Harry J’s studio, Kingston, Jamaica, winter 1976. Wearing a Spartan Health Club T-shirt and busted sandals, Bob Marley finishes singing a take of a weirdly cheery song called Smile Jamaica. I had been reporting from the island for the British rock press and was popping by to give my farewells – only to be surprised by this ditty that sounded like a tourism commercial. Why so upbeat? Marley took a swig of green juice and, frowning, crisply replied: “People in Jamaica too vex.”
Vex means angry, and the truth of his analysis would soon become all too clear over the coming days. Within a week, a reported four gunmen broke into Marley’s Hope Road home and shot him.
