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I remember that day as if it were yesterday

In reply to Chrissy
New Jersey. Saw my pops with his head buried in his hands. It was a sad day.

In reply to Chrissy

At school....

In reply to Chrissy

Was in Edinburgh, in bed listening to the radio when the news broke. Knew he was seriously ill but still came as a great shock.

Following morning, was on the bus heading to college when a couple of American tourist saw me reading about it in the newspaper. They asked me what it was about. I was teary eyed with a shaky voice in my response.

My biggest regret is I never got the chance to watch Bob Marley and the Wailers in concert.

I was on the third floor of my faculty building looking over the rail and drinking a cup of coffee. There was a radio in the pantry and all of a sudden they started playing Marley. I just knew - and got closer to the radio...he was gone.

In reply to Chrissy

I was lying on the carpet in my bedroom in Toronto after finishing my first semester of university when I heard the newsflash. I immediately called a friend, who wrote for Contrast newspaper, and she confirmed the news.

In reply to Chrissy

Heard the news at work in the New York Consulate-General but it was when the Ambassador asked us the next day to prepare a funeral service for him in New York (yes, there was a service in New York before the Jamaica funeral) that I closed the door to my office, sat down and wrote this:

Reggae King

Dread wailer
live forever
In the hearts of a world
Grieving
Contemplating
A wilderness
Bereft of sound wailing anew
From that mighty breast
Joyous with recall
Short
Rastaman
Erect
Head thrown back
A leonine plateau standing tall
Majestic dreadlocks
Sedate now
Now alive and vibrant
Reaching flashing
Trench Town's medusae
With a life of their own
As the Wailer
Possessed with the suffering of a world
Downpressed by men
Dressed in uniforms of brutality
Agonizing
Electrifies
Prancing lithe before a microphone
A mercury for the Reggae King

No woman don't cry
Bob is joy for I an I
Don't try to cold him up now man
Bob reach Mount Zion highest region
No woman don't cry
Bob's joy is for I an I

The rock the society refused
Is become the main rock of his universe
For now we see the light

(For we wrestle not against flesh and blood
But against principalities against powers
Against the rulers of darkness
Against spiritual wickedness in high places)
And we wrestle in song
In music vital
Strictly ital
And wrestling we prevail
In victory immortal
Over stingless death
No woman don't cry
Bob is joy for I an I
Don't cry to colt him up now man
Bob reach Mount Zion highest region
Live dread wailer
Live forever
Dread dread wailer
Live forever!

new york May 12, 1981.

//

Mona, Kingston @ my sister's house. At the announcement on JBC radio that afternoon the skies opened up and it rain buckets all day. Thunder n Lightening very very frightening.

Well done Ewart!

In reply to jacksprat

Thank you sir.

I was blown into reverie by the news. Sat at my desk grabbed a pencil and pad ... and there it was. No more Bob!

The good thing is that he shows every sign of living forever. They just found - and are dusting off - a whole previously unknown set of his songs.

//

In reply to Ewart

That great but somehow my impression is that, rather than they being recordings of new songs, they are actually recordings of live performances circa mid -70s

In University in Toronto. Scarborough College. We lit a fire, had a wake in residence. Sad day. Saw Bob live twice and had tickets for 3rd show that never happened.

At a Nyahinghi with some elders in Bull Bay.....

In reply to Chrissy

In my dad's car on a hot afternoon after he picked me up from primary school, we heard the report on radio.

In reply to Ewart

Nice man

In reply to jacksprat

Correct - they were in a basement in London

In reply to newdread

In reply to NineMiles

In reply to nitro

Now I know why you don't know a thing about the 79s

In reply to Chrissy

I was at work in Brooklyn when my Guyanese co-worker broke the news. Sad.

My big surprise at the time was how much interest our Yankee co-workers (black, white, Hispanics) had in Bob Marley. They would relate stories of which we weren't even aware.

In reply to Chrissy

I was beating book for my final exams in Med School.One of my friends who was a Psychology Major(of the Caucasian persuasion)and who was a Marley fanatic called me cowballing that Bob had passed.

In reply to Dukes

Bob was loved everywhere.
I remember spending some time in the 80s in North West Guyana with mostly indigenous people and on the Sunday peeps had a car battery running the sound system - it was all Bob.

In reply to Chrissy

My Grandmother had died early the same day so in all the up and down and to-ing and fro-ing I had no idea until very late that day that Brother Bob had also passed away.

In reply to Chrissy



True, i need to read up on it one day when i have the time.

In reply to Chrissy

I was a kid growing up in Diego Martin, I loved Bob Marley from the first time I heard his music and interviews. To me Bob Marley never really died in my life. His spirit continue to affect my life positively. What died was the movement of the disenfranchised roots people. I saw the block in my neighborhood come together under a oneness that brought a peace, a love and a comradery that hasn't been rediscovered since. I saw a rise in the production of clothes, footwear and jewelry that represented a rising people inspired by a man and a band that could make a mark on the consciousness of every human being. His speeches transferred the pride and the giving, his music brought the philosophies that moved a forsaken people to awareness. His death left a void that is yet to be filled.

In reply to Chrissy

May 11 1981 - a Monday — I was teaching in a class at Jamaica College, just up the street from Bob’s home.
The news broke ... A sad day proceedeth. I was not overly surprised because I was aware of the issues with Bob’s health at the time ...