There was invariably a Jamaican posse in each of the cities that Bob played, to give him a back-home vibe, but in Harare there was only one Jamaican, Joe Steblecki, who was living there. Horace Campbell, who wrote Rasta and Resistance, was there. And me. That was the whole “team.” They took some of the Wailers to another house that was vacant in the same neighborhood. The I Three and Bob, Tommy, Denise and Neville and a few others stayed at Job’s. The I Three only stayed two days. They had promised to be at a Twelve Tribes performance back in Jamaica, so they stayed for independence and left.
ERROL BROWN: It was the first time I mixed Bob live. That experience was great. You know, all of that equipment is Bob Marley carried them. He paid everything, shipping, everything. When we arrived to the stadium there was no stage. Bob freak out, after he went through all of these things—everything is Bob Marley, his contribution—lights, sound, plane tickets. Next thing we know, stage come and everything start late but we get through. Finally they built the stage and we did it.
DERA TOMPKINS: On Independence Day, from six o’clock that night up until about eleven, on the field there were performances by mostly local African traditional dancers and drummers, Indian religious groups and Christian choirs. Then, in a flash, Marley took stage at the far end of the field, declaring, “Greetings brothers and sisters of Zimbabwe. Bob Marley and the Wailers give thanks for the invitation to your independence celebration. One Love. Rastafari. Yeah, Rastafari live! Viva Zimbabwe! Viva Zimbabwe! Viva Zimbabwe!”
As he broke into “Positive Vibration,” the crowd began to sway to the groove, swaying joyfully into “Them Belly Full” and “Roots Rock Reggae.” Suddenly, halfway through “I Shot The Sheriff,” the stench of tear gas filled the air. I had come down front to take pictures of Bob’s performance. I was on the field when the tear gas hit. I was crying because I thought it was all over. I thought there was going to be a riot. Here we’re coming to celebrate independence, and now it seemed that the whole event would be spoiled. I remember I ran all the way to the back, and that’s where I grabbed the cloth banner that said “Welcome to Zimbabwe” from the rear wall of the stadium. My eyes were burning badly and I needed something to protect my face from the tear gas.
ERROL BROWN: I can remember after the concert started, I felt something burning my eye and when I saw everyone leaving the stage I say, “Something wrong.” And then the engineer that came with the sound system, the P.A., told me that’s tear gas. Freedom fighters threw tear gas over the gate because they didn’t want to give them entrance to the stadium. That was so horrible; the men fought for their independence and you don’t want to let them into the park to celebrate? They should be the first in the park! I don’t blame them. The tear gas was fired by the freedom fighters themselves. After it cooled off, everybody came back and finished the concert and do all the songs they were supposed to.
DERA TOMPKINS: Soon everything calmed down. People calmed, the air cleared, and finally activity resumed on stage. But somebody took Judy, Marcia and Rita back to the house, along with Stevie and Ziggy. What it was, was some people who were just anxious to get inside the stadium. The crowd got more excited when they heard Bob Marley playing and they pushed their way in through the barricades, so the police shot tear gas and it floated into the stadium. It was not a riot at all! No one got hurt, maybe just small bruises. Nothing really happened.
Bob resumed with “War,” the audience pressed forward for the sixth and final song, the one they had raised their battle standards to, the anthem “Zimbabwe.” Before walking offstage, Bob saluted the crowd: “A Luta Continua! Viva Zimbabwe! Pamberi Zimbabwe!”
ROGER STEFFENS: Standing together on the stage, Dera and the Wailers’ entourage and dozens of others watched as a decidedly discomfited Prince Charles saluted while the despised colonial symbol of the British flag was lowered in Africa for the final time. An orgasmic cheer split the air as the wind whipped the Zimbabwe flag hoisted in its place.
