On the Road with Bob Marley
“How can a big music come from a little island?” Not even Bob Marley would have had the answer in 1975, as he was about to give the world some of Jamaica’s finest hours.
Never before had a talent, mistakenly called Third World in origin, had so much First World impact. Neville Garrick, graphic artist and designer of several of Marley’s important albums, was a member of that great crusade which took Jamaican culture to dimensions a million times greater than its beginnings. The year was 1975, and in a colonial manor in Kingston, Bob Marley and a backing band with the original name of the Wailers, as well as Neville Garrick, were putting together what Marley had liked to call his army in service of a general. The ghetto had crossed the border uptown. In the sprawling yard, Marley was surrounded by musicians and brethren who had found a resting place from the tribalism of the ghetto. Youths from warring political factions could find relative safety in the yard, teeming with excitement, football and music.
Dermot Hussey: As you embarked on the Natty Dread tour, did Bob have any idea of how it was going to be, or was he feeling his way?
Neville Garrick: He was feeling his way. He was always sure he could increase his audience, but his whole thing was that he was carrying this message of Rastafari to the people. I think that was his driving force, even moreso than the music. At that time he was young and bubbling and enthusiastic, really going more on the attack. I always felt him to be a man on a mission, more than a man waiting to see something happening. One of the first concerts we did was the Schaefer Music Festival in Central Park. It was a crowd of about 15,000 people. I was amazed. Bob stole the show. I think it was the show that really launched Bob Marley in America, because we were doing small gigs on that tour.
Everywhere we performed, was sold out. The following year when we came back to the Roxy in Los Angeles with the Rastaman Vibration album tour, the celebrities came out. When I checked backstage, the Rolling Stones couldn’t get in. In the audience there were people like Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Dr. John and Billy Preston. I came backstage and found them in the dressing room. The next day, the Los Angeles Times said “Bob Marley has arrived.”
DH: Did the European leg of the Natty Dread tour have the same kind of reception?
NG: In Europe, the response was always 25% more than the US audience. I remember in Norway, and that might have been a later tour, possibly 1979, people stood up in the rain for Bob’s longest concert ever, which was about three hours, until we literally ran out of music. When Bob played the Lyceum on that same Natty Dread tour, there were so many people that the London Fire Brigade had to hose people off the theatre door.
DH: In Jamaica Bob had pretty much led his own life, on his own time. How much did that alter once he was on tour?
NG: Well Bob was a man, whether people knew it or not, who dealt with discipline. He had an army side of him. He dealt with touring in a very disciplined way, more than a fun way. Before we went on tour. we would be running for at least 3 months, just getting ourselves physically conditioned. He carried that right through to the point where he took a cook on tour with him. Rehearsals, sound checks, getting to the venues on time…those were the things that he focused on. It was fun, but it was business as well. What the gate receipts were, he would check with the road manager. He always kept abreast, like the general really running the show. Bob liked to get information, he was a man who never liked you to come around him and have nothing to say. He also liked to write on tour. In the early days we did a lot of touring by bus, he would play dominoes or sing or read his bible. I know he made quite a few songs, or even lines from songs on the bus. I found him to be a perfectionist in terms of what he was carrying to the people on tour. He treated every audience like a brand new audience who had never seen him before, even if he came to that city six times. I heard him say to people in the band that musicians were in the audience so don’t play off key. He was playing it so fine tuned that he wanted all his musicians to be correct.
DH: Audiences were in awe of him, but how was the press responding to him then?
NG: It was a breakthrough—the image, dreadlocks, rasta, the rebel…here Bob made his key shots were his interviews. His interviews were so good that they got front page coverage in the music press. He would get most of the covers and two or three pages. What he was talking about, Tom Petty nor any of the guys were saying it. With Bob’s whole sense of reasoning. He ended up interviewing most of the interviewers. Bob showed the power of the media, because the media was in love with Bob Marley. He used to say, “If I sell as many records as the amount of pictures taken of me, I’ll be a rich man,” and laugh while they were taking pictures.
