Entertainment
Reggae Great, Bunny Wailer Dies At 73
Reggae legend, Neville O’Reilly Livingston, popularly known as Bunny Wailer who co-founded the wailers with Bob Marley in the 1960s died Tuesday, in Kingston Jamaica at the age of 73, the Jamaica Government said.
No cause of death was given but the culture ministry said he has been hospitalized since December. Wailer was the last surviving original member of the wailers after Marley died of cancer in 1981 and Peter Tosh was murdered in 1987.
Formed in 1963 when its members were still teenagers, the wailers were among the biggest stars of Ska, the upbeat Jamaican style that borrowed from American R&B.
On early hits like ‘Simmer Down’, and ‘Rude Boy’, the three young men who in those days wore suits and had short cropped hair, sang in smooth harmony threa-ding some social commen-tary in with their onomatopic “doo-be-doo-bas.”
“The wailers were Jamai-ca’s Beatles”, Randall Grass of Shanachie Records, an American label that worked extensively with Bunny Wailers in the 1980 and 90s said in a phone interview.
Bunny won the Grammy Award for best reggae album three times, two of those albums were tributes to Bob Marley. He was given Jamaica’s Order Of Merit in 2017. According to Peter Phillips, a minister in Jamaica’s parliament, his death brings to a close the most vibrant Jamaica’s musical experience and called him a good, conscious Jamaican brethren.
He is survived by 13 children, 10 sisters, 3 brothers and grand children.