Rita Marley’s cousin Vision Walker sang with the Wailers during Bob Marley’s absence from Jamaica in 1966, and is a co-founder of the Soulettes, Rita Marley’s trio. Aspen, Colorado, September 1994.
We met the Wailers through a friend named Andy who used to hear me and Rita sing. One day he decided to take us to Coxson, he knew Coxson, Coxson liked the group. He said, “We could have a little something in there.” And that’s how we met the Wailers, because they were signed to Coxson too at the time. We used to see them pass our yard in Trench Town going to Coxson. But we hardly knew them. But it was always an event to watch them, because it was like a gang going up the road! Like pied pipers, because they would walk and Peter would have his guitar in his hand, and kids and people start to follow them, because of the vibes the men moved with. We used to go through Kingston from east to west, me and Bunny, and sing for people. Not for money but for the grounation, because it was a Rastafari [thing], that unity we had, and we touched everybody with it. I can’t really remember making any money, because it never really came into my hand, it came through Rita and then to me and there was nothing left.
ROGER STEFFENS: The “grounation” that Vision refers to means an expression of Rastfarian beliefs. However, Rita’s oft-repeated account of their first meeting is challenged by Beverley Kelso, who was there throughout the initial encounters between the Wailers and Rita.
BEVERLEY KELSO: Rita tell a lot of story because she said that she meet us through she see a lot of people used to run behind us saying the Wailers, the Wailers, the Wailers. And that’s how she meet us. It’s a lie. We weren’t being followed through the streets. Because nobody didn’t, there was so many different singers in Trench Town, nobody didn’t bow to none of us. Nobody didn’t follow us around and calling the Wailers, the Wailers. We were just normal people. We were just walking, going to the studio like normal people.
During that time, going back and forth to the studio, that’s when we used to pass by Rita’s house. And during that time, Rita used to stand by her gate with her baby in her hand and she used to wave to us and Bob. Bob, Peter and Bunny they would bust out laughing when they see Rita wave to us and you’d hear Bob say, “What a ugly black girl.” Bob would say, “What a ugly black girl! Who she call to?” And Peter and Bunny would just join up busting a big laugh and you hear one say, “What a monkey.” Yeah, they used to call her a monkey, they used to call her names. And that used to upset me so bad, you know?
When we were going, most of the time when we used to see Rita is in the afternoon. So, she would stay there, standing there with her baby in her hand, like she’s standing waiting to see us, most of the time when we were going, and I used to wave back to her. So until I start to stop, you know, it looks so bad that she wave to us and I start to stop and play with the baby and things like that. And then I would run and catch them up. And when I’d run and catch them they would say, “You want baby? Stop stopping at black girl-—you can’t get no baby as long as you’re coming to the studio. Stop, stop with the black girl, a pickney [child] you want?” And they would carry on. Carry on and carry on until one evening now, I stop and I tell them, and then I didn’t run and catch them up that evening and Rita said to me she want to sing a song. And I said, “What’s the name of the song?” And she said, “Opportunity.” So, I tell her to sing a little part of it for me and she sing a little part of it. And then I run and catch them and I tell them that she want to sing a song. And when I went to Coxson I tell him that I have a friend and she want to sing a song. And he said, “What’s the name of the song?” I said, “I don’t know, but she sing a little part for me.” And I sing a little part for him and he say to me bring her, bring her come next day.
So the morning we was going to the studio, we had a session that morning and I stopped by and tell her and she said that she couldn’t come in the morning, but she would come in the afternoon when Dream and Precious [Marlene Gifford, Rita’s schoolmate] come home from school, because it was three of them, the Soulettes. So, he said, bring them. So she said they go there after they come from school. I asked her if she know where Coxson is and I told her 13 Brentford Road and that evening I was looking out for them. So she come and I take her in to Mr. Dodd. And that was it. Rita, the Soulettes, they did record the song and it was another family joined the group with us now. Rita wasn’t no black girl anymore. Rita was Rita now, you know?
ROGER STEFFENS: Rita and the Soulettes joined the entourage of people involved with the Wailers at Studio One.
