For most of his life, the legendary Bob Marley was actually something of a cult artist. After his death in 1981, though, his popularity only grew and grew. Now, he stands as a bonafide icon. On this episode of In Defense of Ska, Bob Marley expert Roger Steffens joins the podcast to chat about where Marley's legacy stands in 2025. Listen now.
From his hugely popular posthumous album Legend to last year's biopic One Love, every year it seems like the reggae icon gains even more fans. Steffens -- who has penned several books on Marley, including the 2017 definitive oral history So Much Things to Say -- has some thoughts as to why.
The crew discusses One Love and analyzes several other key moments from the past 40 years that have elevated Marley’s place in culture. Steffens also leads the gang down several fascinating side journeys, like Marley’s relationship to U.S. soul artist Johnny Nash.
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Co-host Adam Davis has a band called Omnigone. Their latest record, Against The Rest released on March 31, 2023.
The In Defense of Ska editor Chris Reeves runs a record label called Ska Punk International. They have new releases coming out all the time.
CORRECTIONS: Roger listened to the episode and wanted to make a few corrections: "110,000 people came to Milan in '80, not one hundred ten million - but gee, imagine what a night that would have been - the earth would have tilted. Bob met Johnny Nash in 1968 not 1978, of course. At 82 I just have too damn many dates jangling my brain, trying to keep them straight." -Roger
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