Legendary reggae bassist Aston “Family Man” Barrett, a founding member of the Wailers who also performed with Peter Tosh, Lee “Scratch” Perry, and Burning Spear, died last week at age 77. The man certainly lived up to his nickname, siring no less than 41 children, although it’s a shame he had to spend the past four decades without a beloved former member of his extended musical family.
Robert Nesta Marley, the world’s most famous Rastafarian, would’ve turned 79 today if he hadn’t succumbed to a form of treatable cancer in 1981. While it’s hard not to like a religion that considers weed to be a sacrament that exalts the consciousness and a central activity of daily life, let alone one that has never started any wars or knocked uninvited on your front door, it’s still a bummer that adherence to rasta doctrine probably helped kill the guy at such an early age.
Bob Marley is one of the most influential and recognizable musicians in history. His posthumous album Legend went 14 times platinum, and anyone still reading this post can no doubt name at least a handful of his songs. Probably many more. Chances are you might’ve even had one of his posters on your wall back in college or at least had a friend or two who did.
The man might still be alive today had he not died from an absurdly rare type of skin cancer that began in one of his toes. The disease might’ve been stopped by amputation when it was first detected four years earlier, but Marley decided against the potentially life-saving treatment for religious reasons.
“Rasta no abide amputation,” he reportedly told London doctors recommending the surgery in 1977. “De living God, His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, Ras Tafari, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah… will heal me wit’ de meditation of me ganja chalice.”
Instead, he went to see an orthopedic surgeon in Miami who performed a skin graft and told him the treatment had been successful. It wasn’t.
His widow Rita later claimed in her autobiography his reluctance to chop an appendage off had less to do with religious misgivings than his image as he didn’t want to appear as less than a true believer to his legion of fans. Despite the fact “break a leg” is considered good luck in show biz.
Rastafarianism first began back in the 1930s from the notion the newly crowned emperor of Ethiopia – Haile Selassie I – was actually God incarnate. Which is really no sillier than, say, believing an omnipotent invisible space wizard created the world in seven days and is super-interested in your personal sex life. The Jamaican-born religion endures today despite evidence Selassie amassed a huge personal fortune he deposited in foreign banks while regular Ethiopians suffered tremendous economic hardships. Which is arguably far from irie. Not to mention “the mighty god is a living man” having died in mysterious circumstances after a military coup in 1975.
Other major religions are guilty of far greater crimes than depriving the world of a few decades of output from a musical genius, but the life-or-death decisions Marley made due to his spiritual beliefs are perhaps worth keeping in mind the next time you hear Redemption Song and the line “emancipate yourself from mental slavery.”
He might’ve even given Family Man a run for his money having departed this earth at 36 with only 11 kids under his belt. Apparently Rastas and Catholics share the same vision when it comes to contraception.
Here’s the two legends performing together in 1975 to lively up yourself if you need it: