Missing Marley

On this day in 1981, Bob Marley finally succumbed to his long battle with cancer at the young age of 36. What made his death so seemingly unnecessary was the fact that the cancer was originally diagnosed nearly four years earlier when it was treatable. At that time, the cancer was isolated to Marley’s big toe and a simple amputation of that tainted digit would have prevented the cancer from spreading up to the vital organs of his body.
Obviously, Bob was an intensely spiritual person, and his Rastafarian religion prevented him from considering amputation.
His death brought him some intense notoriety that ultimately brought his mere image to iconic status.
I will confess to not fully appreciating his body of work during his lifetime; my only exposure to him came in the form of the Babylon By Bus live album that I checked out at the public library.
After his passing, I purchased the posthumous compilation album Legend (on cassette) at a record store in Quincy, Illinois. The only song I recognized was, of course, “I Shot The Sherriff,” but it seemed that it was important for me to buy it, given the unanimous praise lofted on to Marley at the time of his death.
Ironically, “I Shot The Sherriff” turned out to be my least favorite song on the album.
But the other songs, particularly the moving “Redemption Song,” were great enough for me to understand how important a figure Marley really was.
That understanding had greater impact upon reading Timothy White’s awesome biography, Catch A Fire: The Life of Bob Marley. It became clear after reading it how Marley’s influence went well beyond the normal scope of a typical musician.
Bob’s legacy transcended whatever genius he happened to commit to wax.
There are a few artists that I would recommend readers to consider splurging on and laying down the bones for the excellent box set, Songs of Freedom. I still have the numbered limited edition first run, but a current edition remains available. Of course, if box set prices are out of your budget, you absolutely can’t go wrong with Legend, one of the few “greatest hits” packages that actually gets it right.
Don’t lose sleep over the “deluxe” edition of Legend; the second disc contains remixes of all of the songs on the original edition. While some of it is pretty rare, it’s probably only of interest to hardcore Marley fans.
Which you may turn into anyway…