Bob Marley & The Wailers ADD

John Masouri - The Marley Files

BOOK [Jook Joint Press]

Release date: 05/25/2020

BY JOHN MASOURI

The books in John Masouri's Reggae Chronicles series are anthologies of features and interviews that he's written for magazines in the UK, France and Germany over the years, many of which appear in English for the first time. The Marley Files is second in the series, and the result of over twenty years spent reporting on various Marley and Wailers related events, musical and otherwise. Some of that time was spent working on book projects and touring with various Wailers, gathering the material and insights that have given his writing such depth. As well as the stories behind Bob Marley and the Wailers' hit singles and albums, The Marley Files include interviews with Damian, Stephen and Ziggy Marley, who talk at length about their own music and their father's legacy. There are specially commissioned 40th Anniversary celebrations of Exodus, Kaya and Survival that wring every detail and nuance from their subject and numerous film, exhibition and book reviews, but it is the series of articles examining the fallout since Bob Marley's death, and the actions of an increasingly corporate Marley Estate that are likely to attract most controversy. Readers of the author's previous books and Wailing Blues: The Story Of Bob Marley's Wailers especially, will know what to expect, which is no-holds barred talk, allied to detailed research and uncompromising testimony from key members of the Wailers' circle. In The Marley Files they discuss fraudulent songwriting credits, the controversy surrounding Bob's will and the so-called "Deceivers tapes" but it is the betrayal of those who served Marley's ambitions where and when they mattered most - in the recording studio and live on stage - that stays longest in the memory.