cover image One Love: Life with Bob Marley & the Wailers

One Love: Life with Bob Marley & the Wailers

Lee Jaffe. W. W. Norton & Company, $40 (224pp) ISBN 978-0-393-05143-8

In 1973, artist and filmmaker Jaffe struck up a friendship with Bob Marley after randomly meeting the reggae singer at a New York hotel. The pair was inseparable for the next few years, as Marley rose from simply a hero of the Jamaican ghetto to an international superstar. In this heavily illustrated, coffee-table memoir, Jaffe recounts tales from those transformative years, from copping marijuana with Marley to helping him and his band the Wailers sneak into America through Canada for their first big gig opening for Bruce Springsteen at the then ultra-hip New York club Max s Kansas City. Jaffe s skilled harmonica blowing eventually earned him a slot in the Wailers; he claims to have co-written Marley s classic I Shot the Sheriff, though he never received credit. But in 1976, Jaffe quit after finding his role in the band and his friendship with Marley deteriorating after the arrival of manager Don Taylor. Quips Jaffe: When I got on stage to play, he d [Taylor] always try to stand in front of me. Newcomers will find Jaffe s account too narrow; it lacks in-depth discussions of Rastafarianism, reggae music or the dreadful Jamaican social-political landscape that inspired much of Marley s songwriting. (Timothy White s Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley offers a more comprehensive look.) Longtime fans, however, will welcome this addition which includes 120 beautiful, never-seen photos taken by Jaffe to the Marley catalogue. (Feb.)