Bunny….Neville O’Riley Livingston...was born in 1947 in the small village of Nine Miles, where his father ran the only local grocery store.
As a toddler, he met Bob Marley and they became inseparable.
They started singing and playing music together at Stepney Primary Junior High.
When Bob’s father passed in 1955, his mother Cedella moved in with Bunny’s family and she and Bunny’s father Thaddeus had a daughter together….they became step-brothers.
Together they left the village to find their way in the Trenchtown section of Kingston, soon meeting Peter Tosh and forming The Wailing Wailers...what would become The Wailers.
Said Bunny, “My first guitar was a bamboo staff, the fine wires from an electric cable and a large sardine can.”
Their first hit came in 1963….Simmer Down.
Which called for peace in the Kingston ghetto.
And then with Stir It Up in 1967, they hit international acclaim.
(Here in 1973)
Soon after, Bob got married and moved to America.
Bunny spent a year in a Jamaican jail for marijuana….sorry….herb.
And before 1970, they released 28 singles culminating with their second album, Soul Rebels.
The three deeply took to the Rastafarian religion….so much so that Bunny and Peter didn’t want to leave Jamaica, and did so sparingly.
When Island Records marketed their next album as Bob Marley and the Wailers instead of The Wailers...the band was in turmoil.
But it was the touring lifestyle that clashed with Bunny’s Rasta beliefs….pressured to eat processed foods and playing in unhealthy “freak clubs.”
He wanted to be with family, natural foods, sand and sun.
And he left the band in 1973.
Peter soon followed suit.
Bunny soon released his first solo album, Blackheart Man.
Which included Dreamland.
Album after album.
He won the Grammy award for best reggae album three times...in ‘91 for Time Will Tell, ‘95’s Crucial! and ‘97’s Hall of Fame.
“I’m satisfied with knowing that I’m serving the purpose of getting reggae music to be where it’s at.
I’m proud to be part of that.”
He was given Jamaica’s Order of Merit in 2017.
In May of 2020, his beloved wife of 50 years, Sister Jean Watt..."my queen"... who was suffering from the late stages of dementia, disappeared.
She walked outside their home for a walk, and hasn’t been seen since.
It broke Bunny’s heart.
Two months later, in July, he had a stroke.
He died yesterday….at 73.
His death was broadcast throughout the island by Jamaica’s Culture Minister, Olivia Grange.
Every station.
Flags lowered to half-mast.
He was an institution.
May he be singing songs of love and devotion for the great I and I, as we remember him.
With Sister Jean, as she did in life, ever by his side.
From the bbc.com/...
"The passing of Bunny Wailer, the last of the original Wailers, brings to a close the most vibrant period of Jamaica's musical experience," wrote Jamaica politician Peter Phillips in a Facebook post. "Bunny was a good, conscious Jamaican brethren."
Bob Marley died of cancer in 1981. Peter Tosh and Carlton Barrett were both murdered in 1987, Junior Braithwaite, who was also murdered, in 1999, Cherry Smith in 2008, Earl Lindo in 2017….
...and now Bunny.
The last Wailer.
RIP dear Bunny. You are a generous soul and truly kind spirit.
I still remember the day we met. From then on, you always greeted me kindly and always remembered me. While I was just a fan boy and you a giant….. you always treated me with respect and remembered my name. I was incredibly honored and humbled.
and bless Jah…. sharing a spliff with you backstage is one of the highlight memories of my life.
RIP Bunny. you changed the world. you spoke the truth in your songs and in your life.
you will be missed.
bubbasan
75
