Bob Marley — Every Wailers Album, Every Anthem

Robert Nesta Marley was born in 1945 in Nine Mile, Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica. He grew up in Trench Town, Kingston — a neighborhood he'd immortalize in song decades later. In 1963 he formed The Wailing Wailers with Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston (later Bunny Wailer).

They recorded ska singles for Studio One, then shifted toward the slower, deeper sound that would become roots reggae.

In 1972, Island Records founder Chris Blackwell signed the band and gave them budget no reggae act had ever seen — enough to record *Catch a Fire* properly and market it to rock audiences. Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer left after 1973's *Burnin'*. The I Threes — Rita Marley, Judy Mowatt, Marcia Griffiths — replaced them on backing vocals.

Marley survived an assassination attempt in December 1976, leaving Jamaica for London where he recorded *Exodus* and *Kaya*. He returned to perform at Zimbabwe's independence in 1980. He died of melanoma on May 11, 1981, aged 36.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

*Catch a Fire* (1973) was the breakthrough — Blackwell overdubbed rock elements for Western ears without killing the groove. *Burnin'* followed six months later with *Get Up Stand Up* and *I Shot the Sheriff* (which Eric Clapton took to #1 in 1974).

*Natty Dread* (1974) is where Marley found his voice as a solo-billed leader — *No Woman No Cry* became the song everyone knows. *Rastaman Vibration* (1976) was his first US Top 10. *Exodus* (1977) is widely called his masterpiece: *Jamming*, *Three Little Birds*, *One Love*, *Waiting in Vain*.

Time Magazine named it Album of the Century.

*Kaya* (1978) was the mellow counterpoint — *Is This Love*, *Sun Is Shining*, *Satisfy My Soul*. *Survival* (1979) swung hard back into politics. *Uprising* (1980) was his last album in life, closing with *Redemption Song* — just Bob, an acoustic guitar, and one of the most quoted lyrics in popular music.

*Confrontation* (1983) appeared posthumously, built from unfinished sessions.

Bob Marley sold over 75 million records. *Legend*, the 1984 best-of compilation, is the best-selling reggae album ever made and still sells hundreds of thousands of copies every year.

But the real legacy isn't sales. It's that *One Love* and *Redemption Song* are sung in every language, at every protest, at every wedding. Marley turned a small island's music into a universal vocabulary for freedom, love, and resistance.

Four decades after his death, he's still the most-covered songwriter in the world.