Bob Marley, torn between love and war

By: MFP Follow

At a time when Very Good Trip is taking over our soap opera, Bob Marley has become a living myth. His emaciated face, his dreadlocks, his torn voice, his mystical-revolutionary words floating in a cloud of ganja, everything about him fascinates. Even his way of hopping on stage and going into a trance.

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And this rhythm which does not resemble any other, the reggae, which it is the only one to represent in the eyes of the general public, it is also very unfair for the others, captivates. 

Many singers and musicians around the world want to get into reggae. In France, Serge Gainsbourg, who has always known how to smell the fashions, will soon fly to Kingston and record an album with the choristers of Marley, the I-Threes, the famous Aux Armes Etc., thanks to which he will meet this immense success with the general public which, until then, escaped him, in particular thanks to his famous reinterpretation of the Marseillaise which will scandalize more than one. 

But it's not just a fashion affair. The effigy of Bob Marley is spread everywhere, as well in the Third World as in the West, a little like Che Guevara. 

The words rasta, Jah and ganja begin to circulate around the world. Some see the Rasta as wisdom, the pursuit of the hippie ideal in another form. There are even some who make the pilgrimage to Kingston to study Rastafarian wisdom, just as we used to go to San Francisco or, for the more adventurous, Kathmandu. 

Others see it as the pursuit of a revolutionary ideal, while leftism is breaking down. Kingston, Jamaica, thus becomes one of the capitals of the counter-culture. 

Preacher, guru, shaman, revolutionary, prophet, even, in the eyes of some, Bob Marley, it is then, in a way, a rock star in more serious.

Playlist: 

Bob Marley & the Wailers:
“Is This Love? "From the album" Kaya "
" Easy Skanking - Live at Music Hall, Boston / 1978 "from the album" Boston '78 "
" Kaya "from the album" Kaya "
" Running Away - Live at the Stanley Theater, 9/23/1980 "from the album" Live Forever - September 1980, Stanley Theater, Pittsburgh, PA "
" Zimbabwe - Live at the Stanley Theater, 9/23/1980 "from the album" Live Forever - September 1980, Stanley Theater, Pittsburgh, PA "
" Survival "from the album" Survival "
" Africa Unite "from the album" Survival "
" Keep On Moving (London Version) "from the box set" Songs of Freedom "
" Time Will Tell "from the album Various artists" Original Soundtrack from "Countryman"
"I'm Hurting Inside (from" Acoustic Medley "boxed set" Songs of Freedom ".

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