Bob Marley dies

Press, 13 May 1981, Page 9

Bob Marley dies

NZPA-Reuter Miami The Jamaican reggae star, Bob Marley, died yesterday in Miami after a long battle against cancer. He was 36. In April his wife, Rita, said that he: was suffering from cancer of the brain. She told the “Gleaner” newspaper in Kingston that her husband was then in West Germany receiving treatent from Dr Josef Issels at a clinic in Rottach-Egern, near Munich.

Marley’s hits included “Simmer Down,” “No Woman, No Cry,” “Jammin’ ”, “Bad Card,” “Bend Down Low,” “Stir it Up” and “Guava Jelly.” Marley often spiced his music with references to Jamaica’s Rastafarian cult, to which he belonged. Working with the Wailers, his back-up group, he became one of the stars of reggae, a music that combines rhythm and blues with soul and calypso into a sound unique to Jamaica. He was bom in the Jamai-

can parish of St Ann on February 6, 1945, son of a Jamaican mother and a British Army captain. He became a musician at 17. He was at one time a protege of

Jimmy Cliff; another major figure in the reggae music world. Marley went to Miami two weeks ago td be’ with his mother, who lives there.