Words by Eddie STATS Houghton
As the recent release of the Soul Rebel coffee table book demonstrates nicely, interest in the life of Bob Marley is evergreen and that applies not just to the general massive but even–or maybe especially–to reggae cultists who think they already know everything there is to know about Jamaican music.
Exhibit A: Our close personal peoples at Deadly Dragon just posted these unearthed pages featuring the Tuff Gong from Swing magazine ca. 1975–the design work on the ads alone is worth the price of admission!
Exhibit B: Babylon Falling–the former SF bookstore and online archive of countercultural madness–recently posted a site-visit with legendary reggae journalist and documentarian Roger Steffens (who founded The Beat magazine among other big moves). If you never did know, Steffens is probably the foremost recorder of Marley’s career and the 70s-80s era of roots reggae in general and of course his personal collection is basically all killer, from video of Bob talking about the attempt on his life onstage at the infamous Smile Jamaica concert to memorabilia from his show in Italy, prompting our favorite soundbite: “Bob Marley outdrew the Pope in Italy.” Dig in but make sure your brain is nailed down first.