Today is the sixth day of Black History Month. As we go through the month, I’m going to talk about a collection of Black artists. It’ll be fairly comprehensive and eclectic list — although it won’t be a complete list.
So far I’ve talked about:
- Rick James, who was born 76 years ago on February 1
- OutKast‘s Big Boi, who celebrated his 49th birthday on February 1
- Sister Rosetta Tharpe
- John Lee Hooker
- Patti LaBelle
- The Temptations‘ second and longest tenured lead vocalist Dennis Edwards, who was born 81 years ago on February 4
- Tina Turner
- Aretha Franklin
- Bobby Brown, who celebrated his 55th birthday on February 5
The legendary Bob Marley was born 79 years ago today. Can you think of artists, who are more beloved and more influential than Marley? It’d be very difficult. I’d say maybe George Clinton, Aretha Franklin and James Brown — and that would be about it, really.
Of course, Marley is one of reggae’s pioneering artists, responsible for helping to popularize the beloved sound across the world. Is there anyone out there, who doesn’t know at least three Bob Marley songs? Is that possible? But honestly, along with that Marley was often a profound man, with observations about human nature and character that belied his relative youth. He also had a rare gift of writings songs from the perspective of an ardent, urgent revolutionary fighting for the rights of Jamaicans and Black folk across the world, of a swooning Romantic, full of the recognition that life is often very hard — and that all of us, including the revolutionary need an escape into a sweet love song, to dance with a lover, to be madly in love, and to bond with others over how much our favorite singer’s song means everything to us. All of these are true, valid and necessary to be human.
Happy birthday, Bob! Happy birthday wherever you are!
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