They Died 2021

14 THEY DIED 2021 P U B L I S H E D M A R C H 3 , 2 0 2 1 Industry pays tribute to BunnyWailer Yasmine Peru/Senior Gleaner Writer B UNNY WAILER, the original Blackheart Man, who made his transition on March 2, would want to be remembered as a warrior, a man who stood out there to fight for what is right in the music and the development of black people, his long-time friend Junior Lincoln shared with The Gleaner . “Another warrior gone,” Lincoln lamented. “Bunny wasn’t perfect; he could come across as aggressive sometimes, and as a matter of fact, so, too, could Bob [Marley]. But listen to his music, stop paying so much attention to the messenger and listen to the message,” Lincoln, the chairman of the Dennis Brown Foundation, urged. He recalled meeting Bunny Wailer in 1970, af- ter returning to Jamaica from England, where he was running a record and publishing company and releasing all of the Studio One records. “But my family and Bunny’s were very close, and when his father told him this, the relationship became more than just professional,” Lincoln said. He added, “I was not a part of his journey phy- sically, but I was spiritually involved. He was se- cretive about his personal life, but we would talk for hours about his story. Bunny had his own vi- sion, and everything about his career and music focused on independence. And, as they say, what you get criticised about today, is your uniqueness tomorrow. And Bunny Wailer was unique and ta- lented.” A devout Rastafarian, Bunny Wailer was a three-time Grammy awardee and a founding member of reggae group The Wailers with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. Over the years, much has been said, and continues to be said, about the 1973 break-up of one of music’s most iconic ag- gregations. But Lincoln’s take on it is quite simple. “It wasn’t meant to be. They were three extremely talented individuals, and they had to be apart to develop their own identity. The parting of the way is the way it was meant to be. Just look, all three received the highest accolades in the country,” he stated. Herbie Miller, director-curator of the Jamaica Music Museum (JaMM) and the former manager of late Wailer, Peter Tosh, focused on Bunny Wai- lers musical output and described him as a con- summate artiste and a stellar vocalist with a voice that was an outstanding instrument. He said, “His brilliant vocal skills and deeply intricate melodic intelligence, his sense of har- mony, and his feel for rhythm were touchstones in musical accomplishments among reggae sin- gers. From his soulful Rastafari heart to the art of music, Bunny gripped the listener with his logical but emotional warm delivery. Frequently depic- ting the human conditions, his most enduring works confronted issues of race, class, and social inequity.” Like many of the musicians of his time, Bunny Wailer used music to spark change. “As profou- ndly as some other Jamaican musicians – from Don Drummond to Prince Buster to Bob Andy – have done and, including the other two founding members of the Wailers, Marley and Tosh, Bunny brilliantly employed music in pursuit of social, po- litical, and cultural uplift. His wry comments signi- fied and challenged the collective absurdities of particular 20th-century hegemonic philosophical concepts,”Miller told The Gleaner . “His Blackheart Man (1976), Protest (1977), Struggle (1979), and Liberation (1989) are acclai- medmilestones. And while there are no questions about the classics status Blackheart Man enjoys, the latter three are at least quite outstanding. His- tory will record Bunny Wailer as a towering giant among Jamaica’s exceptional musical minds and one of its few real iconic figures,”Miller concluded. Music analyst Clyde McKenzie said although he didn’t have a personal relationship with Nevil- le ‘Bunny Wailer’ Livingston, they would be very cordial whenever they met. “I have always been fascinated with Jah B. I thought he was a rather complex individual. He was the Wailer who pul- led out of that musical aggregation in 1973, and there are differing accounts of what may have inspired Bunny Wailer to make that decision. But the fact is that when you deal with talents of that magnitude in a group, complexities will occur,” McKenzie told The Gleaner . Describing Bunny Wailer as “definitely so- mebody who mattered.” McKenzie cited his Bla- ckheart Man album as one of the classics of mo- dern music. Electric Boogie, a defining single he wrote for Marcia Griffiths, he described as “most notable”. Blackheart Man, Bunny Wailer’s début album, was originally released on September 8, 1976, in Jamaica on his own Solomonic Records label and internationally on Chris Blackwell’s Is- land Records. The songs on the album are said to be regarded as the best written by Bunny Wai- ler. They examine themes such as repatriation in Dreamland, and his arrest for marijuana posses- sion in Fighting Against Conviction, originally titled Battering Down Sentence. Bob Marley and Peter Tosh performed backing vocals, and the Wailers rhythm section of Carlton and Aston Bar- rett played on some of the tracks. “Bunny’s contributions post-Wailer is one for the books, and with his passing, we have lost a great story. There needs to be some chronicling of his stories and perspectives. There are some who contend that Bunny was prickly as a personality; others cite his righteousness and the fact that he did not easily bend. But history will make its own assessment,”McKenzie said. ‘Blackheart Man’ hailed as unique, talented