I’ve been into dub lately (you know, a type of reggae), and if you ever want to think “HOLY CRAP, MY LIFE IS FUCKING AWESOME!!” then just read some bios of reggae stars.

Here are some excerpts (all from allmusic.com)

YABBY YOU:

Yabby You was born Vivian Jackson in a Kingston ghetto. By the time he was 17, Jackson was so malnourished that he had to be hospitalized. He eventually left with severe arthritis and crippled legs. While he could not work, he had musical talent and taking his cues from divine inspiration that he feels comes from the sounds of nature around him, and the help of friends founded a harmony trio, the Prophets, in 1972.

I-ROY:

By the ’90s, the DJ was afflicted with a variety of health problems and his financial situation was so precarious that for stretches of time he found himself homeless. By the end of his life, I-Roy had become financially reliant on his mentally retarded son. A second son was in prison and was killed there in October 1999. This terrible tragedy was perhaps the final blow for the weakened legend, and on November 27, 1999, the DJ died in a Spanish Town hospital from heart problems.

PRINCE FAR-I:

On September 15, 1983, Prince Far I’s proselytizing came to an abrupt end when he was killed during a robbery at his home.

PETER TOSH:
Let me paraphrase: he gave a speech at a concert criticizing the Jamaican government, and when he returned to Jamaica, he was arrested for drug possession and beaten so badly by the police that he needed 30 stitches in his head and his skull was cracked. A few years later:

Staying at Tosh’s home during this time was an old friend of the Wailers, Dennis Lobban. However, he left in a fury after an argument with Tosh’s girlfriend, Marlene Brown, returning a few days later on September 11, with a gang of friends. Lobban later claimed he had merely intended to threaten the artist, and perhaps rob him, but panicked. The end result was that Tosh and all six of his friends who were hanging out in the room were shot in the head.

BOB MARLEY:

Robert Nesta Marley was born February 6, 1945, in rural St. Ann’s Parish, Jamaica; the son of a middle-aged white father and teenaged black mother, he left home at 14 to pursue a music career … As great as Marley’s fame had grown outside of Jamaica, at home he was viewed as a figure of almost mystical proportions, a poet and prophet whose every word had the nation’s collective ear. His power was perceived as a threat in some quarters, and on December 3, 1976, he was wounded in an assassination attempt… While jogging in New York’s Central Park he collapsed, and it was discovered he suffered from cancer that had spread to his brain, lungs, and liver… he died May 11, 1981, at age 36.

KING TUBBY:

on February 6, 1989, his career came to a sudden end when he was shot and killed outside his home in Waterhouse. His murder remains unsolved, his death believed to have been the result of a street robbery.

DESMOND DEKKER was orphaned in his early teens and out on the street then. He lived to be 64. He was lucky!

Basically, I’m really glad I wasn’t born in Jamaica, especially in the 40s-50s.