DERA TOMPKINS: We all cried and cheered, and Bob saw me cry again, and he remembered that. I mean, people screamed, yelled, shouted, just vocalized for thirty minutes straight. Ahhhhh, all the suffering of ninety years of white minority rule were drowned by the cheers of the people. You know, people just shouted it out. That was like Glory Day. That was one of those hallelujah times, like Bunny Wailer said, “Hallelujah time, when the people will be singing.” It was like, we won, we won, Zimbabwe is ours again! It was much, much more than any football game. And we just couldn’t believe it. And the cannons are right near us, so we felt them, twenty-one! And that was it. And that was the highest moment, the highest I’ve ever been.
ROGER STEFFENS: Other witnesses to the so-called riot on Independence night were sound engineer Dennis Thompson, Junior Marvin and Judy Mowatt.
DENNIS THOMPSON: I was on stage and they fired. I think people wanted to come in and the security guards fired the tear gas, and the wind shifted and blow the whole tear gas into the stadium. Here comes Prince Charles and all these heads of state and they get flat! I say what’s going on, and then it hit us. So I picked up Steve and run off the stage for about ten to fifteen minutes. It was funny. We thought something happen, but it was just tear gas.
JUNIOR MARVIN: We were tear-gassed on the first night. The flag had just gone up, the Prince of Wales had just taken down the British flag, the airplanes had just flown over, and we thought we were in space, because they were so close and the sound was like you were on another planet. Five minutes after the flag came down, the Wailers started off with “Natural Mystic.” Apparently there were freedom fighters outside. There were thousands of people outside. Hundreds of thousands. There were more people outside than there were inside. And, of course, all of the gates were locked. The freedom fighters wanted to come in, and they were refused entry. So they said, “Well, listen, Bob Marley is here, and ‘Zimbabwe’ was the song that carried us right through this war. ‘Natty mash it inna Zimbabwe.’ ” And they decided to just blow the gate down. So they blew the gate down; they hand-grenaded the gate down! And when the gate came down, everyone just came in. All the soldiers came in, all the freedom fighters came in. So the authorities saw the people running, and thought there was a big panic and the war was all ready to start all over again. The people who were on guard at the security panicked and started to use tear gas to control the people. And of course, tear gas drifted onto the stage. At the time, Ziggy and Stevie Marley stayed with us. All of us had to hit the deck. And I think it was in the middle of “I Shot The Sheriff”! We hit the deck, and our eyes were running with tears, and it affected Ziggy and Stevie the most, and the I Three. The I Three ran offstage, and the band were all onstage—we never left the stage.
I think Bob was the last person standing. And then he also hit the deck. Eventually the tear gas cleared, and we got some water for Ziggy and Stephen, and everyone wiped their eyes with towels, the freedom fighters came in and everyone cooled out, and everyone started to relax again. The people didn’t panic. For some unknown reason, everyone just cooled out. The freedom fighters were allowed to come in, the gates were left open, the place just got rammed and then we started playing again. We had stopped for about twenty, twenty-five minutes, and when we started again it was like the place went up in a roar. It was like the biggest roar I ever heard. For a long time.
JUDY MOWATT: In Zimbabwe the night of the Independence celebrations it was a very good, it was a irie inspiration for us, but it was kind of frightening too, because while we were there, Prince Charles was there, and all these tankers and soldiers and machine guns that I’d never seen in my life before were there, and then these freedom fighters who made it possible, the independence possible, they were not invited to the celebration. So while we were onstage, we were about doing the third song when we smell something strange. And I look at Marcia and I see like she coughing, and I see Rita coughing, and I look at everybody—is like everybody knock out. So I left the mic, and everybody left the mic and ran from the stage. And I see
little children fell on the ground, and you know I’m a mother and I couldn’t stop to help them because I began to run.