DH: When did things begin to get really large, in terms of multiplying so many times more with larger audiences and so on?
NG: Ironically, that was in 1976 after the attempted assassination. That’s the time Cindy (Breakspeare) had won Miss World, and the time when he went to England. Some of the tabloids had linked Cindy to Bob. He became more of a household name. The Miss World competition was in November, and the assassination attempt was December 3. We kind of went into hiding because of the whole shooting affair, but by doing so, a whole mystique developed. When Bob was first sighted in London, it was a big rahtid thing. We were in London for about two months keeping it quiet, low profile, and we were in the studio most of the time, but a journalist saw us and she couldn’t hide it.
DH: Live at the Rainbow in England in 1977 was one of his most exciting shows. Do you have any special recollections of that concert?
NG: At the first show at the Rainbow, somebody gave Bob a red, green and gold shawl, and I said jokingly “Skipper you should go on stage so.” He threw it across his face and the music started du-du-du-dum—we started “Natural Mystic”. Now nobody had ever heard “Natural Mystic” because this was off Exodus, a brand new album. The whole stage was dark blue. Bob came out, and I hit him just on the head with a spotlight, so it’s like you couldn’t tell what it was. The place got crazy. “There was a natural mystic blowing in the wind…,” and he flashed off the shawl. He went from that in “So Much Things To Say”, “Heathen”, “Guiltiness”, just like on the album. The people were dumbstruck, and Bob misread it, but the people were in awe because they had never heard it before. Minds had been blown, so they couldn’t react. They clapped but then he called for “Lively Up Yourself,” which they loved, and they tore down the whole place. He was very clever and very conscious of his shows. Once the band settled down, he would soar like a bird, singing lines that he never sang before in a song.
Coming Home to the Hip Hop Nation
As the 20th century heads for the finish line, and a dawn of the new millennium, Bob Marley may yet realize his greatest dream, breaking through to black America—a wailing rastaman, challenging his people, however fractious, to unity. Island Defjam’s release of Chant Down Babylon, produced by Stephen Marley, and featuring some key songs by his father, interpreted by some of the foremost talent in the hip-hop nation, will bring Marley home. I believe the message had long been ready by urban black America, and white America too, but to what conscious extent, few of us are aware. Indeed, dreadlocks are widely popular, but that may be nothing more than a fashionable trend. In hip-hop, however, he has sainthood. A writer, Toure, in his article in the New York Times “In The End Black Men Must Lead,” says “Our path to nationhood has been paved by a handful of fathers: Mohammed Ali with his ceaseless bravado, Bob Marley with his truth telling rebel music, Huey Newton with his bodacious political style, James Brown with his obsession with funk.”
“Play I on the R&B
Want all my people to see
We bubbling on the top 100
Just like a mighty dread”
That verse from “Roots Rock Reggae” on Rastaman Vibration, Marley’s fourth international release, demonstrates that he had longed for recognition in that market, and more importantly, that without that market, his life’s mission would have been unfulfilled. Historically, white American youth, particularly at the college level, had been aware of Marley’s message from the mid-seventies, when rock music had co-opted reggae in the United States. In the 1970s international record company executives were looking for a distinct identifiable new sound or trend, but Marley could not crack the US mass market, despite considerable promotional effort. Reggae was too politically laced, too religiously unorthodox, but despite these obstacles, reggae moved into the American and British mainstreams, and heavily influenced the music of later generations. Stephen Marley is seeking to do the same for a new generation, who might have missed the message. The songs take of fresh meaning, and during their recording, some magical things apparently happened; alternative vocal tracks were taken from the original Island recording, and worked well with remixes; new beats give Marley a contemporary sound, while several rappers spin a new narrative inspired by Marley’s original message—Erykah Badu’s soulful mourn on No More Trouble, Guru on Johnny Was, Rakin’s rap on Rastaman Chant, Lauryn Hill’s rapture on Turn The Lights Down Low, and M.C. Lyte’s rhyme on Jammin: “Those that claim but really don’t know the game/Bob Marley learn the man behind the name.”
DH: How did audiences in the world at large react to him?
