Bob Marley's "Jamming"

One Song

This episode of One Song revisits Bob Marley and the Wailers' iconic 1977 track 'Jammin'', exploring its cultural impact, musical intricacies, and

Key takeaways

• Bob Marley is often conflated with reggae as a whole, but he represents a specific, deeply personal expression within the genre.

Main topics

• Bob Marley's cultural legacy and global influence
• The distinction between reggae as a genre and Bob Marley's unique artistic identity

Notable quotes

We're going to talk about jamming. On this episode. It seems uncomfortable and cringy.

Conclusion

This episode challenges listeners to reconsider Bob Marley not as a universal symbol but as a deeply individual

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Hey, One Song Nation. This week, we're revisiting one of our most popular episodes from the archives, where we break down Bob Marley and the Wailers' 1977 hit, Jammin'. So stay tuned for that. And if you're in the LA area, come see a taping of One Song live at the Skirball Museum on September 6th. We're going to be breaking down the Ramones' Blitzkrieg bop with special guest, Brad Armisen. You're not going to want to miss this one. So get your tickets at skirball.org. But first... On today's episode, we're going to talk about Civil War in Jamaica, punky reggae in London, and of course, as always, we're going to hear the stems. That's right, the isolated drums, guitars, and bass from the Wailers with the isolated vocals of Robert Nesta Marley himself. You may have heard this song many times before. You've never heard it quite like this. So let's break down Bob Marley and the Wailers jamming. Speaker 1 (0:55) Luxury, my man, what's up? Diallo, man, I'm having Speaker 2 (0:57) such a- Nobody Speaker 1 (0:57) cares, listen. Welcome to One Song. You do not want to hear about my day? No, no, I actually, I absolutely do. This podcast is not called Speaker 2 (1:05) One Speaker 1 (1:05) Day, it's called One Song. Speaker 2 (1:06) We're here to talk about a song, Speaker 1 (1:07) not my day. It's not called a day in the Speaker 2 (1:09) life, man. Speaker 1 (1:11) Fair enough. Dude, the artist we're talking about today is quite literally everywhere. Speaker 2 (1:15) That's right, T.L. Lately, we have seen this artist portrayed on the silver screen here in Hollywood. Murals of him are painted all over the world. His poster is a favorite in college dorm rooms. At Speaker 1 (1:24) least when we were in college dorm rooms. To be clear, we haven't been in any college dorm rooms in a long time. I have not recently been in Speaker 4 (1:30) a Speaker 1 (1:30) college dorm room. Speaker 4 (1:30) Stop suggesting Speaker 1 (1:30) that. Speaker 2 (1:31) Probably safe to assume that he continues to be an icon for stoners everywhere. And it's hard to verify his exact album sales, but it's estimated he's sold over 75 million records worldwide. He's one of the most popular musicians of all time, and his music is so universally loved and celebrated, it can at times seem a little bit too ubiquitous. Speaker 1 (1:49) That's right, Luxury. Today's artist is so widely played that I sometimes wonder if we've really stopped here. his music. Speaker 2 (1:56) Actually hearing it. That's a good point. Speaker 1 (1:57) Yeah. But all that changes today on this podcast because you're going to hear Bob Marley and his masterpiece jamming like never before. Speaker 2 (2:06) Now it sounds funny to say jamming. You can say jamming. Well, we figured out, Speaker 1 (2:10) we found out that there's a G at the end. Speaker 2 (2:11) That's the spelling, but what he sings Speaker 1 (2:12) is jamming. Oh, he says jamming, but I'm not going to do that because there will be no fake patois in this episode. I think dropping the G Speaker 2 (2:19) seems like a good idea, but you don't have to go all the way to the patois. We're going to be Speaker 1 (2:22) talking about jamming. On this episode. It Speaker 2 (2:24) seems uncomfortable and cringy. We're Speaker 1 (2:26) going Speaker 2 (2:27) to be jamming on this episode. Speaker 1 (2:29) I'm just trying to show my respect. This is one song. All right. I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ Diallo Riddle. Speaker 2 (2:41) And I'm producer, DJ, and songwriter luxury, also known as the guy who talks about. Speaker 2 (2:48) It kills me a little bit inside. I'm just such a fan of my new toy. One more time. The guy who talks about interpolation. Speaker 1 (2:54) You know, shout out to all the people who have tried to give me a catchphrase. Yeah. A lot of people say I say shout out a lot. Do you Speaker 2 (3:01) have Speaker 1 (3:01) a top Speaker 2 (3:02) three? Speaker 1 (3:02) I think right now my favorite is