And when we get to find out that it was these freedom fighters heard the music thumping, and they followed the music like they were invoked by the music. And they came barging into the gate, but they were not allowed inside, so they put up a fight to come in, and the soldiers and the police who were there, they tear-gassed the area, and that was what affected us. So we thought it was war! Because, you know, Zimbabwe is a war zone, so everybody run. So we wanted to get out of the place and is a brother from Zimbabwe now was taking us to the place where we’re staying. And everywhere we go, we were blocked by soldiers with machine guns so he himself say, “We going dead now.” And everybody is running for their own life, because even Bob himself, he was the last one to come offstage, because you know when Bob is singing, he is gone in a trance, and when he really came down to earth and really realized what was happening, he had come off. I don’t know if anybody helped him off, because everybody ran and left him onstage. So we run into this trailer now, and lock the door but in there was still stuffy. So we got a ride from this brother trying to find the house where we are supposed to be staying. When we finally got there, we was watching it on television that the crowd had dispersed and everything. And we saw the Union Jack came down, the Zimbabwe flag went up, but we weren’t there to witness it, eye to eye.
Rita now, she went back. She went back in the car, say she going to see what happened to Bob. She say when she reached back, she met Bob, and Bob say, “Mmm-hmm. Now I know who is the true revolutionaries.” Because we’re supposed to be some freedom fighters and we ran! But Bob went back, he did “No Woman No Cry,” Bob did “Zimbabwe” with the band. Because he never got the chance to do those songs, because we just began the show. It was just the I Three broke away and ran out!
DERA TOMPKINS: Following the independence celebration, all the balls began for all the diplomats and invited guests. Job and our other hosts all left Rufaro Stadium to attend the balls. The I Three had taken a vehicle and a driver to return to the house following the tear gas episode. The rest of us were left with a truck and a driver who could not drive a manual transmission vehicle. So everybody who could help had abandoned the Wailers! To make matters worse, we didn’t know where we lived! We didn’t know which street Job lived on and we did not know what section of the city. Nobody knew a thing. And there was nobody to ask. A couple of times we all just stood there and looked at each other. This was unbelievable. Bob Marley had just finished the most important performance of his career and we had no way home.
It was early in the morning and everyone was tired. The truck was there but no driver, and nobody in our group could drive the truck either. So finally we get a driver, but then we still don’t know where we are going. So we literally drove around for hours! ’Cause you figure you’re driving, you’re going to run up on it somewhere, right, some how, eventually, maybe. But we don’t even have a map of the city and we drove around till daylight.
That night, Bob played a second, unplanned show. The equipment was there, the stage was there. I don’t think that anybody knew that the celebration was just going to be diplomats. So he said he wanted to play for the people. Now, it was originally going to be a paid show, but what happened is that we couldn’t figure out how to set that up. We didn’t really know the value of their money, and what was fair to charge. So luckily they abandoned that idea and decided to just do a free concert.
But Zimbabwean audiences were just not used to performances. So Bob did a show, and it was as strong as the night before, because he probably felt more like he’s singing for the people tonight. So it was a powerful show. The first night there were forty thousand people, but not nearly as many the second night. It was unannounced, the lights weren’t as bright, they didn’t use the bleachers. The people were standing on the field. And when he sang “Zimbabwe” it was unbelievable the energy that he felt, and the people too. The crowd just stood and just cheered.
So Bob did his set, and as you know Bob would do a set and go offstage, and at an appropriate moment, with enough applause, he would come back out and do an encore. And he’s been known to do as many as three encores. And I’m sure that Bob had mentally planned to do the show that way, with encores. He probably would have done five encores if people called for more. But what happened was Bob ended his last number, and everybody turned around and filed out of the stadium. Because they didn’t know that if they applauded that he wouId come back to perform more songs. They really just didn’t know. So they left! And everybody in Bob’s entourage was shocked! It’s a culture that didn’t understand the concept of an encore—that’s an acquired habit. They walked out, and we wanted to say, “Come back!’ ” His final number was “Exodus.” “Yeah,” the people said, “exodus?” And they did. It was really kind of funny, and it was kind of innocent. Because anywhere else, people would be begging, hammering and clamoring for more, and they just politely said, “Thank you, Bob Marley. OK, it’s over. Bye.”
Next it was important to secure a supply of herb. I was taken to meet a man who said he was a prince from New Zealand. He really checked for Bob and he gave me a large portion, and said take it back to him. So I took it to Bob and Bob was most grateful. By this time they had moved the whole family to a hotel, the St. James in downtown Harare, nice hotel.