BEVERLEY KELSO: Rita joining with us, wasn’t singing with us, but we’d all be in the studio together. Then the next person come and join in with us was Marcia Griffiths. Marcia come and that level off when Marcia started to sing with Bob Andy and Tony Gregory.
ROGER STEFFENS: Coxson Dodd has his own version of the story.
COXSON DODD: The Soulettes came to me separately and after working with them, they were all youths, I said get together, they would work together well. Bob was my main man somehow, so it’s possible I could’ve asked him to help them along the way. Because some of their recordings I hear Bob’s voice in the background also.
ROGER STEFFENS: Rita Marley told a British journalist that after her group, the Soulettes, signed with Coxson Dodd, Bob was “sort of the boss for us then, and he was like a father to me from a protective point of view. Like seeing to it that I wasn’t attacked by any of the males around and keeping the producers away, which was a great help for me, which made me enter into the business in a respectful manner.”
BEVERLEY KELSO: Some people say that Peter and Rita hook up. Well, to be honest about that, Peter and Rita didn’t hook up. No. I know at one point it’s like Peter watching Rita, Bob watching Rita, it’s like the two of them in tug-of-war, which one was gonna get Rita? She wasn’t the black ugly girl no more, so, which one of them was gonna get Rita? This tug-of-war thing. I was watching, I didn’t say anything, but there was a tug-of-war thing going along.
SEGREE WESLEY: Rita’s interest at the early stages, I know, was more a love interest. She wanted to be part of Bob’s life. I mean, that’s what I know. I mean, it’s not that the Wailers were that famous per se at that time. They were doing recordings, they was just another little group, you know? There were times when she’d come down and we guys, like, doing a little singing in the corner or in the kitchen or whatever. She would be there lingering, it’s like, waiting for Bob, you know? She didn’t want to go, you understand, because she had to walk up to maybe from First Street to Seventh Street—that’s seven blocks and then maybe another ten blocks. So she had to wait in the wee hours of the night. And when we’re working he doesn’t let anything come in front of whatever he’s doing, rehearsal. Even when we’re gone, I would go to Boys Town to play, he’d still be there strumming the guitar and you’d come back you’d see him in the same place. You’d swear it was madness. Yes, he was obsessed with it. The group wasn’t there and he would sit there. He wouldn’t wait for the group to do any kind of work.
ROGER STEFFENS: When I interviewed Bunny Wailer in 1990 he insisted many times that Rita’s intention from the very start of their relationship was “to break up the Wailers.” Segree Wesley demurs.
SEGREE WESLEY: To say Rita wanted to break it up, I think maybe Bunny or the rest, maybe it’s difference of opinion. Okay, she may be in love with an individual at the time and that would take away from a group’s rehearsal sessions. So, then it’s gonna automatically affect the other guys and they’d say what is she doing, you know? Why is she waiting? Or whatever.
I know there was no question about [Bob] loving women. He’s a girl’s man, I know that. As a kid, you know, you run around, you play with different girls or whatever. But, when I knew Bob I think his first love was his music and soccer. I mean, we all had our little girlfriends and whatever, but I never see him romp with him and a lot of different girls, because he’ll go anywhere to do a little rehearsal, you know? It’s not like going to a stage show or a contest because he
never appeared in any major contests. It was just straight into the recording studio. And from there he grew.
ROGER STEFFENS: Beverley witnessed a frightening encounter between Peter Tosh and Rita at this time.
