There was so much more to Bunny Wailer than being a founding member of the band that bears his name.
It’s easy to forget that he actually left The Wailers back in 1973, before their international breakthrough.

But he went on to enjoy the longest, and most successful career of those original Wailers, right up to his death in March 2021.

His solo career ranged from roots reggae masterpieces like 1976’s Blackheart Man to a slew of Grammy-winning records throughout the ’90s, when his focus turned more toward politics and activism.

Born in Kingston in 1947, Neville O’Riley Livingston and Bob Marley first met when they were toddlers, and they became fast friends.

Both boys came from single-parent families; Livingston raised by his father, Marley by his mother. The boys took singing lessons from Joe Higgs in a tenement yard in Kingston, where they met another pair of equally keen youngsters, Peter Tosh and Junior Braithwaite.

After a failed audition for Leslie Kong by Marley, the four boys joined forces as the group that eventually became The Wailers.

By 1973 they were the biggest reggae band in Jamaica, and on the verge of an international breakthrough but Bunny left the band to launch a solo career.

This is an undoubted highlight, with an outstanding dub version, capturing his radical lyrics and heartfelt vocal style.

As reggae evolved into the digital rhythms of dancehall, and went on to embrace electronica, he continued recording and touring until the 2010s and playing live well into his late sixties.