Now, one thing to really comment on that reflects Bob’s whole personality and style—the door to his room was open, all day, and maybe all night. He wanted people to come. It was Bob’s spirit to have his door open. And one of the most important outings was when the ZANU soldiers came to pick him up at the hotel to take him to the bush. I heard that they gave him a uniform. Those were important things to Bob Marley. He wanted to identify with the soldiers and the bush. He wanted to go looking for lions, he wanted to go and see lions. They took him to the zoo!
The day before he was to leave Zimbabwe, he called me to his room and put a hundred dollars in my hand. He told me to go shopping and to get something for myself. It was his way of thanking me for being there. I was so humbled. I was the only one to see them off the next day. A couple of limos were sent, and Bob asked me to ride with him to the airport. He sat by the window on the right-hand side and I sat beside him. It was a revolutionary dream come true. The people were victorious.
JUDY MOWATT: Now when I think of Zimbabwe, I think of Bob’s message to Africans. I remember, even in Zimbabwe, he said to some of the soldiers, “Where you get them weapon there from?” And I think they said Israel. So him say to them, “With all the uranium and all the minerals and things that you have, why don’t you make your own?” I don’t remember who he spoke to, if it was the Minister of Communications or whatever, but he was a little astonished to see this man coming all the way from Jamaica and asking them why they have to be importing weapons from another country when they have materials there that they could do it themselves.
DENNIS THOMPSON: The people in Zimbabwe were familiar with Bob’s music, oh yes. They wish he had stayed there. They wanted him to make it his home. That’s the first thing they said when we came off the plane: “Welcome home, you’re home, don’t leave.” But we had just started doing production for Uprising and we had a lot of commitments. So they say, finish those projects and come back.
CHAPTER 32
Uprising
R
OGER STEFFENS: Bob’s Zimbabwe experience interrupted the work he had been doing since early 1980 for what would be his final album, the melancholy Uprising. It was filled with intimations of mortality, with songs like “Coming In From The Cold,” “Real Situation” (“seems like total destruction the only solution”), “We And Dem” (“we no know how we and dem a go work things out,” which some heard as a reference to the cancer cells coursing through his body), “Zion Train”—headed his way to take him to Zion, and “Work,” in which he counts off his final days. The album’s emotional closer remains one of his best-loved songs,
the acoustic “Redemption Song,” in which he insists that “none a them can stop the time.” A thirty-three-date European tour with stops in several massive stadiums was booked from May 30 to July 13.
ERROL BROWN: After Survival I started to record Rita Marley’s album Who Feels It. I realized now and again Bob would come into the room and listen and said, “How I no hear that sound when I do my stuff?” and smile and walk out back. Shortly after, he went off on the Survival tour. When they came back Junior Marvin said, “Errol, Bob and us had a talk and decided we want you to do the next album,” saying they paid Alex Sadkin all this whole heap of money when they could give that to me as one of them, as one of us. So I did the next album, Uprising.
You see, on the Uprising album every single vocal is live. He tried to redo the vocals, but they all would be different, so much thoughts and ideas in his brain, it’s unbelievable. So I used all the vocals tracks he did when recording with the band; the band vibes off that vocal, so in reality it’s the best vocals. So all of those vocals was with the band. We never redo. Listen to “Zion Train” when he said, “To the bridge.” It’s Bob telling the band to go to the bridge. You know something, it was Chris Blackwell was the one who told Bob the live vocals are the best thing to use.
“Redemption Song”? Bob was burning out trying to get it right with the band, playing over and over, and Chris Blackwell just walk in the studio and listen to the band play it. And he said, “Bob, you see this song, I just see this song with you and your acoustic guitar.” And Bob say, “Yeah?” and laugh. Said, “All right guys, I’m going to try it with acoustic.” And it’s a classic. Although people always cussing out Chris Blackwell, Chris Blackwell did his part too. I was there mixing, he’s there in that seat beside me. He will be there touching buttons, mixing, night and day. Chris did his part where the reggae music is concerned.
So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley Page 37