Marley, Bob (Robert Nesta Marley),
1945–81, Jamaican reggae singer, songwriter, and guitarist. As a
member of the Wailers, a reggae band that included Bunny Wailer (b. Neville
Livingston, 1947-2021) and Peter Tosh (b. Winston McIntosh, 1944-1987) , and
later on his own, Marley propelled reggae to worldwide popularity. His
commitment to nonviolence and the Rastafarian religion are transparent in
his music, and his smoky tenor and loping reggae beat combined to enhance
the appeal of his political message. Marley and his songs remain enormously
popular throughout the world.
See biographies by A. Boot and V. Goldman (1982), T. White (1983, rev. ed. 2006), C. J. Farley (2006), and D. Burnett (2009); R. Steffens, So Much Things To Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley (2017); studies by V. Goldman (2006) and J. Toynbee (2009); discography by R. Steffens and L. J. Pierson (2005).
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