The Questions Bob Marley Made Me Ask

Bob Marley.

He’s been with me all along.

But my questions have changed.

 

August 1995

I was an idealist.

As I set up my dorm room in St. Louis, I unpacked the CDs. On top was Legend: The Best of Bob Marley and the Wailers.

I would come to find out I wasn’t the only one. My roommate had it. And my other roommate too.

I now know that this other girl had a copy as well. I hadn’t met her yet, but when we got married, we realized we had two copies.

Up and down the halls of my freshman floor, I would hear the reggae:

• Is this love? Is this love? Is this love? Is this love that I’m feeling?
• Little darling don’t shed no tears—no woman, no cry.

 

The music usually came with whiffs of marijuana. It was frowned upon, but straying from the rules was rarely penalized.

Isn’t college great?

 

March 2007

The girl I mentioned—she was pregnant.

We were at an all-inclusive resort—in Jamaica, of course. Montego Bay.

We had a very American relationship with the island nation.

The beach.

And the music.

There it was again:

• Singing, “Don’t worry about a thing, ’cause every little thing is gonna be alright!”
• Saying, “Let’s get together and feel alright.”

 

That herbal scent was still around, this time fused with hints of Red Stripe, jerk chicken, and fried plantains.

What’s better than happy times with happy tunes?

 

June 2011

Pregnant again.

The setting was not as tropical this time. Western New York borders Canada, but my thoughts still drifted to Bob Marley.

What is “Buffalo Soldier” about anyway?

 

There was a Buffalo Soldier in the heart of America

Stolen from Africa, brought to America

Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival

Clearly, the reference to black US Army regiments that fought against Native Americans on the post-Civil War frontier had nothing to do with our chilly slice of the planet.

Is this really happy music?

 

February 2024

Bob Marley: One Love.

A biopic.

Time to actually learn about the man whose songs had been the soundtrack of my life.

By this age, I knew that filling in the gaps was never pretty. Diving into the details reveals complexity, also known as a less polished side of humanity.

Born in 1945. The result of a fleeting union between an almost-60 white man and a more pigmented teenage Jamaican woman.

Raised in the rural hills of the country—Nine Mile to be exact.

Fatherless.

Ridiculed for being a mix.

A transition to the urban ghettos of Kingston.

Music—ska, rocksteady, and reggae.

A wife.

At least 11 kids. Some adopted. Several women. Various shades.

The embrace of Rastafarianism. God (Jah). The emperor of Ethiopia—Haile Selassie I—as a Christ-like figure. Pan-Africanism. Dreadlocks. Paternalism. Ample doses of marijuana. Convenient.

An assassination attempt, perhaps politically motivated, in 1976.

A diagnosis of acral lentiginous melanoma in 1977. He ignored the advice of doctors to have the affected toe amputated.

A few years later, the cancer had overtaken his body.

Dead in 1981.

36 years old.

This was not an island-music life. There was hardship. And there was activism.

It was in the words.

 

“Get Up, Stand Up”

Get up, stand up, stand up for your right

Get up, stand up, don’t give up the fight

 

“I Shot the Sheriff”

I shot the Sheriff, Oh Lord

But I swear it was in self-defense

 

“Exodus”

We know where we’re from

We’re leavin’ Babylon

We’re goin’ to our Fatherland

 

I realized I should have been asking these questions:

Can the truth be told without backlash?

Should war and murder be accepted as part of the human experience?

Can we not aspire toward unity?

Should the oppressed not strive to uplift themselves?

While we can’t rewrite history, can we not dream of another?

When we acknowledge progress, should we then stop?

 

Because these are the questions Bob Marley was asking.

And though decades have passed, scenes have changed, and realities have been learned, the kid who in 1995 unpacked Legend can still make room for idealism, exactly like the legend’s music did.

 

Lyrics by Bob Marley, Vincent Ford (“No Woman, No Cry”), Curtis Mayfield (“One Love”), Peter Tosh (“Get Up, Stand Up”), and Noel Williams (“Buffalo Soldier”), found at azlyrics.com