Official Bunny Wailer Musical Journey

Official Bunny Wailer Musical Journey

As a founding member of the Wailers, and the trio's only surviving member, Bunny Wailer, has become a respected elder statesmen of the Jamaican music scene. His vocal and composing contributions to the Wailers had helped seen to that, while over the years Wailer has endeavored to keep the group's memory alive. But beyond the Wailers' legacy, and his own solo career, the artist has also made a significant mark beyond the music scene. Born Neville O'Riley Livingston on April 10, 1947, in Kingston, Jamaica, the young Livingston actually spent his earliest years in the village of Nine Miles in St. Ann's. It was there that he first met Bob Marley, and the two toddlers became fast friends. The boys both came from one parent families; Livingston was being brought up by his father, Marley by his mother. The two lone parents then had much in common, and together moved their families to Kingston in 1952. Around their corner lived singer Joe Higgs, who rose to stardom in the late '50s, both as a solo artist and as one half of the popular vocal duo Higgs & Wilson in partnership with Delroy Wilson. Only in his early twenties, Higgs was keen to help other young talent around the neighborhood, and gave singing lessons in his tenement yard on Third Street. There the two boys met up with another pair of equally keen youngsters, Peter Tosh and Junior Braithwaite. Initially, Marley intended on a solo career, but his hopes were dashed by a failed audition for producer Leslie Kong. The upshot was the four boys now joined forces, along with backing singers Cherry Green and Beverly Kelso, as the Teenagers. The band's name would change several times before they finally settled on the Wailers.

After a successful audition for Coxsone Dodd, their career took off immediately with their first single, the classic "Simmer Down." Early on, all four of the boys contributed songs to the group, which enabled the Wailers to continue without Marley after he left Jamaica in 1966, to seek work for a time in the U.S. By then, the group had been reduced to a trio with the departure of Braithwaite, Green, and Kelso, but the core unit was so talented, that the temporary loss of one member never threatened their ascendancy. Over time, however, Livingston's songwriting contributions to the group had lessened, although when he did turn his hand to composing, the results were never less than scintillating. Marley, of course, was more than happy to pick up the slack. By 1973, the Wailers were untouchable, the biggest reggae band in Jamaica, and on the verge of an international breakthrough. Which is when it all went to hell. Life on the road is tough at the best of times, but the group were used to traveling the tiny distances between Jamaican (mostly Kingston) clubs. Now they were off on their first headlining tour outside the island. The first leg was a three month jaunt across the U.K., followed by an outing to the U.S. Livingston would never make that second leg, he barely made it through the first. Tensions were rising within the Wailers, a situation exasperated by the tour. Livingston had enough, and upon the group's return to Jamaica, he announced that he would not accompany the band to the U.S. His real reasons remain unknowable, the one ofttimes given, that his religious beliefs did not permit the eating of processed food, and what else could one eat on the road, doesn't hold much water.

Burnin'Certainly the Wailers had somehow managed to obtain appropriate foodstuffs during the group's tour opening for Johnny Nash two years earlier. Whatever his true rationale, Livingston wanted off the road, at least outside the island, he intended to continue touring with the band in Jamaica. How this would have actually worked in the long run remains a moot point, before the year was out, Tosh had come to blows with Marley and quit the band. The Wailers were no more. (They would however make two final live appearances at benefit concerts after their official demise.) Livingston now began pursuing a solo career. He launched his own label, Solomonic, with his debut solo single "Searching for Love," in 1973. The next year saw four more join it, "Trod On," "Lifeline," "Arabs Oil Weapon" (which was actually released credited to the Wailers), and "Pass It On" (an alternate version to the one found on the Wailers' Burnin' album). In 1976, these releases were finally joined by Livingston's first solo album, the phenomenal Blackheart Man. The singer was accompanied by Tosh and the Barrett brothers -- the Wailers' own rhythm section, as well as Marley who joins in on a new version of the Wailers old number "Dreamland." Filled with a clutch of crucial songs, the album spun off two seminal singles, "Battering Down Sentence" and "Rasta Man."

❤️💛💚
#Reggae & #SoundSystem #Culture
For more Quality Vibes Subscribe
to our YouTube Channel.