Bob Marley Biography...

Afternoon,

Another book I gotta share is this one. The book is called "Catch a Fire" by Timothy White. It is a biography of Bob Marley. I have always been a fan of reggea music but I never knew much about the man himself, besides all the normal stuff in the press.

The book is very well written and is actually readable. Some biographies are unreadable because of endless lists of facts and figures. Of course, as he was a musician, there is a bibliography and a discography but the figures don't get bigger than the story.

The book chronicles his early life, his career, his politics and his love life. The book also delves, quite deeply, into the background of Rastafarianism and Marcus Garvey. It is fascinating to see how the early reggea artists battled it out in the war of the Soundsystems. You soon realise that there really was a fertile scene there as a lot of comtemporary artists cross each others path. Most of these became household names themselves, like Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff and others.

The book devotes a section on the less tastefull aspects of the squabbling over intellectual rights and money after Bob's death. The book of course is not quite up to date anymore and there has been a recent court ruling against Aston 'Family Man' Barrett with regards to royalties. Another fascinating part describes the strange events that happened after his death with regards to the ring of Haile Salassie. This ring has disappeared under suspicious circumstances with many believing that it is buried with him. This mystery is still ongoing...

The book was first published in 1983 but has had a whole slew of updates and reprints. The version I have is the 1998 issue. It is published by Omnibus Press. They can be found at www.omnibuspress.com .

All in all this one I can heartily recommend as it is a fascinating read. A stiff one I have to say at a good 500 pages...

Enjoy,

Charles Dickins.