NG: In 1979. we attempted our first world tour by going to the east, Australia, the west coast of the United States, Hawaii, Canada, Europe, and ended up in Africa. All his tours had impact, but we had now reached international status. Bob was no longer music news, he was hard news. We went to Japan first, which was really a mind-opener for me. On arriving we had an immediate press conference. They wouldn’t even give us a chance to settle in the hotel. From we arrived there was 100 journalists, a big long table with Bob and members of the group, cameras flashing, and everybody sticking their microphones in his face. It was amazing as an onlooker. What I found was that Japanese journalists asked the most important and really relevant questions. The Japanese seemed to focus more on Rastafarian culture. They asked very searching questions. The concerts were all sold out, and in meeting the Japanese kids and listening to them in the audiences, I realised that these kids learnt English by listening to the songs that they liked. It was a way of them getting interested in learning English. They could sing the words of the song, but they wanted to know what they meant. When Bob sang “No Woman No Cry” , he could break and just make the audience sing a verse, which he did in phases, because they knew the words to the songs. The response we got from the Japanese, was the best responses we got from a country we only went to once. We went to New Zealand after, and that was another first. This was staged at a race track and we wondered where the stage was going to be. A 40ft Mercedes Benz trailer truck drove up, opened its side panels, everything came out on hydraulics, a complete 40 x 30 stage with lights. In less than 3 hours we had a stage ready to go, and we had an audience of about 25,000 people.
DH: Was Australia just as warm?
NG: The response in Australia was overwhelming. In Brisbane a lot of white kids came back to the hotel after the show the following day to meet Bob. They were spellbound, and stayed as long as five hours. Others kept coming, and those who came before wouldn’t leave, until parents started phoning the hotel looking for their children. Every now and then I would say is so and so here. The kids would say, “Mom we can’t leave now,” until several parents decided to come for their children, and when they came they were captivated by what was going on.
Instead of grabbing the kids and leaving, they stayed for half an hour, because they knew they had questions to answer when they took the kids home. It fascinated me because it showed that the present generation, probably because of Bob played a Pied Piper, will be able to look and understand other cultures, and work together instead of trying to divide.
DH: What were some of Marley’s most outstanding concerts?
NG: In 1979 Bob did a free concert called Amandala in support of the SWAPO guerrillas at Harvard Stadium. To me it was one of his most outstanding concerts. Bob was a person who came up and sang. He never really talked that much, but this day, Bob was like a preacher. It’s a few times I’ve ever seen him preaching like a sermon to the people. He was ad-libbing like never before, songs like words from “Redemption Song” started at that show. That’s the first time I heard Bob sing “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery.” We had Patty La Belle and Dick Gregory who was so overwhelmed that when he met him he bowed and kissed Bob’s hand. “No Woman No Cry” was one of his classic deliveries. That show was videotaped, but never released so the world might still have a chance to see that show. Another show was the Black Music Convention of, I think, 1978. Bob performed as the headline act. This was like Bob’s introduction of black America on that entertainment level, because all of them were there, and Stevie Wonder was moved once more, because it had been on about three occasions that Bob had performed and Stevie was in the audience, and after Bob was into the set, Stevie just said, “take me up to the stage.” He came up and did about three songs with Bob that night. In fact Bob said after the show that Stevie had so much innocence in him. He hugged Bob and started singing. Bob said that when he touched him, it was like a baby. Another memorable moment was in the winter of ‘79, which was our only winter tour ever. We went into North America, east and west coast, promoting Survival. We had had time over the years to sit back and study and there was a most illusive market, and that was the black market believe it or not. This was something Bob wanted badly. We were sweetening the music with more R&B flavour, just to win that audience, because the message was for them. The feedback we were getting was that the music was being played mostly on white FM stations, so we weren’t getting through. It was also partly the fault of the black media as well, which was not picking up on us. Bob was getting front page of Harpers Bazaar, which was a woman’s magazine, but we couldn’t get an article in Ebony.
