The smoke clears
Talkin’ Blues
Original Wailers bassist Aston “Family Man” Barrett wasn’t invited to the 60th birthday celebration of his legendary late bandleader this February.
“They owe me too much money and they can’t face me,” he says of the family members who control Bob Marley’s estate. Although Family Man and his late brother drummer Carlton signed a contract with Bob and Island Records chief Chris Blackwell before the 1974 record “Natty Dread,” an album on which he shares some of the songwriting credit, he says he has not seen any royalties since Bob’s death in 1981.
In a conversation spiked with song quotes and Biblical paraphrases, he speaks in a thick Jamaican patois via cellphone from the Wailers’ tourbus. He addresses the fact that the Marley estate has excluded him.
“Half of them know that the Barretts with the Marley and with the Blackwell (are the ones who did) carry reggae music international.”
Family Man says he would get up stand up for his rights, but he cannot afford the legal fees a court case would involve.
Aston "Family Man" Barrett (fifth from right) says he hasn't collected royalties in years but still loves Marley's music.
Coming in from the cold
“All I need now is to be paid for the work I have done, y’know? And I be spreading the message of Bob Marley and the Wailers year in and year out, and no one does that, not even the family,” he says.
Nearing 60 himself, Family Man says home for him has been “between (his) suitcase and the hotel” since 1969. And despite his complaints that he may be waiting in vain for his money, he still loves performing Bob’s songs with Junior Marvin, who played lead guitar on the later Marley recordings, and a slew of other reggae aces like Keith Sterling and Chico Chin. (Check out the entire gang above)
Songs of freedom
Family Man says what keeps him feeling irie are the positive vibrations the songs send through the crowd when the Wailers play live-something Boston's college students know all too well.
“Young people who were born after the death of Bob catch onto the message and the music and they’re coming to the shows too,” he says. “So the music is for all ages and it’s for all time, past, present and future.”
PAT HEALY
The Wailers play tonight (April 8) at 9 with deSol at the Paradise (967 Commonwealth Ave.) MBTA: Green Line to Pleasant. For info, call (617) 562-8800) Back | 