|
b. Neville O'Riley Livingston, 10 April 1947, Kingston,
Jamaica, West Indies. Bunny Wailer's relationship with Bob
Marley and
Peter Tosh, the two other principal members of the Wailers
in the 60s and early 70s, stretched back to his childhood,
when Marley and Wailer lived under the same roof in
Trenchtown. As teenagers, Peter, Bob and Bunny would spend
their evenings practising harmonies, tutored by Joe Higgs of
Higgs And Wilson fame. In the early 60s, as the nascent
Jamaican recording industry began to gather strength, the
trio formed the Wailers, recruiting other friends such as
Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso and Cherry Smith into the
fold. Possessed of a high tenor, rather in the style of
American soul singers of the Curtis Mayfield school, Bunny's
role in the Wailers was principally that of harmony singer.
However, on occasions his voice was featured as lead on
songs such as "Dancing Shoes", "He Who Feels It Knows It"
and the beautiful "Sunday Morning", recorded in the early
60s for the band's first producer, Coxsone Dodd. Bunny spent
part of 1967 in prison on charges of marijuana possession.
It was this experience that prompted him to write the song
"Battering Down Sentence", which later appeared on his solo
debut, Blackheart Man. The Wailers spent a couple of years
recording for other producers, most notably Leslie Kong and
Lee Perry, as well as issuing their own self-produced
efforts on their Wail 'N' Soul "M" and Tuff Gong labels.
During this period, Bunny contributed lead vocals on "This
Train", "Riding High", "Brain Washing" and "Dreamland'. In
1972 the Wailers signed to Island Records. With founder
Chris Blackwell's understanding of contemporary rock
markets, and the emphasis on albums and live shows, the
Wailers brought the sound of roots reggae to an
international audience with 1973's Catch A Fire and Burnin",
the latter featuring two fine songs from Bunny, "Hallelujah
Time" and "Pass It On". These albums broke the Wailers
outside of Jamaica and its expatriate environs in the USA
and Europe, establishing a new worldwide respect and focus
for reggae music. However, this success had taken its toll
on the group. Peter Tosh resented the way in which Marley
appeared to be promoted as leader of the band, and Bunny
Wailer, for largely unspecified reasons, seemed reluctant to
take part in the endless globetrotting necessary to
consolidate their success in Europe and America. By 1974,
just prior to the release of Natty Dread, both Tosh and
Bunny Wailer left the band to concentrate on their solo
careers.
Bunny Wailer inaugurated his own Solomonic label, upon which
all his recordings have since appeared in Jamaica. His first
solo record, "Searching For Love", had emerged in limited
quantities in the early 70s, concurrently with his
involvement with the Wailers. His other Solomonic releases,
"Life Line", "Bide Up", "Pass It On' (different to the
version on the Burnin" album) and "Arabs Oil Weapon",
credited to the Wailers, came out in 1975. A year later
Island released Blackheart Man to immediate and unanimous
acclaim from the world's music press. With tracks such as
"Rasta Man", "Reincarnated Souls", "Bide Up", "Fig Tree",
"Amagideon" (sic) and the title track, Blackheart Man is
still regarded as his masterpiece. His subsequent albums
continued in much the same vein, with varying degrees of
success, until he adapted to incorporate aspects of the
burgeoning dancehall style, finding success with records
such as "Riding", an adaptation of the Perry-produced
"Riding High" track, "Crucial", "Cool Runnings", "Rock And
Groove" and the rootsy "Rise And Shine". An album of Wailers
cover versions, Bunny Wailer Sings The Wailers, garnered
further critical plaudits, followed by a similar collection
entitled Tribute To The Hon. Robert Nesta Marley, in honour
of the passing of his old partner. However, as the decade
wore on, Wailer, like many of the old-school Rasta artists,
seemed increasingly out of step with the digital sound that
had taken over in 1986, and he has since relied mainly on
the loyalty of existing fans outside of Jamaica. Recent
albums have made little impact upon the reggae scene at a
grassroots level, despite the acclaim heaped upon the lushly
packaged Liberation, seen by many critics as a return to the
roots militancy of previous years.
http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/wailer_bunny/bio.jhtml
|
 |
