Rebel Music: Bob Marley & Roots Reggae

‘This collection of timeless photographs gives us an up close inside look at this uniquely complex man and brilliant iconic artist who forever changed the world. One love…’ – Lenny Kravitz

Rebel Music is a tribute to one of the greatest legends in world music, Bob Marley. In 1975, Kate Simon first photographed Bob Marley and the Wailers at the Lyceum in London, where the now-legendary live performance of ‘No Woman No Cry’ was recorded. They then collaborated throughout the Seventies, with Simon shooting some of the most intimate, enduring and emblematic images ever taken of Marley, including his iconic Kaya album cover.

Simon captured it all: portraits of the reggae greats of the Seventies, such as Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh; the Exodus Tour, on the road with Bob Marley and The Wailers as they performed across Europe; and the One Love Peace Concert, where Bob famously united Jamaica’s opposing political leaders. Ultimately, in 1981, Simon would ride with the funeral cortege from Kingston to St Ann and Bob Marley’s final resting place.

Rebel Music contains over 400 photographs from Simon’s archives, many published here for the first time. Introduced by Patti Smith, with a foreword by Lenny Kravitz and afterword by Keith Richards, a cast of 24 contributors join Simon in sharing the stories behind the images, including ex-Wailers guitarist Junior Marvin and bass player and band leader Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett; musicians such as Junior Delgado, Steve Jordan, Paul Simonon and Bruce Springsteen; filmmaker Don Letts and producer Danny Sims; and Island Records founder, Chris Blackwell.

Kate Simon is an iconic photographer who has worked with giants such as Andy Warhol, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Bob Marley, and Robert Mapplethorpe, to name just a few. 

Kate has work in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The Bob Marley Museum, and the Andy Warhol Museum. 

Kate has had exhibitions throughout her career beginning in 1981 with New York/New Wave at P.S. 1 all the way through her one-person show in honor of William S. Burroughs’ centennial at ShowStudio in 2014. Her exhibition Chaos and Cosmos at Fort Works Art in 2019 was featured in Rolling Stone Magazine. 

In 2004, Simon published a limited-edition book of her photographs of Bob Marley and Jamaica titled: Rebel Music, with Genesis Publications. ?Now, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of Marley’s first Island Records release, Catch a Fire, Rebel Music is to be published by Genesis in a new bookstore edition. 

Simon’s photography has appeared on countless book jackets, record covers and in publications around the world. She has created numerous timeless photographs that define the subject and their part in modern popular culture.