somebody suggested it could be infuriate. Which is good, because I didn't realize I say infuriating a lot. Oh, I thought it was a slam Speaker 2 (3:12) on me. But no, but it kind of works Speaker 1 (3:14) on many levels. So maybe every time you say interpolation, I'll say infuriating. Speaker 2 (3:18) When I use the sampler. Interpolation. Speaker 1 (3:22) Yeah, those watching on YouTube can see me visually die a little bit inside. Visually infuriated. But we'll keep workshopping that. Okay, so luxury. I want to start here. It's our thesis statement about Bob Marley's music and this idea that Marley is so iconic. And it almost distances you from an artist that you think you know, but some of us have just not investigated as much as others. I think it goes back to this. You said it in the opening. In my mind, I always think about being a student at Harvard and going into every dude's dorm room and they've got the Legends poster up. And by the way, I'll say- And Speaker 2 (4:00) they're Speaker 1 (4:00) smoking weed, right? Disclaimer right at the top. I have tried to do weed. It's just not every chemical is for every body. It's Speaker 2 (4:07) not for me either. Speaker 1 (4:07) That's funny. We have that connection. I Speaker 2 (4:09) don't Speaker 1 (4:09) respond to it the same Speaker 2 (4:09) way. Speaker 1 (4:09) I Speaker 2 (4:10) don't Speaker 1 (4:10) either. I fall Speaker 2 (4:10) right asleep. I was never a weed guy. Speaker 1 (4:12) But there's an artist there. And there's a reason why his music is globally powerful and globally fun. popular and I think we just really need to listen to his music differently as if for the first time. Speaker 2 (4:25) I think that's right. Bob Marley is iconic. He is a global cultural ambassador for Jamaica for the idea of revolution and resistance and politics in music. He almost perfected that. It existed before him, but his entire body of work is a new version, a new level of bringing politics and love and Rastafarianism and all of this together in this one body of work and his oeuvre. He's a very important artist. We love him. for all the reasons you just said, sometimes can be two people representing an idea very different from what the actual artist is, who the actual artist is. Well, can Speaker 1 (4:56) I throw out one more thing? We've said on the show before, like, I really liked The Cure as a kid. And because I was in an all-black school, I didn't know there was a whole... like clothing style and a like an attitude that you had to adopt to be a fan of the you Speaker 2 (5:12) didn't know about goth i i didn't know really i mean i saw a couple of you're abstracted from goth Speaker 1 (5:16) what even is that i saw a couple of movies in the 80s and i was like oh that looks a little extreme but like i didn't let because i wasn't around it i didn't let the fandom of the artist sort of get in the way of my appreciation of the music that's probably the best similarly You know, I, and I also have, and you're going to hear a lot about him in this episode. I know he listens to the podcast. Shout out to my brother. He was a huge, he was a Rastafarian for over a decade and with dreadlocks and the whole thing. And he had such a love. of Robert Nesta Marley that there was no way that there was no way for me to like get into it without sort of feeling like I'm just listening to Tony's music you know what I mean so Speaker 2 (5:54) right Speaker 1 (5:54) I say all that just to say that that was sort of my barrier to the music but now we're going to hear the music we're Speaker 2 (6:01) going to talk about Bob Marley we're going to talk about how specific and individual he was as an artist, like literally even in the genre of reggae to a lot of people. I think what we're referring to is this phenomenon that for a lot of people who aren't big reggae fans, reggae may to them mean Bob Marley, but reggae and Bob Marley are not one in the same. There's a big difference. He is a very specific slice. And he's a major Speaker 1 (6:22) figure. Major figure. Major, major figure. Speaker 2 (6:24) We'll talk about several of the major figures in his life. It's not an accident that... Bob Marley appeals to so many white people in America because that was a marketing plan that succeeded. We're going to talk about that today. Oh yeah, I can't wait to talk about that because the Speaker 1 (6:37) band themselves were stressed out about that. They would do these sold out shows in America and they'd look out there and they'd be like, where are the black people? It Speaker 2 (6:44) caused the implosion of the first, one of the first versions of the band ended because of that change. Speaker 1 (6:48) Totally. I want to make one note though to people