Bob turned down one date at Madison Square Gardens for five nights at the Apollo, doing two shows a night. In money terms what we earned was equivalent to one night at Madison. The Apollo was rammed every night. The lines would wrap around the block where the Apollo was, and older folks who I spoke with, were saying that they had never seen Harlem like that since Marcus Garvey. At the midnight show you could still find 30% white people would drive up to Harlem to see Bob Marley. So, although we went into Harlem, it wasn’t 100% black. On that same tour we went to Chicago, and the black community came out and responded to Bob. People came and invited him to a naming ceremony. He went but he didn’t realise that he was the one who was going to be given the name.They went through a whole African ritual and Bob was given the name “The Chosen One.”
DH: What was your first tour of Africa?
NG: A positive thing out of the Survival tour was that we met the daughters of the president of Gabon, when we performed in Los Angeles, and they made us have our first trip to Africa in 1980. They were impressed and said they wanted us to perform for their people, so Bob consented to do two free concerts just for expenses. Two weeks after we met them, we were on an aircraft heading for Gabon. Zimbabwe was later in the year on April 18th. Gabon was a tremendous experience. We kissed the ground. It was the first time we set foot in Africa. Since it was the government inviting us, we got full red carpet treatment and were guests of the president.
After Gabon we came back home and finished the Uprising album. While completing the album Bob got an invitation to Zimbabwe’s independence celebrations, but we got to understand that Bob alone was invited, but he replied to the president pointing out that he was not just an individual, but part of a family, and an organisation. They replied saying that they understood, and that even if Bob did not perform, he would have been an official guest, but they didn’t see the value of it promotionally. Bob said, “Alright, I’m going to do it myself.”
He decided to take the whole band and 32 tons of equipment. When Chris Blackwell saw Bob making this move, Island eventually chipped in about $90,000 when they realised that this brother was taking his money, about a quarter million dollars, to set the thing up. From England we landed at Nairobi airport in Kenya, and an emissary came from Prince Charles saying that he wanted to meet Bob Marley, and if Bob could come out to his private place. Bob said, “If the Prince want to meet I, tell the Prince to come down here.” You know that the Prince never showed. That meeting never happened. When we came off the plane, it was red carpet all the way into Customs. On each side of the red carpet was the entire Parliament except Mugabe. It was like we had to walk the gauntlet of bear hugs, and “Welcome brother.” When we reached customs, the people outside were looking to see Bob. They tore down the gate, and the airport went into disorder.
Close to midnight when Bob was to perform, before the clock struck 12, we started the music, but we could hear pandemonium outside the stadium. Apparently there was some guerrillas who had come from a nearby camp, but they could not get in. Eventually they were let in, and the community decided to come in with them. They started firing tear gas, but the wind took the tear gas right into the royal box. Order was eventually restored and Bob came back with “I Shot The Sheriff.” Bob also gave a free concert after the ceremony. It was his high point there. When he sang “Zimbabwe” , people were jumping and singing it. We played “Zimbabwe” for about 15 minutes straight. The Uprising tour which followed in support of the album was, unknown to us, his last.
DH: What made that so special?
NG: It was a tour of records. Since we had been to Europe several times before we could compare audience attendance and sales. For instance we started in France, and in three weeks Bob had sold 350,000 copies of the Uprising album. One of the biggest audience ever. We had been using Average White Band as an opening act for us, but they were having problems because whenever you toured with Bob Marley, people came to see Bob Marley and not the opening act, so Average White Band was being stoned with eggs and tomatoes while the people chanted Marley…when Bob hit the stage and said “greetings in the name of…,” 111,000 people responded. I was about 35 feet up in the air in a lighting tower. We had filled the National Stadium and the playing field. When Bob did “Redemption Song”, everybody who never had a candle held their lighters up. Some started to light bonfires in different parts of the stadium. Bob tore the place down, he was more than a star. Right now Elvis Presley is the most famous person in music, but I think Bob will outlive Elvis Presley. He was more than a troubadour, he was a folk hero. “Jailhouse Rock” can’t hold you as long as ‘Emancipate yourself from mental slavery.’
