Robert Nesta Marley / Tuff Gong

6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981

Today is the 30 year anniversary of Bob Marley’s death.  A huge influence in my early teenage years I can still picture the moment I heard he had died.  I cried.  For the first time I felt real loss for something I loved and believed in.  

“I don't have prejudice against meself. My father was a white and my mother was black. Them call me half-caste or whatever. Me don't dip on nobody's side. Me don't dip on the black man's side nor the white man's side. Me dip on God's side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white.”

Old pirates, yes, they rob I;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the hand of the Almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
'Cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look? Ooh!
Some say it's just a part of it:
We've got to fulfill the Book …

"I carried Bob Marley's Redemption Song to every meeting I had with a politician, prime minister or president.  It was, for me, a prophetic utterance or as Bob would say "the small ax that could fell the big tree".  The song reminded me that freedom always comes with a cost, but for those who were prepared to pay it, maybe 'emancipation from mental slavery', would be our reward"  Bono

"Bob Marley didn't choose or walk down the middle. He raced to the edges, embracing all extremes, creating a oneness. His oneness. One love. He wanted everything at the same time. Prophet. Soul rebel. Rastaman. Herbsman. Wildman. A natural, mystic man. Lady's man. Island man. Family man. Rita's man. Soccer man. Showman. Shaman. Human. Jamaican!"   Taken from a poem written and read by Bono in '94 on the day Bob Marley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.