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Bob Marley · S2 E5
Judge Not
Bob walks into Leslie Kong's Beverley's Records at sixteen and cuts his first single. Nobody notices. Yet.
A sixteen-year-old walks into a record shop on Orange Street, Kingston, and tells the Chinese-Jamaican man behind the counter that he wants to make a record. The man looks at the skinny kid from Trenchtown and says: sing me something.
"Positive Vibration" (Bob Marley & The Wailers, 1976). Years after that first nervous audition in a Kingston record shop, Bob would open Rastaman Vibration with this declaration of purpose. But in 1962, the positive vibration was just a teenager's blind belief that he had something worth recording.
Beverley's Records
Leslie Kong ran a record shop and ice cream parlor on Orange Street in downtown Kingston, and he'd recently started producing records on the side. He was a Chinese-Jamaican businessman with a good ear and no formal training in music. When Bob walked in and asked for a chance, Kong didn't see a future legend. He saw a kid who could carry a tune, and that was enough to book a session.
Sources
White, Timothy. "Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley." Henry Holt, 2006.
Bradley, Lloyd. "Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King." Penguin, 2001.
TAP TO REVEAL: Who convinced Bob to walk into Beverley's Records?
“I was nervous, man. I never been in a studio before. But when the music start, something take over. I just sing.”
— Bob Marley, paraphrased from interviews compiled in White, Timothy. "Catch a Fire" (Henry Holt, 2006)
Orange Street, Kingston
The commercial strip in downtown Kingston where Beverley's Records stood alongside dozens of other record shops, sound system operators, and music businesses. In the early 1960s, this was the beating heart of Jamaica's music industry.
Positive Vibration, Bob Marley & The Wailers (1976)
"Positive Vibration" opens Rastaman Vibration with a declaration that sounds like a man who's been proving people wrong his entire life. The rhythm is uptempo and celebratory, driven by Family Man's bouncing bass and Carlton Barrett's crisp snare. Listen for how Bob's vocal is multitracked into layers of harmony with himself, a technique he learned from years of singing with Bunny and Peter. The confidence in this recording is the exact opposite of the nervous teenager who walked into Beverley's Records fourteen years earlier. Everything in between is what made the difference.
Sources
Steffens, Roger. "So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley." W.W. Norton, 2017.
The First Single
Israelites, Desmond Dekker & The Aces (1968)
Desmond Dekker told Bob to go to Leslie Kong. Kong gave Bob his first session. Then Kong produced this: "Israelites," the first reggae song to reach #1 in the UK and the top ten in America. Two careers launched from the same record shop on Orange Street. Bob's took longer to ignite, but the fuse was lit on the same counter where Dekker's caught fire.
Israelites, Desmond Dekker & The Aces (1968)
"Get up in the morning slaving for bread, sir." Dekker sings about the daily grind of Jamaican working life with a melody so catchy you almost miss how desperate the lyrics are. The song's patois was so thick that UK radio listeners had no idea what he was saying, but they couldn't stop humming it. Read these lyrics knowing Dekker grew up in the same Kingston streets as Bob, and that Leslie Kong produced both of their debuts. The same poverty, the same producer, and two completely different paths to the world stage.
How was Bob Marley credited on his very first single?
"Judge Not" vanished without a trace, but Bob isn't discouraged. He goes back to the yards, gathers Bunny and Peter, and tells them they need to form a proper group. Next: The Wailing Wailers, Coxsone Dodd's Studio One, and the single that makes Jamaica stand up and pay attention.
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