BEVERLEY KELSO: With Peter being with Rita, it wasn’t of Rita’s will. How the studio make up, there was a little room on the side. We all would go into that side room and rehearse, relax, do anything in that side room. Well, at this day Peter was in there. I see when Rita went in; as I said, anybody, everybody could go in there. Once we didn’t have any session going on, I feel like I want to sit down. So, I went in. When I was going inside I meet up on something. Rita’s back turned to me, Peter could see me face, face on. So, Peter was forcing his self on her, it was like hold down, take way thing. It’s like something, well, because Peter and Rita wasn’t together. They was friends. It was like hold down like he wanted to have sex or whatever and she was pushing him off, So, when Peter see me now, I come in on them sudden, I just take my time and back out and I come out smiling. Bunny over on the other side was looking at me and see me smiling, I’m taking my time coming out. Bunny come around wanted to go inside and I wouldn’t let him. You know, because I didn’t want him to see what I see. So, I wouldn’t let him. So, I was like backing him up, backing him back up. So Bunny realized something was going on. Until this day [2003] I never tell Peter, I never tell Bunny, I never tell nobody. I’m saying it on the tape now because—because they’re giving Rita a play for that [i.e., she was being accused of coming on to Peter], which is not fair.
You could see that Peter was pushing his self on her. But I think what come out of that, after Bunny didn’t get to go in—it’s like Peter didn’t get to do anything, so Rita came out after that. So I think what happened, Bunny realized what was happening and maybe he said it to Peter during the time we were still there going back and forth singing and all of that. Until, I don’t think they say that Bob hear because if Bob hear about it I don’t think Bob would get close to Rita.
But Bob get Rita during the same time. As I said, Peter was after Rita and Bob was after Rita so Peter probably was showing, trying to see which one of them could get her first by probably forcing his self on her, you know? But as far as I see nothing didn’t come out of it because Bob, she automatically play into Bob and everybody know that the both of them was going together. Because as I said, Bunny said he liked me. But at the same time Bunny liked me, Precious come along with Rita so Bunny was going with Precious and Bob was going with Rita. So in the evening now, I would go home by myself and they would hang out with Rita and Precious because they were boyfriend and girlfriend.
ROGER STEFFENS: During this time, Rita was still in active correspondence with Sharon’s father in England. When Bob caught Vision with a letter from Rita to her baby father, he grabbed it away from him and that ended their relationship. Bob now considered Rita his girl, and acted as a father to Sharon. Meanwhile, the Soulettes began to record, scoring their first hit with a song called “I Love You, Baby,” featuring another precocious young singer, Delroy Wilson, on backing vocals. The Wailers at the same time were trimming down, leaving the women in the group behind. But Bob maintained contact with Beverley and often confided in her about the troubles he was having with Rita.
BEVERLEY KELSO: One thing I know and I would tell the world, Bob have a confidence in me. I don’t know what Bob see in me but when he feel hurt about any little thing, after we grow up and I stopped going to the studio he would come to me. I didn’t know that he wasn’t talking to Peter, he wasn’t talking to Bunny, he wasn’t telling them anything. Like when he get in fight with Rita and any little thing wrong go down between him and Rita he would come to me. When Rita get pregnant and he didn’t know what to do, he come to me. I was the one who tell him, when Rita get pregnant, to go to Dodd. So when Bob went to Mr. Dodd with that, he come back to me saying they’re getting married. And the date was gonna be such and such and I am invited. Bunny and Peter didn’t know. That Saturday afternoon Peter come with, “Oh, you couldn’t tell me that Bob and Rita get married? I don’t know why you didn’t tell me anything.” I said, “I didn’t go to the wedding. I was invited but I was sick.” Bob never talk to me about why he didn’t invite them.
SEGREE WESLEY: I didn’t hear about the marriage. When I first heard, these are all rumors, hearsay: “’Cause he was going away Bob asked to marry Rita ’cause she was pregnant” and stuff like that. But Bob never mentioned it. I don’t know if in later years they made something legal where they were married. I figure Bob getting married to little Rita, he would have involved his friends unless they just went and did a quiet thing on the side.
It’s weird, man, ’cause I really can’t see Bob getting married without telling some of us at that point in time. Bunny didn’t hear about it, Peter didn’t hear about it. Beverley was close to Rita and it was probably Rita who told her about the wedding. But I still can’t see Bobby going through a wedding and not where you invite your friends or you tell your friends. People you share a lot with. This is why I’m from that connotation, it must have been true that Coxson Downbeat arranged a wedding. But we didn’t hear about it. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even think he was married. Even at the point in time when we heard, I said I didn’t think he was married. I said it’s just a sham or something.