like my brother. Hey, look. We have lots of facts for you as well. We always come into this episode with, we hope, sort of like information for people who don't know the artist that well, but also plenty of fun, wonderful facts that we hope that you have not heard before. We did our research for this one. This one consumed so much time. We knew the movie was going to come out. We're going to talk about the movie. Speaker 4 (7:19) The Speaker 3 (7:20) city moves fast, but your vibe, that's different. Sharper, smoother, more alive. Speaker 4 (7:31) The new Speaker 3 (7:35) Honda City isn't just made to drive, it's made to feel. The new Honda City, all new vibe. Speaker 1 (7:43) movie a little bit uh towards the end of the show but for right now because there is a movie about bob marley's life that's out right now um and we're going to talk about that but luxury before we get into the stems i want you to give the one song nation the bob marley backstory let's Speaker 2 (7:59) talk a little bit about as you said robert nesta marley um by the way first thing exactly Building on what you just said, this little disclaimer at the top, this is the ultimate episode where, because it's such an oral history where different accounts are all- Different people have different stories. Speaker 1 (8:13) Different Speaker 2 (8:13) people have different stories that change over time. And I have- We've both seen the documentaries. I've read a number of books. There's one in particular by Roger Steffens I'd recommend called So Much Things to Say. But that 2012 documentary was great too. The bottom line is many stories are told from many angles and many facts are disputed. And we're going to get into some of the disputes later on because they extend to the music itself. And there's a lot of people who are crediting themselves with having written certain songs and there's not a lot of agreement about it. Speaker 1 (8:40) You sell 75 million records. There are going to be some lawsuits. Where there's Speaker 2 (8:43) a Speaker 1 (8:43) hit, there's Speaker 2 (8:44) a Speaker 1 (8:44) win, as they say. Luxury, before we get into the music, I want to give the One Song Nation just an idea of Bob Marley's childhood. He's born February 6, 1945, in the small, just a rural place, Nine Mile, St. Ann, Jamaica. It's Speaker 2 (9:00) on Speaker 1 (9:00) a hill. Speaker 2 (9:00) He's literally rural Speaker 1 (9:01) on the hillside. Speaker 4 (9:02) First thing I thought, I was like, oh, Eminem, Eight Mile. Speaker 1 (9:05) Bob Marley, Nine Mile. If you're going to give Bertu a famous musician, a legend, try and find a street with the word mile in the name, apparently. They said he grew up among the... pinny wallies which i think is like the most beautiful term i've ever heard for fireflies i'd never heard that word before like you grew up among the pinny wallies there goes the fake patois i'm not gonna do that whole episode i swear to god and they called him a they called him a red picnic and i didn't know what that meant uh the american equivalent would be red bone they in other ways he was light skin this is because his father was captain norval marley um a 60 year old British man who worked in Jamaica and met Marley's mom, a black woman, obviously. Black woman. You can't call her a black woman. She was 16 at the time. He was in his 60s. She was 16. They only knew each other briefly, but because of his parentage, he was what they would call half-caste. People recognized him as being mixed. And to a certain extent, that made him an outcast. His uncles gave him more work to do with the horses just because, you know, to a certain extent, they weren't sure how to claim him. And so in this just very rural setting, you know, Bob has his first exposure to music. They said that from the time he was a child, he would sing, you know, some of his favorite songs for people. And, you know, they would... beat on boxes, the Roomba box and the banjo. You know, it's easy to forget. I always, growing up in Atlanta, I always associated the banjo with that kid in Deliverance. It's from Africa. It's Speaker 2 (10:38) an African instrument Speaker 1 (10:40) and it only gained popularity in America in the minstrel shows where white people would adopt the affectations and obviously the black face of... and they would pretend to be black and they would play the banjo but somehow the banjo became associated with country rural white folks and i think you know we just might have moved on from the banjo but marley's playing all this stuff in jamaica um And then at some point his mom moves from, you know, the mountains and these in this rural part, she moves to Trenchtown. And this is a very formative time in Marley's life