By: JR Watkis Photos Roy Sweetland
“ Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!It is like the precious ointment upon the head,…as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the most high Jah… Rastafari…commanded his blessings, that I and I shall not die, but live , Jaaahh”.
Bunny Wailer
The words of The Original Wailer, Bunny, Neville O’Riley Livingston, quoting Psalms 133, as he calmed the roaring crowd at his 1986 Madison Square Garden concert.
A three time solo Grammy award winner; 1991, Time Will Tell: A Tribute to Bob Marley, 1995 for Crucial! Roots Classics, 1997 for Hall of Fame: A Tribute to Bob Marley’s 50th Anniversary. He has twenty eight solo albums and eight compilation albums and EPs.
A legacy forever tied to the roots of Bob Marley and the original Wailers, his relationship with Bob Marley predated the forming of the group. Both of their parents Thaddeus Livingston, Bunny’s father and Cedella Booker, Marley’s mother, had an intimate relationship. They were raised in the same home in West Kingston where they met the third member of the Wailers, Peter Tosh.
Livingston said, “..in 1961 there was a recruitment of the Wailers from the community of Trench Town”. He expressed in a 2011 interview that it was a challenge to find the final members for the group because there were many talented candidates from the community.
It was his ability to find harmony with the group why he eventually became a founding member. It was not long after he joined the group of the original Wailers that they set out to record their hit
“Trench Town Rock”.
As a group they spread the music of Rastafarian power and spirituality to become singers who stamped their mark on the reggae music genre forever.
As a solo artist, Wailer adopted the name “Bunny” and became more than just a roots reggae artist. He re recorded songs he did with the Wailers group and experimented with different sounds including disco, and dancehall .
Mutabaruka, in his comments on Bunny’s life said that Bunny Wailer’s music is a testimonial to the victory of the Rastafari movement that suffered much persecution in Jamaica in the 1960s and 1970s.
The title track for Blackheart Man wails of marginalization and struggle for the RastaMan who he describes as The Blackheart Man.
“The Blackheart Man, don’t go near him for even Lions fear him—he lives in the gullies of the city, even in the lonely parts of the country he is the Blackheart man, he lives just like a Gypsy—he has become the wonder of the city”. The song goes on, “I got common sense and learned that everything is created equal under the sun and wisdom is found in the simplest of place in the knick of time/ now I trod the same road of affliction just like the black heart man, getting my share of humiliation just like the Blackheart Man”
The song and Album The Blackheart man is viewed as classics in the reggae community championing the cause of the marginalized in societies all over the world though the lyrics and perspective of the Rastafarian community.
To read more, please purchase a copy of Buzzz Caribbean Lifestyle Magazine Vol 10 #10 in a store near you.
Follow the Buzzz on Instagram and Facebook
Share this post:
By: JR Watkis Photos Roy Sweetland
The words of The Original Wailer, Bunny, Neville O’Riley Livingston, quoting Psalms 133, as he calmed the roaring crowd at his 1986 Madison Square Garden concert.
A three time solo Grammy award winner; 1991, Time Will Tell: A Tribute to Bob Marley, 1995 for Crucial! Roots Classics, 1997 for Hall of Fame: A Tribute to Bob Marley’s 50th Anniversary. He has twenty eight solo albums and eight compilation albums and EPs.
A legacy forever tied to the roots of Bob Marley and the original Wailers, his relationship with Bob Marley predated the forming of the group. Both of their parents Thaddeus Livingston, Bunny’s father and Cedella Booker, Marley’s mother, had an intimate relationship. They were raised in the same home in West Kingston where they met the third member of the Wailers, Peter Tosh.
Livingston said, “..in 1961 there was a recruitment of the Wailers from the community of Trench Town”. He expressed in a 2011 interview that it was a challenge to find the final members for the group because there were many talented candidates from the community.
It was his ability to find harmony with the group why he eventually became a founding member. It was not long after he joined the group of the original Wailers that they set out to record their hit
“Trench Town Rock”.
As a group they spread the music of Rastafarian power and spirituality to become singers who stamped their mark on the reggae music genre forever.
As a solo artist, Wailer adopted the name “Bunny” and became more than just a roots reggae artist. He re recorded songs he did with the Wailers group and experimented with different sounds including disco, and dancehall .
Mutabaruka, in his comments on Bunny’s life said that Bunny Wailer’s music is a testimonial to the victory of the Rastafari movement that suffered much persecution in Jamaica in the 1960s and 1970s.
The title track for Blackheart Man wails of marginalization and struggle for the RastaMan who he describes as The Blackheart Man.
“The Blackheart Man, don’t go near him for even Lions fear him—he lives in the gullies of the city, even in the lonely parts of the country he is the Blackheart man, he lives just like a Gypsy—he has become the wonder of the city”. The song goes on, “I got common sense and learned that everything is created equal under the sun and wisdom is found in the simplest of place in the knick of time/ now I trod the same road of affliction just like the black heart man, getting my share of humiliation just like the Blackheart Man”
The song and Album The Blackheart man is viewed as classics in the reggae community championing the cause of the marginalized in societies all over the world though the lyrics and perspective of the Rastafarian community.
To read more, please purchase a copy of Buzzz Caribbean Lifestyle Magazine Vol 10 #10 in a store near you.
Follow the Buzzz on Instagram and Facebook
Share this post: