“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”
— Bob Marley
From Bob Marley's song 'Trenchtown Rock' (1971). The lyric reflects his philosophy that music transcends suffering, rooted in his childhood poverty in Kingston's Trenchtown neighbourhood.
Growing up in Trenchtown, Kingston, in the 1950s, I knew poverty and violence intimately. Music was the only medicine we had. By 1973, when I released 'Burnin'', I had seen friends fall and governments betray their people. But when the rhythm reached you — deep in your chest — all that weight lifted. In July 1977, doctors found cancer in my toe. I refused amputation; music and faith were my cure. Even in pain, I kept playing. That is what music does: it takes you somewhere suffering cannot reach.