The form of music known as reggae was not always as popular as it has been in recent decades. Society in the 1960's and 70's had problems with racism and equality causing many people to turn to music as an escape. Bob Marley lived through harsh times, but grew up to become one of the greatest reggae musicians of all time. His music was heavily influenced by religious and social issues. In creating his unique music, he became an icon to future musicians around the world. Today his music continues to influence many musicians, fans, and cultures. .
In 1944 a fifty year old British military man named, Captain Norval.
Marley, married an eighteen year old black Jamaican girl named Cadella.
Booker. They had a son naming him Robert Nesta Marley, later known as Bob,.
who was born on February 6, 1947 in Nine Miles, Jamaica (Lee 1). Captain.
Marley seldom saw his son, although he provided some financial support for the family. When Bob was five years old, his father took Bob away to Kingston, Jamaica's capital. On the journey there, "Bob thought of Nine Miles once the most imposing community he could envision, now reduced to a village in a coffee cup when compared to what was sprawled out before him" (White 80). He was reunited with his mother about a year later. .
Bob and his mother lived in one of the most dangerous slums of Kingston. Later, these living conditions would inspire Marley to write a song, called "Concrete Jungle", which likened the living conditions and poverty in the slum to the shackles of slavery. This was only one of his many songs written about freedom from oppression. While Bob lived in the shanty part of Kingston, he met a boy his age, Bunny Livingstone. Bunny, also a native of Kingston, established a close relationship with Bob (Nicholas 23).
They sang together everyday after school and made their own instruments. With.
their adolescent voices, Bob and Bunny began in 1960 to build, what one day became the Wailer's music.