No one helped to popularize reggae music around the world more than Bob Marley. Many of his songs became anthems and the Bob Marley legend was born. He managed to cross over to a record buying public that previously had not considered buying reggae. He was adored  in his birthplace of Jamaica and around the world. Bob had grown up in the slum area of Trenchtown, in Kingston, forever immortalized in his music. The Jamaican people truly felt he was one of them, how ever far he traveled. His devotion to his Rastafarian religion was a constant in his life. He was a walking advertisement for it, with his dreadlocks, a spliff hanging from his lips and his lyrics about Jah.

For each of us of the sixties, seventies, and/or eighties, the Bob Marley legend takes on different and specific meaning, rife with peaceful love, spiritual reclamation, and even, at the end, melancholia (at losing Marley to cancer). For some of us, Marley was about supreme reggae— invigorating music and profound lyrics; for others, he was accompaniment to our studies, our search for self, or our spiritual seeking; for still others, Marley was about pure love. The Bob Marley legend began with him, because of him, and continues with those of us who remember him.

More of this article at:  Bob Harley Legend