Before The Legend: The Rise Of Bob Marley
by Christopher John Farley

His heart’s in the right place

The story reggae fans have been waiting for: Marley’s years growing up in Nine Miles and recording for Island, Studio One, Lee Perry and Leslie Kong. An insight into the great man before he became famous, it comes highly recommended on the back cover by Rita Marley and Chuck D, but Farley’s slimline book is truly disappointing, badly researched and poorly written. Farley, a novelist and writer for Time magazine, should know better, but he is given to over-pretension (equating Rita’s relationship with Bob to that of Dante’s Beatrice, Rodin’s Camille Claudel, TS Eliot’s Vivienne Eliot, Nabokov’s Vera) and wild claims. He correctly identifies the racism in the music industry, but then argues that Michael Jackson was only crowned King Of Pop once he had plastic surgery to whiten his skin. Farley also makes a big deal of talking to Marley’s mum Cedella, and of gaining an audience with Bunny Wailer, yet his use of primary sources is limited. At best this is a potted history. Stick with Vivien Goldman’s The Book Of Exodus and Kate Simon’s Rebel Music: Bob Marley & Roots Reggae.

2 stars 2 stars

ISBN 9780060539924

Reviewed by Sandra Wright
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