because, you know, there are more people here. And he talks about, you know, there were the bad guys, so to speak, you know, the gangsters for the lack of a better term. And but he's soaking all this in and people liked Marley. And they said that, you know, he was a person who had a lot of of charm. you know, right from the beginning, right in the early days of his childhood. Speaker 2 (11:33) Yeah, that's great. I mean, like the story of Bob Marley is the story of an outcast. And it really, knowing his backstory really helps you understand his music because he, as he says himself, and as people say in the documentary, he didn't feel like he fit in with the white people or the black people. He didn't fit in with his own family. He was very much an outcast and a rebel, not by his own making. And he obviously channeled all that into his music. That's where he put everything, all of it. But Speaker 1 (11:55) he Speaker 2 (11:55) also, Speaker 1 (11:55) I also got the impression that It was through his music that he was able to really connect with people. And it was through music that he was able to find his home. the black Jamaican community. Well, perfectly Speaker 2 (12:08) put, because we're going to talk also on this episode, there's a number of unsung, I would say, or differently sung, there's a cast of hundreds that made Bob Marley's music popular. A handful of these people that very much seem like father figures when you read about them. So we're Speaker 1 (12:22) going Speaker 2 (12:22) to talk about Cox and Dodd. We're going to talk about Joe Higgs, Lee Scratch Perry. We're also going to talk about kind of an overly sung figure, in my opinion, which would be Chris Blackwell. Very controversial, obviously made him a global superstar, the head of Island Records. But at the same time, you know, possibly took a little more credit than deserved. We'll talk about all these guys on this episode today. So I'm Speaker 1 (12:39) going Speaker 2 (12:39) to set the stage. It's Jamaica. It's 1962. This is when Jamaica gets its independence from England. By the way, independence, but colonialism is still kind of the order of the day. Racism doesn't end in Jamaica in 1962 just because of independence. But it is the beginning, though, of ska. We've talked on another episode. Go to our Sister Nancy episode. It's sort of a sister episode to this one. We get into more depth about the origins of ska into rocksteady into reggae. But it's important to mention this because the earliest music that Bob Marley is making is actually ska music. And I'm going to tell you... And Speaker 1 (13:13) 1962. Speaker 2 (13:14) Starting in 62. One character I mentioned earlier, an unsung hero in the story, is Joe Higgs. He's known as the godfather of reggae by many. He himself was an early recording artist in the late 50s. He actually had a song in 1958, I'll play it for you, called Manny O. This is one of the first records ever pressed in Jamaica. Speaker 2 (13:43) And it's worth pointing out how American R &B sounding that was. Absolutely. I Speaker 1 (13:48) thought one of the coolest things that I always knew, just from my own background, my own love of ska, is that they were listening to the American groups. And they were trying to sound like the American groups. I love the fact that there's a Bob Marley version of Why Must I Be a Teenager in Love. So Speaker 2 (14:07) Joe Higgs, who we just heard, is the gentleman who teaches Marley to sing. And at this point... Mr. Marley has met. By the way, he's being called Robbie at this point. He hasn't changed his name to Bob. So Robbie meets another young teenager, they're teenagers, named Neville O'Reilly Livingston, who soon changes his name to Bunny. And Robbie and Bunny are taught to sing by Joe Higgs, and they meet a third gentleman. I keep saying gentlemen. These are all young teenagers. And his name is Peter McIntosh, but is soon known as Peter Tosh. The three of them form the Whalers. They were trying Speaker 1 (14:40) to figure out what their version of the dramatics and the impressions. Right, the Inkspits. Yeah, and so they go with the Wailers. Yeah, Speaker 2 (14:47) because Speaker 1 (14:47) these are Speaker 2 (14:47) vocal groups, by the way. They're not really playing instruments. This is all harmonizing. It's basically doo-wop, the Jamaican version, or just harmonizing like all the American acts are doing. Absolutely. Speaker 1 (14:56) I want to play a snippet by the Impressions, a song called Man, Oh, Man, because I like to think that both Bob Marley and Young Jeezy like this song. Speaker 1 (15:18) And for those who probably already guessed, that was sampled in the Young Jeezy song, Featuring Jay-Z, Go Crazy. Speaker 5 (15:37) I love