timeline

Bob Marley and the Wailers

The Kingston vocal group that grew into Bob Marley's band, took Jamaican reggae to the world through Island Records, and sold more than 75 million records by one estimate.

Origin
Kingston, Jamaica
Years active
1963-1981
Genres
reggae, ska, rocksteady
Labels
Studio One, Island, Tuff Gong, Beverley's, JAD, Wail'n Soul'm, Upsetter
Also known as
The Wailers, The Wailing Wailers, The Teenagers

Kingston beginnings

Robert Nesta Marley was born on 6 February 1945 in Nine Mile, in Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica. He made his first recordings in February 1962 for the producer Leslie Kong. In 1963 he joined Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh, Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso and Cherry Smith in a group called the Teenagers. The name passed through Wailing Rudeboys and Wailing Wailers before settling on the Wailers. The singer Joe Higgs, who lived nearby, helped with their harmonies and began teaching Marley guitar. By 1966 Braithwaite, Kelso and Smith had gone, leaving the trio of Marley, Bunny Wailer and Tosh.

Their song Simmer Down was a Jamaican number one for Studio One in February 1964, selling an estimated 70,000 copies, and the debut album The Wailing Wailers followed in 1965. In 1966 Marley married Rita Anderson and spent a short time near his mother in Delaware, working as a lab assistant and at a Chrysler plant. After a financial disagreement with Coxsone Dodd, the group worked with Lee Scratch Perry and his band the Upsetters. That partnership lasted less than a year and included Soul Rebels, recorded at Randy's studio in Kingston between August and November 1970.

Island Records

In 1972 the band were stranded in London after a tour with Johnny Nash and a contract dispute with Danny Sims at CBS. Chris Blackwell of Island Records advanced them 4,000 pounds to go home to Jamaica and record. The result was Catch a Fire, released in April 1973, which Blackwell reworked in London with overdubs. Burnin' arrived in October and was the last album with Tosh and Bunny Wailer. Eric Clapton's cover of I Shot the Sheriff reached number one in the United States in September 1974. The original Wailers split that year, both Tosh and Bunny Wailer going solo, and Marley kept the Wailers name.

Natty Dread (1974) was the first record of the new line-up, with the I Threes singing backing vocals. A live recording of No Woman, No Cry from the Lyceum in London in July 1975 became his first hit outside Jamaica, and the concert album Live! followed that December. Rastaman Vibration (1976) reached number eight in the United States, his first American top ten.

Attack and exile

On 3 December 1976 armed men attacked Marley's home at 56 Hope Road in Kingston. Two days later he played the Smile Jamaica concert to about 80,000 people, and the next morning he left Jamaica, staying away for more than a year. In London he recorded Exodus, released on 3 June 1977, with songs including Exodus, Jamming and Three Little Birds. It reached number eight in Britain and stayed on the chart for 56 weeks.

A cancer called acral lentiginous melanoma, under the nail of his right big toe, was diagnosed in July 1977. Marley told Vivien Goldman of Sounds that after the shooting he would go in a different bag, and the album splits into a first half of religious politics and a second of love and faith.

The last years

Marley came home for the One Love Peace Concert in Kingston in 1978, where the rival leaders Michael Manley and Edward Seaga shook hands on stage. That year brought Kaya, recorded alongside Exodus, and the double live set Babylon by Bus, drawn from Paris concerts in June. Survival followed in 1979 and Uprising in June 1980, ending with the solo acoustic Redemption Song. He collapsed in Central Park in September 1980 and played his last show at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh on 23 September. He died in Miami on 11 May 1981, aged 36.

Jamaica gave him its Order of Merit in February 1981. He entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. The compilation Legend (1984) is the best-selling reggae album, and the posthumous Confrontation (1983) brought the single Buffalo Soldier. Marlon James's novel A Brief History of Seven Killings won the Booker Prize in 2015, and the film Bob Marley: One Love appeared in 2024.

Members

Records

Songs

Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Jimmy Cliff, Eric Clapton, Fugees

Where to go next

Official

Reference

Discography and data

Writing and criticism

Interviews

Live performance archives

Sources

  1. Bob Marley, Wikipedia
  2. Exodus: Behind the Bob Marley classic, uDiscover Music
  3. Bob Marley, Bob Marley official site
  4. Bob Marley and the Wailers, MusicBrainz
  5. Bob Marley's earliest known interview, Kingston 1972, Legendary Reggae (2022-10-27)
  6. Bob Marley Past Lives, English Heritage
  7. Bob Marley, Exodus anniversary, Billboard
  8. Legend, Pitchfork (2026-01-18)
  9. Exodus: 30th Anniversary Edition, Pitchfork (2007-12-07)
  10. Firebrand, poet and heart-throb, The Guardian (2024-02-09)
  11. Bob Marley and the Wailers masters, Discogs
  12. Internet Archive Live Music Archive search, Internet Archive
  13. No Woman, No Cry (multitrack), Internet Archive