40 years on, Bob Marley’s legacy still strikes a chord
It’s been four decades since Bob Marley died, a period longer than the reggae icon’s brief but potent life that skin cancer ended when he was 36. Yet, he lives on as a voice of the dispossessed, the palpable vibrancy, spirit of protest and moral zeal of his songs including One Love, Redemption Song and I Shot The Sheriff enduring in a way few bodies of popular music have ever done.
His rich anthems of peace and struggle, hope and discontent, still reverberate globally and especially in his native Jamaica, a small nation whose rich culture its most famous son popularised on an international stage.
“It is said the brightest stars sometimes don’t burn as long and, in many ways, Bob Marley was our brightest star. He accomplished a lot in a short period of time,” said Judy Mowatt, a member of the influential I-threes trio whose vocals backed Marley. “In many ways, he was before his time.”
Marley was diagnosed with acral lentiginous melanoma in 1977, which was first discovered underneath a toenail when he suffered a foot injury playing football. He opted against doctors’ recommendations that he amputate his toe, a procedure that would have violated his Rastafarian faith.
While in New York in 1980, Marley collapsed during a Central Park jog. He was rushed to the hospital, where doctors found the cancer had crept into his brain, lungs and liver.
He performed what would be his final show in Pittsburgh on September 23, 1980. Not long after, he underwent alternative cancer treatment in Germany.
Later, he went to Miami to seek emergency treatment. “Money can’t buy life,” he famously told his son Ziggy from his hospital bed before his death on May 11, 1981.