Reggae artists are often stereotyped as a bunch of dirty, mop-headed Rastas, smoking on herb while they waste their lives away in the slums of Jamaica.
But let Bob Marley-historian Roger Steffens tell it, and reggae becomes a legitimate form of music. He said the artists who make it are educators and are worthy of the greatest respect for their artistic achievements.
Steffens has been archiving the greatest moments of Bob Marley's life and career for the past 31 years. He has given lectures all around the world, and his next stop is at 8:30 p.m. tonight on the Kendall Lawn at Chico State.
Steffens said reggae music crawled into his bloodstream after he read a 1973 Rolling Stone article and went out and bought the album "Catch a Fire" by Bob Marley. Today a reggae explosion fills six rooms of his two-story house in the hills of Los Angeles' Echo Park neighborhood.
His collection includes 10,000 records; 9,000 tapes; 9,000 singles; and thousands of T-shirts, clippings, badges, posters and assorted memorabilia. He recently sold his collection to Jamaica, and it's going to be called the National Museum of Jamaican Music.
"It was important for them to be the recipients of it, because for the past 40 years they have done nothing to preserve their own culture," Steffens said. "The people who are responsible for preserving their culture have turned their noses up at reggae music."
He first encountered Bob Marley back in 1978 when he met him backstage at one of his concerts. The band was seated around four huge cafeteria tables and spaced an arm length apart from one another. Each one of them had an anthill of marijuana in front of them and nobody looked up from the table or spoke a word.
"Bob really wasn't in the mood for talking because he was getting prepared for the show," Steffens said.
If there are two expressions Steffens said he could use to describe Bob Marley, it would be "discipline," and "serious task master."
"He was always the first person on the bus each day as he went to the gigs," Steffens said. "He would do a three-hour sound check by himself to make sure everything was perfect for the band."
Steffens was nicknamed Rojah by Marley when they "were on the road together in '79 during the West Coast part of the 'Survival' tour." He said every morning Marley would play football and soccer. His physical strength gave him the stamina to do a 23-song set every night on the road.
He said Marley was very physical and used the world as his inspiration. He was both a spiritual and political preacher for human rights.
"Anything someone could say casually in his presence could be turned into a song," Steffens said. "He was brilliant at it and he was writing songs every day of his life."
He said Marley knew he wanted to be a singer since he was 7 years old, singing gospel music in the church.
Joe Higgs, who was crowned father of reggae, was Marley's mentor and took him under his wing for three years and gave him what Steffens described as a "million-dollar education." Higgs taught Marley mic-technique, composing, stagecraft and harmonizing in every genre of music.
Since Marley's solo debut in 1962 he's been leading the reggae charge around the world, and every reggae artist in Jamaica has tried to emulate him.
But today, Steffens said, reggae music is in a tremendous stage of crisis with the rise in popularity of dancehall music. Dancehall is almost the opposite of everything the roots of reggae stands for.
Popular international reggae artists such as Elephant Man and Beenie Man have been inciting anti-gay violence with their lyrics. Using homophobic phrases such as "killing the batty (bottom) man" and "killing the chi chi (gay) man," have gotten some of their major shows cancelled.
"Some reggae and dancehall lyrics are filled with so much hate," Steffens said. "Bob Marley's idea was that your whole life and everything in it should be positive and constructive and that you shouldn't say anything negative about anyone or anything."
International gay activist groups have been protesting anti-gay reggae artists who are scheduled to do big shows in their cities. Reggae is one of the only foreign-currency exports Jamaica has.
"If their major artists are no longer allowed to perform overseas, Jamaica is going to lose a lot of money," Steffens said. "To be openly gay in Jamaica is a forbidden taboo. Even some of the major reggae artists are afraid to come out of the closet."
Steffens, founder of the reggae magazine The Beat, has been on the Reggae Grammy Committee since its inception in 1985. He is an advocate for Jamaican culture and says its musical roots needs to be kept alive and preserved for generations to come.
Like Marley once did and still does through his music, Steffens is sharing the love and peace, which will forever live on.
