Marley Page #7

he would try to do it.

He just didn't play

for the fun of it.

This was always part

of the process, you know?

Before he writes a song

he'd burn a spliff.

Then you go run,

so you can lively up yourself.

And then you get more inspired

so the lyrics can come out.

I play everywhere.

Anywhere it is possible, you know?

He began to come and visit.

You just hear these footsteps come

running up the steps in the evening,

always when the football was over

and place kind of quiet down, you know?

And there's nobody to really see

the little moves that you're making.

'Cause in the day the place

is teeming with people,

so you can't be too overt

because you'd be outed instantly.

I went downtown

I went downtown

I saw Miss Brown

Said I saw Miss Brown

She had brown sugar

Had brown sugar

All over her booga-wooga

Over her booga-wooga

Think I might join the fun

Think I might join the fun

But I had to hit and run

But I had to hit and run

See I just can't settle down

In a kinky part of town

Ride on

When did you first meet Bob?

- I see Bob every day.

Bob live on Second Street.

I live on First Street.

Ride on

See I just won't settle down

Ride on

Everybody

I would take no notice of him...

because he would bother me,

and I would go and tell my mother.

How old were you?

- Sixteen.

Take me away

Kinky reggae now

What did he do

when he paid you attention?

Like stuff like,

"Don't give it away. I'm growing you."

"Remember, don't have

any boyfriend before me."

Stuff like that.

Was he charming?

- Yes.

- Why were so many girls attracted to him?

- My God.

You don't know Bob.

That's a handsome guy.

I went down to Piccadilly Circus

- People have visions of women

beating down the door to get at Bob Marley.

- Je...

- Grabbing clothes.

- Is it like that?

- No.

Why was he so successful

with women?

- Because he was shy.

Bob is not the womanizer...

that people make him out to be.

I think more, the women came at him.

That why they say

Nice one

- Was he faithful?

- To whom? God?

To Jah? Yes, he was faithful to Jah.

Faithful to any one woman?

No.

Why? Somebody own him?

What is fidelity?

Western ideology, you know.

A ring on your finger,

a ring through your nose?

That's for Western men, man.

They can only handle

one woman at a time.

Bob could handle more.

One day a lady

came to me and she said,

"Didn't anyone tell you

that Bob was married?"

And I didn't know.

- For a time there I never knew

that he was legally married.

I did come to know.

Eventually, his mom told me.

Did he see Rita

at all at that time?

- Sure. I mean,

they worked together, you know.

Toured the world together.

- When we were on tour,

Rita had her own room.

She was not with Bob.

She would see everything that goes on.

But she had maximum respect

for the work.

- How did you cope

through all the years

that you were married together,

and Bob was having these relationships

with other women?

- I became his... his guardian angel.

And then by that time,

I was past the surface

of being just a wife.

Because of the importance

of who I knew Bob is.

I didn't see it as a fun trip.

We were on a mission.

It was like an evangelist campaign...

to bring people closer to Jah.

They had this...

this bond, you know?

I wouldn't...

I mean, you know,

if that was my husband,

I wouldn't.

We never fought about women.

We would never get into that.

He would come and say to me,

"Rita, I did this,"

or "This is what happened."

I was the one that he would call

to get women out of his dressing room...

when it get to that stage.

"Come up for my room.

Come and get these people out for me."

And I would do that gracefully.

"Come on, ladies. It's bedtime.

We have a show tomorrow, so..."

- She wouldn't get upset, you know,

but...

there were times when, you know,

you knew she was hurting.

Hurt all of us.

And that's what he didn't like.

He didn't like it when, like,

we knew that she was hurt,

and it showed on us.

That's when, "Okay,

we're going for ice cream.

We're going for burgers.

What do you want?"

Do you think

that he was being selfish?

- Yes. It's not fair to no woman.

That is not fair at all,

but we still couldn't hate him for it.

In the capital of Kingston

there are rival shantytown ghettos...

where whole communities

are divided along sectarian lines.

These zones are controlled

by the prime minister's

People's National Party,

who are accused

of being communists,

or by the opposition

Jamaica Labour Party,

who are accused of being fascists.

- Politics in Jamaica at that time...

was like an East-West confrontation,

which was scary.

You have one side which is kind

of more ultra-conservative, right wing,

which is Seaga,

who was like Reagan's man

in the Caribbean.

And then Manley

was trying to work a system...

called democratic socialism,

which other parties say,

"That's just a disguise for

saying you are a communist."

Sometimes it's only insults

or stones and bottles...

thrown from one side to the other.

But often it's bombs and bullets,

and almost every day the newspapers

carry fresh reports...

of the previous day's killings in Kingston.

The whole thing became

like a gangster thing.

Political gangster.

- These were the guys

who kept things in line

for the M.P.s, you know.

So you find that in some areas,

the real power is enforcers.

- You like this girl...

that's both of us.

You like her, and I like her.

We start to fight over her.

It's like that.

He like P.N.P. You like J.L.P.

You wanna fight for your P.N.P.

- Bob was friends

with all of those guys.

All of the bad guys from

the Labour Party was Bob friend.

Likewise, all the bad guys

from the P.N.P.

These are guys

that come from...

the same neighborhood

he grew up with.

These are really bad guys.

'Cause you might see some guys, yeah,

and then tomorrow you'd take up

the Jamaican paper,

you'd see the 10-most-wanted list...

four of the guys that were on it

are already dead.

There are now five.

Some of them actually

love the music, you know,

but their main thing is, you know...

warfare and badness, you know.

- Bob did a concert

with Stevie Wonder in Jamaica,

and they actually performed

two songs together.

I think very "Superstitious,"

which Bob knew,

and "I Shot the Sheriff."

I shot the sheriff

But I did not shoot the deputy

Stevie made a gesture

by giving, I think,

half of his pay for the show...

to the Salvation Army

blind school in Jamaica,

and I think Bob

was moved by that.

And Bob said,

"Well, we'll give a free concert."

They took that idea

to Michael Manley,

who was just down the road...

the prime minister...

and they were, like,

enthused about it.

Bob Marley, the world's

leading exponent of reggae music,

has agreed to appear in a major

free concert to be held for the benefit...

of the Jamaican people in Kingston

on Sunday, December 5.

The announcement was made at

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