So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley

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W. W. Norton & Company, Jul 11, 2017 - Music - 464 pages

“Reggae’s chief eyewitness, dropping testimony on reggae’s chief prophet with truth, blood, and fire.” —Marlon James, Man Booker Prize–winning author

Renowned reggae historian Roger Steffens’s riveting oral history of Bob Marley’s life draws on four decades of intimate interviews with band members, family, lovers, and confidants—many speaking publicly for the first time. Hailed by the New York Times Book Review as a “crucial voice” in the documentation of Marley’s legacy, Steffens spent years traveling with the Wailers and taking iconic photographs. Through eyewitness accounts of vivid scenes—the future star auditioning for Coxson Dodd; the violent confrontation between the Wailers and producer Lee Perry; the attempted assassination (and conspiracy theories that followed); the artist’s tragic death from cancer—So Much Things to Say tells Marley’s story like never before. What emerges is a legendary figure “who feels a bit more human” (The New Yorker).

 

Contents

THE PEOPLE SPEAK BY LINTON KWESI JOHNSON PREFACE
Where Is My Mother?
Trench Town Rocks
The Wailers at Studio
Good Good Rudies
Love and Affection
Rasta Shook Them
Wailers A Go Wail
The CIA and the Assassination Attempt
Smile Youre in Jamaica
Who Shot Bob Marley?
Exodus to London
Blackwell Bob and Business
The Bloody Toe in the Paris Match
The One Love Peace Concert
Babylon by Bus from the U N to Ethiopia

Nine Mile Exile
The JAD Years
Leslie Kong Meets the Tuff Gang
Lee Perry and Jamaican Politricks
Cold Cold Winters in Sweden and London
Islands Kinky Reggae
Burnin Out in London
The End of the Beginning
Natty Dread
Hope Road Runnings
Cindy Breakspeare and the 1975 Tour
Rastaman Vibration and the Fatal Reissue
Ambush in the Night
Charity and Survival
From the Apollo to Gabon
Natty Mash It inna Zimbabwe
Uprising
Madison Square Garden Then Everything Crash
Dr Issels and the Final Days
Marleys Legacy and the Wailers Favorite Songs
EPILOGUE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
LIST OF INTERVIEWEES
INDEX
Copyright

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About the author (2017)

Roger Steffens is the world’s leading reggae historian, and former co-host of the award-winning radio program Reggae Beat. His programs on Marley’s life have been presented at the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress, among other venues. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

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