BUNNY WAILER: Every Wailer had made a pledge not to get married until he could afford to or never, so when Bob got married, he broke a rule of the Wailers. His mother didn’t have knowledge of it neither. Me and Peter were at Tata’s [Vincent “Tata” Ford] smoking some herb, rehearsing. A man come say, “Bob gettin’ married up a church. Me say the little black girl, Rita.” Make me know Bob trimmed and look different like a man coming out of the army. Everybody marvel, everybody a wonder what is. Me never see Bob until about three day later he come with this apology. Say him sorry, no feel no way, but there are certain things that man haffe do that he can’t even tell his friends—and we just accept that.
We wouldn’t have agreed with Bob and we show him reasons why him couldn’t do that. That embarrass the whole of us. ’Cause Bob married in his stage suit, not a suit what him could afford. But he was tricked into a goddamn situation. How that marriage made was not clean.
ROGER STEFFENS: In 1962 Bob’s mother, Cedella Marley, moved to Wilmington, Delaware, to marry a man named Edward Booker. For the next few years she tried to arrange paperwork for Bob to join her there. It finally came through in February 1966. Rita says that he was afraid if he didn’t marry her she’d find another boyfriend. Others claim Coxson told Bob if he decided to stay in the States, he wouldn’t be able to bring Rita there unless they were married. An alleged “farewell show” was arranged before Bob emigrated, the date of which is the cause of much confusion.
RITA MARLEY: It wasn’t a send-off. It was really a concert they had the Wailers on at the Stadium. It was the same day we got married on February 11, and he left on the 12th. I know that! [Although in her book she maintains they were married on February 10 and Bob left two days after that.]
BEVERLEY KELSO: But he didn’t leave Jamaica the day after the wedding. He was in Jamaica for a long while. He did a show. But he didn’t leave the day after, because Rita was pregnant.
BUNNY WAILER: Bob’s last show before he left for Delaware was the Battle of the Giants show. It was the first time a show was held at the National Stadium. There was an echo in the stadium that night, that when you sang on the mic it fed back. So it confuse most of the artists that went on stage, you could hear it. Well, we started to study, rehearsing it off mic. So we come on stage and we stood about two yards from the mic and the band rolled off and we started singing and it was pure beauty. There was a reverb on the voice because of that echo. We start with “One Love,” “Love And Affection,” “Simmer Down,” “Put It On.” Then we did a couple of slow songs, “It Hurts To Be Alone,” “I’m Still Waiting.” We had a little plan for “I’m Still Waiting” where when Bob said, “My feet,” his feet
just fell from under him and we caught him before him hit the ground and just bring him back on mic. Me say half of the stadium come down—all police barriers move. Then we go right into “Rude Boy,” and the police disappear. Police have to take off them hat and duck, because is pure bottle to all who have a police hat. And the barrier mash up, so everybody was now down near the stage and on the stage, all the roughneck and the ragamuffin and the rude boy—like a storm. There was no riot, no fight. But police get a beatin’ still when we sang “Jailhouse keep empty, rude boy get plenty, baton stick get shorter, rude boy get taller.” Police have to take off him hat and don’t be police at that moment.
Rita Marley with editor/publisher CC Smith at the office of The Beat magazine in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, November 1996.
Is somewhere ’bout in December ’65 Bob leave here, early or middle part Bob left.
CHAPTER 6
Rasta Shook Them Up
R
OGER STEFFENS: During Marley’s absence in 1966, Jamaica was abuzz about the imminent visit of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I. The belief in his godhead was a result of Jamaicans interpreting Bible passages that foretold the second coming of Jesus, this time in his regal character of King of Kings, Lord of Lords and Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah. When an Ethiopian nobleman known as Ras Tafari (Amharic for “Head Creator”) was crowned emperor in 1930, he took as his title King of Kings, Lord of Lords and Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah. His new name, Haile Selassie, translated as “Power of the Trinity.”
So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley Page 8