jamaica, British critics have gradually come t6 accuse Marley of various forms of "sell-but because of his moves away from Jamaican strict roots area style.
Sell-out
I ASKED Marley how he felt about the occasional slagging and he said with the gentlest of smiles: "We love them". Me (taken aback)- "And do you agree with them?"
Marley: "Sometime It not always really true, but we understand why people say these t'ing I figure 'is great help (chuckle) An yet music can't. stick to the same t'ing other wise it become mechanical: music have to have fluent, music have to have some kinda adventure, enjoyment, it go and you come I wonder; where he placed the new album. "Uprising" in his 19 years of recording. '
" 'Uprisin' come like the first album," he said "the first from now. It recorded in our own vicinity, it going forward. We work at all our records with full energy and..... full self
So when we finsh it we know what we put on it, we respect it
We don t record a song if we don't love it "