Highest Praise for Bob Marley
Over the decades, renowned people and publications have said some mighty nice things about Bob Marley. Here are some. If you know of other such high praise, please add it in the comments...
“Bob Marley’s music isn’t political. Bob Marley’s music is universal.” Bob Dylan, Nobel Laureate in Literature
“Bob Marley didn't choose or walk down the middle. He raced to the edges, embracing all extremes, creating a oneness. His oneness. One love.” Bono, Singer-Songwriter for U2, philanthropist
“As we enter the new millennium, his songs will be hymns and anthems that people can use to build a new world.” Carlos Santana, guitar legend
“It’s a stone-cold fact that since leaving this planet, Bob Marley has become one of those mythic cultural figures who take up residence in the collective unconscious and flicker in the twilit mental movies of dreamers everywhere.” Vivien Goldman, author of The Book of Exodus: The Making and Meaning of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Album of the Century
“I have always said I was Bob Marley reincarnated. I feel I have always been a Rastafari. I just didn’t have my third eye open, but it’s wide open right now.” Snoop Lion a/k/a Snoop Dogg
“He was a genius. He’s one of those extraordinary figures who, starting with a folk art, by some inner magic of commitment, sincerity of passion and of just skill turns it into a part of the universal language of the arts of the world.” Michael Manley, former Prime Minister of Jamaica
“Everywhere I go in the world today, Bob Marley is the symbol of freedom.” Jack Healy, former President of Amnesty International
“He was, above all else, a symbol of hope and optimism for millions of fellow humans around the world.” New Musical Express
“...the most influential artist of the second half of the Twentieth Century.” The New York Times
“Best album of the 20th Century: Bob Marley’s Exodus draws inspiration from the Third World and then gives voice to it the world over.” Time Magazine [editor's note: Bob Marley was never on the cover of Time Magazine; we imagined this cover in order to metaphorically connote the degree to which Time lauded him. A publication that would accuse a guy of being best of the century surely would also rank that guy as cover-worthy, no?]
“His life was a vital investment in the spiritual, emotional, and intellectual energy badly needed by a people long engaged in that desperate search for self and purpose.” Jamaica Daily News
“He audaciously used his immense talent to carry the message of the rights of the downtrodden and exploited into the chambers of the rich and the powerful.” Jamaica Council for Human Rights
“Bob Marley’s music will be sung wherever men and women come together to demand justice and freedom.” Spear Magazine