When Lee Jaffe drove Bob Marley to the airport in New York in late September, 1980, the singer’s appearance did not inspire confidence that he had much time to live. “I felt I was never gonna see him again. He was so frail,” said Jaffe. Marley died on May 11, 1981 at age 36 in Miami. Diagnosed with life-threatening cancer seven months earlier, he had been given two weeks to live by doctors in the United States. Forty years later, the New York-born Jaffe remembers the man hailed as the king of reggae as “the quintessential un-racist person.” Jaffe first met Marley in early 1973 when the Jamaican singer/songwriter was in New York buying equipment for his band, The Wailers.
At the time, little was known of reggae outside of Jamaica. Jaffe was hanging out with Jim Capaldi, drummer for the British rock band, Traffic. Marley and The Wailers were recently signed to Island Records, the label which Traffic were also affiliated. Capaldi had a cassette of Catch A Fire, The Wailers first album for Island. “I knew from the first 30 seconds of that album; the first song is Concrete Jungle. It was like, ‘oh my God’. This is so important, so powerful,” Jaffe recalled. He and Marley became close during those two weeks in New York and Marley invited Jaffe to Jamaica, where he not only met fellow Wailers Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston (later Wailer), but soaked up the country’s culture.
Within months, Tosh and Wailer had left the group and Marley went solo for Natty Dread, a critically-acclaimed album on which Jaffe played harmonica. Eventually, Jaffe left the Marley camp. He was largely responsible for getting Tosh signed to Columbia Records which released his Legalize It album in 1976. It was Jaffe who photographed Tosh in marijuana fields for the infamous album jacket. He was with Marley every day for the New York leg of his Uprising Tour in September, 1980. Jaffe saw his physical deterioration and the loss of his famous locks due to chemotherapy. The two maintained weekly phone contact when Marley was in West Germany receiving treatment at the clinic of Dr. Josef Issels. Jaffe heard of his friend’s death through the news.
In 2003, Jaffe and Roger Steffens released One Love: Life With Bob Marley and The Wailers, a book of photographs and text reflecting on his time with Marley and The Wailers in Jamaica. As the world salutes his legacy 40 years after his death, Lee Jaffe remembers the things that made Bob Marley a unique force. “His uplifting social messages…his poetry, performances, his musical production talents. The genius of his lyrics which could be majorly tragic, ironic and humorous at the same time. His life was a gift to the world,” he said.
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