sampling. Speaker 2 (15:39) Yeah, sampling's the best. The best sampling always Speaker 1 (15:41) goes really hard. So, and by the way, Young Jeezy's talking about some, you know, street stuff in Atlanta. Meanwhile, we're in Trenchtown. Street Speaker 2 (15:51) stuff's going down there, too. And they're Speaker 1 (15:52) listening to The Impressions. which is the music that Bob Marley and Peter Tosh and Bunny Whaler are working on themselves. And I just got to play this before we leave the year 1962. This is a snippet of the very first song to feature Bob Marley's vocals. This is a song called Judge Not. And listen to a little bit of the lyrics because what's crazy is even though this did not, it failed to achieve a huge amount of success for the group, it does predict. what Bob Marley will be singing about later in his career because you'll hear a sort of political message in it. This is Judge Not. Speaker 1 (16:32) Who are you to judge me in the life I live? Bob is 16 here. He's already Speaker 2 (16:37) feeling the scrutiny of the judgment. He's already Speaker 1 (16:41) looking at society and trying to find the hypocrites. Speaker 2 (16:44) Society's looking at him and he's getting harassed by the police as he talks about. Yeah, he's feeling it and comes out. He's 16 when he writes the song. It's crazy, the lyrics. Speaker 1 (16:51) By the way, someone tried to convince him at one point to change his name to Adam Marley. And he was like, no, I'm Bob. I'm Bob. Speaker 2 (17:00) Well, let's move on to 1963. At this point, Cox and Dodd enters the picture. Cox and Dodd is the legendary founder of Studio One, the first really important label in Jamaican music. So important Speaker 1 (17:11) to the sound system, so important to the eventual development of the DJ as we think of it today. Like, you know, Cox and Dodd. He's such a legend. Speaker 2 (17:19) He's such a legend. He signs the band, The Wailers, and their first single is called Simmer Down. Now, this is a song that when you hear it, you're hearing just the vocals of the band. It's the three boys, Peter, Bob, and Bunny, along with three other members of the band, six total singers. The music is coming from the Scatolites, who are the Studio One house band, basically. And this is Simmer Down from 1963. Speaker 1 (17:54) I love the story. So joyful. Oh, listen. I love the story that when this song comes out, it's so popular in the dance halls that like. Speaker 2 (18:04) Yeah, they keep Speaker 1 (18:04) replaying it over and over again. They Speaker 2 (18:05) just Speaker 1 (18:05) play it over and over. Like other songs can't even get in the mix. Yeah, yeah. You know, that is a. That Speaker 2 (18:10) song goes to number one in 1964. It's their first single with Studio One. And it starts a long, actually five, six year period where they're making records for Studio One, but they're really not going anywhere because the records are huge in the dance hall. They're huge in the Speaker 1 (18:24) dance hall. Speaker 2 (18:24) Sound systems. They love them at the sound system, but they're not being played on the radio. Nobody's Speaker 1 (18:27) playing them on the radio. And this is at a time when there's some straight thuggery happening. Literally those guys would show up at your radio station and basically say, you have to play this. now or bad things will happen Speaker 2 (18:40) it's worth mentioning the sort of gangster element both of the record industry and politics which is starting to simmer simmer simmer down it'll get worse as the story progresses uh and it is related to the story the long story short about this era and by the way they're still called the whalers it's not bob marley and the whalers the whalers stay with cox and dot in studio one and they are making according to bunny whaler like whopping three pounds a week they're very frustrated yeah they're not able to tour they don't have any money at a certain point they they get tired and they leave Studio One and they go to work with our second undersung or unsung hero and one of my favorite, if not my favorite. producer of all time, Lee Scratch Perry, in 1969. Enters the picture. Very important figure in Bob's life as a person. A Speaker 1 (19:22) person you've Speaker 2 (19:23) probably heard about. Even Speaker 1 (19:24) if you're not into reggae, you've probably heard of Lee Scratch Perry. Speaker 2 (19:26) You've probably heard of Lee Scratch Perry. He had a very long career. He just passed away a couple years ago and made probably 100, maybe 200 records. Very prolific producer. He's an artist himself. You can hear him singing a lot of his records. I want to Speaker 1 (19:40) say something about the Jamaican scene in general because you've made me