This morning's WSJ has a compelling piece (subscription) about how Bob Marley was pretty much created by an English record executive for the sole purpose of selling records.
But, but, Bob Marley? The ganja smoking, college dorm poster boy for independence and musical integrity?
Apparently.
Chris Blackwell, the British-born founder of Island Records, sensed Mr. Marley's star potential. In 1972, he repackaged the group that had been known as Bob Marley and the Wailers, giving a rougher rock 'n' roll edge to their gentle reggae grooves and presenting them as a black band even while adding white backup players. The transformation helped spark Mr. Marley's ascension from local hero to global icon.
When Mr. Blackwell first met Bob Marley, he gave him a pile of dough and had him cut some tracks.
Mr. Blackwell recalls he heard only five or six tracks that day. It was enough. The group had conjured the sound he had dreamed about. The msic was intelligent and mysterious. It evoked images of sex and revolution. Tears came to his eyes as he listened. "When I heard those mixes, it was such a high point for me," Mr. Blackwell said later. "That money I had given them, it all went in there."
Mr. Blackwell loved what he heard in Kingston. He loved it so much that he wanted to change it.
That indeed is love. The love of good ol' fashioned moolah ray. Blackwell knew that a pure raggae album would not sell with the Rock Generation. He knew he had to rockify Marley's raggae if he was going to move any units and that's all any record executive cares about (God love 'em).
Some of the songs were fixed by studio manipulation:
"So what I did is mess with the tape, make a copy of a track and then edit it and double the length or triple the length," he recalls. "I think with 'Stir It Up,' I tripled the length. I wanted to make it more like rock was and less like pop."
The rest required rock session players to be brought in to de-raggaefy the music even further:
To flesh out the material, Mr. Blackwell brought in several American rock session players. He recruited keyboardist John "Rabbit" Bundrick, who had played with the rock band Free and would go on to work with the Who. He also brought on board Wayne Perkins, a 20-year-old guitarist with the American band Smith Perkins and Smith, which also had a contract with Island.
Now keep in mind these musicians didn't know a thing about raggae--which is exactly what Blackwell was looking for--he wanted them to give it a rock treatment so it would sell, sell! (Something I applaud, but many Marley fans will find objectionable.)
So what was Bob doing while his artistic vision was being watered down for stoners at Dartmouth?
He had been concerned about Mr. Blackwell's meddling, but now he was won over. He gave Mr. Perkins his highest accolade -- he offered him a puff on his personal spliff.
Now that the music was done, the proper image had to be created. Like the music, Blackwell knew exactly how to position the band's image for the international rock audience.
After the mixing of the album, Mr. Blackwell had a final task. He remixed the Wailers' image, starting with the moniker of the group, dropping the name "Bob Marley" and calling them simply the Wailers. "I wanted to change it to the Wailers because I wanted to present them as a black group," he said.
This guy was a freaking genius.
Because he wanted to promote the image of a black group, the two white Americans who had contributed to the album were left off the credits (decades later, their names were included on CD reissues). Complains Mr. Perkins: "They still don't want to admit to me being part of that situation. I've never been invited to one Bob Marley festival."
So there it is. Bob Marley's sound and image were created by an English record executive. Who knew?
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