In June 1977, at the height of his career, Bob Marley played a gig destined to become a music legend. One clip from this show went viral over lockdown — a super-chill rendition of his ’74 track, “No Woman, No Cry” — amassing over 66.2 million YouTube views to date and sparking incredible levels of nostalgia, even for fans born after his death.
The Music Man has covered tons of extravagant, top-tier performances, but Bob Marley’s gigs tapped into a whole new grade of authenticity. Tranquil, stripped-back yet emotionally charged, Bob (aged 32 at the time) lets his songs do the talking as if he knows they’re going to outlast generations. Traditionally dressed backing singers add sweet flourishes, while Bob grooves and flips his matted locks to his band’s seabreeze rhythms.
This clip is taken from Bob Marley’s 13-song set at The Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park, London, on 4th June 1977. This was the final, home stop gig of the Exodus tour, supporting Bob’s biggest album to date, “Exodus,” — recorded in London after an assassination attempt in Jamaica spurred Bob’s ‘exodus’ from his Caribbean home country.
Bob had actually been booked in for two more consecutive shows at The Rainbow after this, leading up to June 6th, but they were canceled after a football injury, alongside the entirety of the US leg of the Exodus tour. Bob had only played 14 shows across Europe, and it was all over.
For the 45th anniversary of Exodus’ album and tour in 2022, the official audio for Bob’s Rainbow shows, collected across his four London shows, was finally released for the world to lap up. The filmed, full-length gig can be found streaming unofficially on YouTube; check out the vid above!
In more recent Bob Marley news, the reggae legend’s critically acclaimed biopic, “Bob Marley: One Love” hit theaters early in 2024, skipping over his youth in Nine Mile and Trenchtown, Kingston, Jamaica, sinking straight into his Exodus era.
Bob’s career was streaked with countless highlights, and lowlights, leaving a defiant legacy of love, unity, and the world-changing influence of his musical pioneership. Despite his untimely death from cancer at only 36 years of age, Bob’s eleven children succeed him; some musicians themselves, including reggae album of the year Grammy winner, Julian Marley, and Ziggy Marley, Bob’s eldest and an eight-time Grammy Award recipient.
Perhaps Bob’s eulogy, delivered by the Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga at his funeral in 1981, sums up his legacy the best: “His voice was an omnipresent cry in our electronic world. His sharp features, majestic looks, and prancing style, a vivid etching on the landscape of our minds. Bob Marley was never seen. He was an experience which left an indelible imprint with each encounter. Such a man cannot be erased from the mind. He is part of the collective consciousness of the nation.”
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