Reggae Legend Bunny Wailer died March 2, 2021

Bunny Wailer (April 10, 1947 – March 2, 2021) was born Neville O’Riley Livingston and was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and percussionist. He was an original member of reggae group The Wailers along with the legendary Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. A three-time Grammy Award winner, he is considered one of the longtime standard-bearers of reggae music.

Bunny Wailer was born in Kingston, Jamaica and spent his earliest years in the village of Nine Mile in Saint Ann Parish where he first met Bob Marley, and the two young boys befriended each other quickly. The boys both came from single-parent families with Bunny brought up by his father and Marley by his mother. Later, Wailer’s father Thaddeus “Thaddy Shut” Livingston lived with Marley’s mother Cedella Booker in Trenchtown and had a daughter with her named Pearl Livingston.

When Bunny Wailer first went to Beverley’s Records in 1962 to audition for Leslie Kong, it was around the same time that his stepbrother Bob Marley was making “Judge Not.” Wailer had planned to sing his first song, “Pass It On,” which was more ska-oriented at the time. Wailer, on the other hand, was late to school and missed his audition. In 1963, he joined Marley, his friend Peter Tosh, and the short-lived members Junior Braithwaite and Beverley Kelso to form “The Wailing Wailers.” In the beginning, Wailer sang lead vocals less often than Marley and Tosh did. However, Wailer started recording and singing lead vocals on some of his own compositions, like “Who Feels It Knows It,” “I Stand Predominant,” and “Sunday Morning,” after Marley left Jamaica in 1966 for Delaware in the United States and was briefly replaced by Constantine “Vision” Walker. Gospel music and the soul singer Curtis Mayfield influenced Wailer’s music.

Bunny Wailer was arrested for possession of cannabis in June 1967 and served a 14-month prison sentence. Around the same time Bunny, Bob Marley, and Peter Tosh signed an exclusive recording agreement with Danny Sim’s JAD Records and an exclusive publishing agreement with Sim’s music publishing company Cayman Music.

Bunny Wailer continued to contribute songs to the Wailers’ repertoire even though the group frequently switched producers in the late 1960s. Kwame Dawes, a music critic, says that Wailer’s lyrics were literary in style and carefully crafted, and he remained a key component of the group’s distinctive harmonies. “Dreamland,” a cover of “My Dream Island” by El Tempos that quickly became Wailer’s signature song, “Riding High,” “Brainwashing,” and the bridge of the Wailers’ song “Keep On Moving” (sung in the style of Curtis Mayfield of the Impressions), which was produced by Lee “Scratch” Perry, featured Wailer singing lead. The song “Pass It On,” which Bunny Wailer claimed he wrote in 1962, was recorded by the Wailers in 1971; On JAD’s “Original Cuts” compilation, it was made available as a dubplate mix. In contrast to the later versions of “Pass It On,” this version of the song features verses with different lyrics and music. Wailer would later use these verses in “Innocent Blood.” Marley Wailer was associated with Tuff Gong, Tosh Wailer was associated with H.I.M. Intel Diplo, and Bunny Wailer was associated with Solomonic by 1973. On “Reincarnated Souls,” the B-side of the Wailers’ first Island single of the new era, and on two tracks on the Wailers’ final trio LP, “Burnin’,” he sang lead vocals: “Hallelujah Time” and “Pass it On” He was recording his own singles by this time, including “Searching For Love,” “Life Line,” “Trod On,” “Arab Oil Weapon,” and “Pass It On,” a new Wailers song.

Bunny Wailer toured with the Wailers in the UK and the United States, but soon became reluctant to leave Jamaica. He and Tosh were more marginalised in the group as the Wailers attained international success, and attention was increasingly focused on Bob Marley.

Bunny Wailer left the Wailers in 1973 and adopted the name “Bunny” in pursuit of a solo career. He composed much of his own material as well as re-recording a number of the Wailers’ songs. Bunny recorded mainly in the roots style, in keeping with his political and spiritual messages and his album “Blackheart Man” was well received.

Bunny Wailer also experimented with disco on his album “Hook Line & Sinker”.

Bunny’s music had dancehall and rocker influences, as shown by the album “Bunny Wailer Sings the Wailers” on which he reinterpreted some of the Wailers songs as a solo roots singer with roots reggae-based backing by Sly and Robbie.

Bunny Wailer won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album three times, in 1991 for the album “Time Will Tell: A Tribute to Bob Marley”, in 1995 for “Crucial! Roots Classics”, and in 1997 for “Hall of Fame: A Tribute to Bob Marley’s 50th Anniversary”.

He was also featured on the album “True Love” by Toots and the Maytals, which won the Grammy Award in 2004 for Best Reggae Album, and showcased many notable musicians including Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Trey Anastasio, Gwen Stefani / No Doubt, Ben Harper, Bonnie Raitt, Ryan Adams, Keith Richards, Toots Hibbert and Paul Douglass.

In 2016, he played a month-long ‘Blackheart Man’ tour to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1976 album.

In October 2018, Bunny Wailer suffered a minor stroke, resulting in speech problems. After suffering another stroke in July 2020, he was hospitalized at Andrews Memorial Hospital in Kingston, Jamaica, where he eventually died on March 2, 2021 at the age of 73.

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