[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 18 (Tuesday, February 14, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 COMMEMORATION OF BOB MARLEY'S BIRTHDAY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 14, 2006

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to remember once again the timeless 
reggae musician Bob Marley and to enter into the Record an eloquent 
CARIBNEWS commentary by Michael Roberts commemorating what would have 
been the singer's 61st birthday February 6 had he not died in 1981 of 
cancer.
  As Roberts mentions in his editorial, Marley's musical genius 
generated from his hopes of empowerment and political uplifting for his 
Jamaican people. ``Marley was a staunch advocate of conscious lyrics 
and he urged Black people to think positive and do positive things,'' 
Roberts explains. Not only was Marley a lyricist and a leader but he 
was an international ambassador advocating for the solidarity of the 
Caribbean. ``His music and lyrics advocated a kind of Black-centered 
Christianity which would `free our minds'. Thus Marley, although born 
in Jamaica, was a citizen of the Caribbean and Third World,'' Roberts 
writes.
  Mr. Speaker, please join me again in remembering the legacy of Bob 
Marley during Black History Month.

                   [From the CARIBNEWS, Feb. 6, 2006]

    Celebrating the 61th Earth Day Of Reggae Superstar Robert Marley

                        (By Michael D. Roberts)

       Black Ambassador, musical innovator, and gifted with 
     visionary talents, Bob Marley's music today speaks volumes 
     about a man whose every word and sentence was written with 
     the emancipation of his people in mind. And in his own way he 
     identified the problems and offered solutions to them. That 
     is why the music of the supreme Rastaman endures to this day. 
     Indeed, the greatness of Bob Marley is that his popularity 
     and staying quality outlasts all the present crop of reggae 
     artistes.
       This Black History Month Marley would have turned 61 
     years--had he lived. And we can only speculate as to what 
     music he would have concocted in that fertile and creative 
     mind of his as he ``trod down Babylon.'' To my mind the 
     supreme Rastaman still sings getting better with each passing 
     day. In the dancehalls of Brooklyn, the Caribbean basements 
     of Canada, or the open tropical spaces of the Caribbean, Bob 
     Marley's timeless music lives on. His works continue to give 
     new hope to the world's oppressed and solace to the 
     downtrodden as he urges Black people to ``Get up, Stand up, 
     Stand up for your rights.''
       A versatile entertainer, he was singer, songwriter, expert 
     guitarist and above all a pragmatic rastaman. Robert Nesta 
     Marley was born in St. Ann, Jamaica, on February 6, 1945. He 
     died May 11, 1981. Bob Marley, as he is popularly known the 
     world over, was the individual most responsible for taking 
     reggae out of Jamaica and making it international.
       With uncanny vision Marley altered indigenous traditional 
     Jamaican roots music making it more acceptable to the 
     international market and consumer. Curiously, before he would 
     win over his critics, and Jamaica music purists, Marley came 
     under heavy fire, in those early days because it was felt 
     that he was prostituting the roots reggae music.
       Along with his group the Wailers, that he formed in 1964, 
     and which included two other great reggae leaders in their 
     own right--Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston, known worldwide 
     as Bunny Wailer--Bob Marley was the great popularizer of 
     reggae. It was he and the Wailers who infused this ``island 
     music'' with American pop and rock, making it attractive to 
     all music consumers and which gave it its enduring, lasting, 
     ``always fresh'' quality.
       But even when Marley sung so-called lovey-dovey ballads and 
     drew the ire of the ``rude boys'' of Jamaica's slums and 
     garrison communities, his message was inherently and 
     basically political: he preached an end to racial oppression 
     and urged Blacks to be proud of their heritage. So in his own 
     right Marley was a Third World music pioneer who eventually 
     turned into a superstar.
       Marley was a staunch advocate of conscious lyrics and he 
     urged Black people to think positive and do positive things. 
     Nowadays it is fashionable to hear gurus of self-help working 
     their spiel about positive thoughts. You would think that 
     they had listened to the Great Rastaman. Like Malcolm X and 
     Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Bob Marley was acutely aware of the 
     necessity to deal firmly with situations that demanded strong 
     action. That did not mean that he advocated unbridled, 
     confrontational violence but he understood that the poor and 
     oppressed had a duty to resist these things which were part 
     of ``Babylon.''
       It is perhaps this prophetic quality that has made Robert 
     Nesta Marley a Third World legend and reggae's only 
     superstar. So as we celebrate the anniversary of his birth on 
     February 6, we must remember his passing and pay respect to 
     his works. He was, undoubtedly, Jamaica's most outstanding 
     ambassador and one who yearned for all the people of the 
     Caribbean to come together.
       His music and lyrics advocated a kind of Black-centered 
     Christianity which would ``free our minds.'' Thus Marley, 
     although born in Jamaica, was a citizen of the Caribbean and 
     Third World. He transcended the narrow borders of nations 
     moving with his pulsating music to the world community of 
     man.
       But Marley was not merely satisfied to simply fight for 
     deliverance from ``Babylon'' in the Western Hemisphere 
     through his music and powerful lyrics. He preached resistance 
     to all forms of oppression. His songs of protest and of 
     agitation composed after exposure to the inequalities 
     prevalent in Jamaican and Caribbean society have been adopted 
     by people in many countries struggling for, what his talented 
     compatriot, Peter Tosh and fellow Wailer, called ``equal 
     rights and justice.''
       Marley's contribution to Jamaican and world musical culture 
     still stands out as a monumental achievement of human 
     endeavor. It was he more than anyone else who took the 
     indigenous musical art form of a Caribbean island, framed and 
     packaged it to suit international tastes, and then sold it to 
     the world. Today the world still sings ``these songs of 
     freedom,'' as the Dreadlocked One demanded.
       Let us always remember that his music and his works were 
     aimed, in the fashion of another great Jamaican, Marcus 
     Mosiah Garvey, at liberating his race. Marley's tenure on 
     this earth was a potent reminder that Black people are still 
     not yet free. His creative genius accomplished what most 
     international politicians dream of achieving and he did it by 
     being just--Bob Marley, humble and sincere.
       There is something for everybody in the works of Bob 
     Marley. Some folks love him for his upbeat, uptempo music 
     like ``One Love'' Jamaica's national song; others like his 
     spiritual side found in such works as ``Redemption Song'' and 
     ``Three Little Birds.'' And still there are many who cling to 
     the masterful works of protest music in songs like ``Bad 
     Card'' and ``Ambush In The Night.''
       No matter what people remember Bob Marley for, his works 
     ``Idureth for Iver.'' So ``get up, stand up, stand up for 
     your rights,'' and listen to the Supreme Rastaman who trod 
     into Babylon ``inna this generation''--Triumphantly.
       Considered today reggae classics, Marley's music never 
     ceases to refresh and reinvigorate each and every time that 
     it is played. Indeed, it is his music's staying power that 
     keeps alive the image and spirit of Bob Marley as fans from 
     all walks of life, and social standing--from the townships of 
     Soweto in South Africa to the plush, affluent homesteads of 
     Beverly Hills--celebrate his 61st earth day.




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