In the 31 years since his untimely death, Marley still remains the most-popular figure in Reggae music. Succumbing to cancer at age 36 in 1981, Marley had become a global ambassador for the music he helped make famous.
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Marley’s passing shook the reggae and music community to its core; yet, his legacy remains intact through his timeless music catalog and talented children.
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Marley was born in the village of Nine Mile in Saint Ann Parish in Jamaica (also the birthplace of Marcus Garvey). Marley’s father was a white Jamaican man of English descent and his mother was a native of Jamaica. Discovering music as a teenager, Marley befriended Neville “Bunny” Livingston (aka Bunny Wailer) who shared his dreams of becoming a musician. Through singer Joe Higgs, the pair met Peter McIntosh (aka Peter Tosh) who also had similar ambitions. Recording his first songs in 1962, Marley and his friends would eventually be renamed The Wailers, after being discovered by a local record producer.
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Marrying Rita Anderson (now Marley) in 1966, Marley and his bride made a sojourn to the United States to live near his mother in Wilmington, De. Marley soon teamed up with American singer Johnny Nash (“I Can See Clearly Now”) and nabbed a deal with CBS Records. Marley and the Wailers went on tour with Nash before their label deal went sour and the band ended up stranded in London in 1972. From there, Marley contacted Island Records’ founder Chris Blackwell and was advanced funds to record the hit album “Catch A Fire.”
Shortly after the release of their major-label debut, Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh went their
Aretha Franklin is engaged to longtime friend William “Willie” Wilkerson.
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The Grammy-winning singer said in a statement Monday that she and Wilkerson are considering a summer wedding, perhaps in Miami Beach, Florida. The Queen of Soul wants to follow the ceremony with a reception on a private yacht.
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The 69-year-old jokes: “No, I’m not pregnant.”
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Franklin and Wilkerson became engaged over the holidays.
A small tourist hotel was all abuzz about an afternoon wedding where the groom was 95 and the bride was 23. The groom looked pretty feeble and the feeling was that the wedding night might kill him, because his bride was a healthy, vivacious young woman.
But lo and behold, the next morning, the bride came down the main staircase slowly, step by step, hanging onto the banister for dear life.
She finally managed to get to the counter of the little shop in the hotel. The clerk looked really concerned, “Whatever happened to you, honey? You look like you’ve been wrestling an alligator!”
The bride groaned, hung on to the counter and managed to speak,
Typical Jamaican man married typical good-looking Jamaican lady and
after the wedding, laid down the following rules: “Mi cum home when mi want, if mi want
and ah dohn expec noh assle from yu. Mi expect a good dinner pon de table
unless mi tell yu oderwise. Mi gwine shoot bird, fish, drink me whites, play
domino anytime me want wid me fren dem an mi noh wahn yu gi mi a hard time.
Those are my rules. Seen?”
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Feb 19 2012
