Bob Marley Biography “Catch A Fire” – A Great Read!
I recently read Bob Marley’s biography “Catch A Fire” by Tim White which was great, I thoroughly enjoyed it!
There are those that consider it to be the best music bio ever written – It has that reputation.
I don’t know if it’s the best but it is certainly one of the best that I’ve read.
It’s an amazing account and an engaging story of how Bob Marley came from such poverty, such disadvantage to become one of the world’s biggest stars and a figure of immense influence.
If you’ve wondered what gives a person the motivation, talent and insight to succeed like Bob Marley then I recommend you read “Catch A Fire” then come to your own conclusion.
For me, I read a story of incredible drive, determination and energy. An infectious enthusiasm with powerful faith and belief, which gave me a feel for Marley’s sense of mission and purpose that I found very impactful.
Have You Ever Wondered What Great Musicians Do To Become Great?
In the 1920’s Andrew Carnegie became the richest man in the world; Napoleon Hill, who was the success guru of the time, interviewed him.
In the course of the interview Hill posed the question “is there a formula for success?” Carnegie answered “I don’t know but here’s what I’ll do. I’ll fund it but you talk to as many successful people as you can reach and find out”
The result was Napoleon Hill’s book “Think & Grow Rich”.
I don’t know if Hill’s book has all the answers and it certainly has its critics but I like the idea of checking out how successful people achieve their success and also what great musicians do to become great. I find it very interesting.
My Instrumental Arrangement of No Woman No Cry
There is a story to why I wanted to record “No Woman No Cry” but in short, I’d played it over the years with various bands. It never failed to make people happy and get people up dancing.
Those bands would often have me play extended solos to keep the vibe going and keep everyone dancing.
I always had fun soloing over that chord progression and the reggae feel so I decided to record an instrumental version which is what we’ve got here.
The bass player on this recording was Dave Pearce who is a multi instrumentalist.
He played trumpet in “The Saints”, the drummer being Clive Young, the brother of John Young who was one of the big guns of the music scene having played with… John Paul Young, Ayres Rock and Marcia Hines, to name a few.
We did it around 2005 so a long time ago now, I have very fond memories of those days.
Tim White makes an observation about Bob Marley at the end of “Catch A Fire” that I’d finally like to share with you.
He wrote “faith in JA got Marley in touch with his conscience and faith in himself set him on a course so unlikely and so edifying that no soul around the man remained unmoved by the dimension and lessons of his self realisation”
Take some time to digest that!
Our good friend Richard Fricker (he’s the dad of Genevieve Fricker who was a presenter on 2JJJ) produced the video clip up for us.
Thanks Richard.
I hope you have as much fun checking the clip of “No Woman No Cry” out as I had recording it.
Steve