IYL Bob Marley is the unique and utterly compulsive story of the King of Reggae, told not through the life and times of Marley himself, but through the music and magic of the musicians who grew up around, and under the influence of Bob Marley and his band, the Wailers. Outlining some 200 artists, albums, songs, movies, and books, IYL Bob Marley tells how reggae music was torn from the confines of a small-world music cult to become one of the biggest-selling genres popular music has ever known. Recommended performers and performances are analyzed in the depth that each deserves, as the book moves out of reggae's Jamaican heartland to track its influence across the world, from California punk to French pop and beyond. Genre-spanning countdowns of the best-ever Bob Marley covers, the greatest British ska, and even the rudest songs ever written populate the pages, as author Thompson highlights artists as far apart as Eric Clapton and Rancid, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, and Serge Gainsbourg and the Clash. IYL Bob Marley digs deeply, too, into the annals of Jamaica's own star-studded musical history, to train fresh ears on such legends as Black Uhuru, Toots & the Maytals, Sean Paul, and Peter Tosh.

Author Biography

DAVE THOMPSON, the British-born author of over 100 rock and pop culture books, has been listening to reggae since the first burst of Trojan ska hit the UK chart in the late 1960s. In 2003, his encyclopedia Third Ear Guide to Reggae and Caribbean Music (Backbeat Books) won the ARSC award for Best Research in Popular Folk and Ethnic Music. He is also the author of the acclaimed 2-Tone ska/punk history Wheels Out of Gear, and has covered the music for the publications Goldmine, Alternative Press, and the All Music Guide.