Reggae Fans Celebrate 30th Anniversary of Bob Marley's 'Exodus' Album

The Anglican Church in Jamaica announced it was adding his song 'One Love/People Get Ready' into its hymnbook. A spokesman for the church defended the action by saying Marley may have been anti-church, but he was never anti-God.

Bob Marley Ringtone Court Battle

The family of reggae legend singer Bob Marley said on Thursday they will sue Universal Music Group and Verizon Wireless for using the Bob Marley's name, likeness and image without permission.

Miami Rehearsal: 'We and Dem'

Miami Rehearsal: 'We and Dem'

By Doug Miller / BobMarley.com

We're revisiting Bob Marley's fantastic career with exclusive video from the September 1980 rehearsal session at Miami's Criteria Studio. This session catches Bob and the Wailers as they rehearse at Criteria before the second leg of the 'Uprising' tour that began in Boston on September 16, 1980. The band had just come off a huge success in the first part of the tour, which started in late May in Europe. They played for over a million people, with the biggest show occurring in Milan, Italy, where they played to over 100,000.

The North American leg of the tour was designed to finally break Bob and the Wailers to black audiences in America. Bob's music was getting massive amounts of air play on black radio stations with the hit, "Could You Be Loved," and the Wailers were capitalizing on that popularity by playing with the Commodores in New York City. They were also scheduled to go on tour with Stevie Wonder in the middle of November, but that, of course, never happened.

The Wailers were on a break in between tours in support of 'Uprising' and had just purchased a video camera for the first time. Neville Garrick, Bob's art director and lighting man, was in charge of recording the rehearsals. Check back for more clips from this famous session at BobMarley.com.

One of the signature elements of Bob Marley's music was his startling ability to take an otherwise bouncy, enticing reggae rhythm and inject such powerful lyrics that the listener could feel happy, sad, serious and even scared, all within the confines of a three-minute song structure.

He did it throughout his career, and perhaps never more effectively on Uprising. "We and Dem" is the fourth track from that album, and at a tight 3 minutes and 14 seconds, it's not very long. But the slowed-down reggae tempo, minor keys and somewhat dirge-like quality of Bob's voice tells you right away that the song has a dark side.