Bob Marley & The Wailers ADD
Unseen Bob Marley Photos from the 60s Go Viral
01/05/2022 by Reggaeville
"Here's two previously unseen photos of Bob Marley from 1964-1965, obtained through an access to information request for his "Alien Registration" docs for the United States." (Tomaz Jardim)
What? While some of you might have seen the photos somewhere on social media already, this sensation deserves a second glance - what you are looking at here are some of the earliest official pictures taken of Robert Nesta Marley aka Bob Marley! The crazy thing about it is that the source was (and is) accessible to anyone - the homepage of the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Service (uscis.gov).
According to the documents, the file was created back in 1981 as part of a request under the ‚Freedom of Information Act‘.
It is not clear since when the file has been available online. The metadata says that the .pdf stored there was created in 2019, only in August of last year did the document, including the rare pictures, find its way to a private Bob Marley Facebook group.
Music lover, collector and well known Reggae enthusiast John Dubois (aka Dubwise Garage) shared the photos and selected pages first, after a good friend of his found them on uscis.gov.
The photographs of the 19-year-old Bob were publicly re-posted this week (January 3rd) and have gone viral ever since - historical material right there that has already started to appear in memes. Like this one, created by Dubiterian:
Apart from these clear close-ups, there are more treasures of historical value to be found in the 95 pages - a copy of Marley's birth certificate or a transcript of an interview that took place for the 'Immigration and Naturalization Service' in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in August 1966 (excerpt below):
Q: Did you have any other job just before you left Jamaica?
A: I used to entertain.
Q: In what way?
A: Singing.
Q: Were you a professional singer?
A: No, sir - amateur.
Q: Did you get paid for singing?
A: Yes, Sir.
Q: How long did you do that before you came to the United States?
A: For two years.
This is an amazing discovery that seems to include all of the information the CIS has accumulated about Robert Nesta Marley. Who knows what else 2022 will reveal?! Let's dig...
