Every Little Thing Gonna Be Alright: The Bob Marley Reader

by Hank Bordowitz

A gathering of stellar writings on the life, legend, music, and meaning of Bob Marley, international voice of dissent and freedom

Genres: Music, Biography, History, Nonfiction

336 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 15, 2004

Reviews

[Benjamin Fasching-Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am always kind of embarrassed to admit that I really like Bob Marley. I swear, I listen to Burning Spear, the Abyssinians, and lots of other roots reggae acts more than the Wailers. But the thing is, Bob Marley is HUGE and he deserves it. They should make a movie just about the song "Zimbabwe" and what happened when he went there to play a concert on the birthday of that nation. So, OK, Internet, I read this book.

This is an uneven collection of articles, interviews and short pieces. The larger first part is mainly biographical and includes some interesting writing from people who were near Marley and the Wailers before he became world famous as well as one from Lester Bangs. There are a few pieces that are terrible, though. There were a few times that I got a little ticked off at misinformation, but, what can you expect from music "journalists" in the 1970s... it's hard enough to fact check statements about marginalized peoples now... but I can just picture these hacks not really paying attention as someone with a thick patois explains what Rastafarianism means. Anyway, there is enough good stuff here to make up for it, and some of the really far out stuff is so far out it is good again, like a High Times article explaining how the CIA gave Bob cancer. Yeah. Because they are good at assassinations. Just look at how they did Castro. What? He's still alive? Anyhow, back to the book. Mark Jacobson has a good piece near the beginning of the smaller but better second part which discusses the meaning of the Marley phenomenon and his music as well as his family and other musicians in his circle. Alice Walker has a moving piece in here about discovering Bob Marley's music after he'd already moved on and a journey she made with her daughters to his tomb in Nine Miles.

So not only do I have to admit to being a total hippy, I also have to admit that I liked this book more than a little.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun compilation of articles written about Bob Marley and the Wailers by various people such as Rita Marley, Alice Walker, Lester Bangs, lots of other musical journalists, and some interviews with the lesser known Wailers like Lee Jaffe, Secco Patterson and Earl Lindo. The more I read about this band and its iconic frontman, the more I want to read! This was a nice companion to many of the full-length biographies I've read; definitely worth reading for any Wailers fan, or anybody wanting to know more about the Jamaican cultural, political and social environment which helped develop this amazing band.

[Brian Mallia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good insight into Bob Marley's influence over "politricks" through his musical journey.

[David Cupples · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is lots to like in this compendium put together by noted pop-music-and-culture writer Bordowitz. Essays penned by the likes of Robert Palmer, Alice Walker, the "white Wailer" Lee Jaffe (who takes just a little too easy to identifying the Wailers as "we"), several others that appeared in Village Voice or NYT Mag. There is Alex Constantine's provocative indictment of CIA involvement in Marley's death, far-fetched for sure but at a symbolic level perhaps containing elements of truth beyond mere facts. The most interesting essays for many will be the ones written while Bob was alive, like pop music critic Lester Bang's "Innocents in Babylon," written upon occasion of a Kurtzian journey into the mysteries of "darkest Africa" i.e. Jamaica. One boggles at Bang's admonition of who was his least favorite reggae artist, as if another elitist critic above it all. Se la vie. True Marley fans want to read every scrap written about Bob and listen to every version of every song. There are inaccuracies here but that is part of the mythology of the colossal figure of Marley, whose stature continues to grow over time. Review by the author of Stir It Up: The CIA Targets Jamaica, Bob Marley and the Progressive Manley Government, a novel.