Word: marley
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...father of the Pan-African movement and the grandfather of the civil rights and African nationalist movements of the 1950s and 1960s and the black self-determination efforts of the 1970s. Without Garvey, there would be no Black Panther Party, Kwame Nkrumah, Malcolm X or even Bob Marley. Just as the leaders and activists of the past were able to draw from Garvey’s intellectual and political heritage to improve the condition of black people, we, both black and non-black people of conscience, must also ask ourselves: What can Garvey say to us today...
...Marley worked primarily within one genre-reggae-but his songs investigated many moods and many modes. Marley was a musical genius for a multicultural age, a man for all seasons who died before his time, a shapeshifter who never fit into established musical formats. There are so many varied moments in his work: the stately guitar of "Redemption Song," the spritely horns of "Is this Love", the soothing, seductive bass of "Stir it Up." "Babylon System" wakes you up like strong bitter coffee; "Turn Your Lights Down Low" goes down sweet, like mango juice. For every moment in life, there...
...much of today's popular music, romance is dying, politics is fatal and God is dead. But Marley covered it all-the sexual, the political, the spiritual-and made all of these concerns seem like the most natural topics to be singing about. He took Jamaica's complicated history-a jumble of such disparate concepts, places and things as Rasta philosophy, Garveyism, pirates, rebellion, guava jelly, and Trench Town - and refashioned it into focused, complex music that was concerned with reality but shot through with magic. He was a musical magic realist, a "Natural Mystic", a man who had visions...
...Because Marley dared to make music of depth, it has had longevity as well. Once shunned by many African-Americans and held at arm's length by whites, Marley is now embraced by whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Americans, Africans, Jamaicans and more. A man of many names and many fans, the general public's feelings towards Bob Marley are now best summarized by the title of what is among his most singular songs: One Love...
...Christopher John Farley is a senior editor at TIME. Farley's novel about 18th century Jamaica, "Kingston by Starlight", will be published by Crown/Three Rivers Press in June. He is currently working on a biography of Bob Marley for Amistad/HarperCollins...