A music publishing company has lost its bid to get control of lucrative publishing rights to more than 13 songs apparently written by Jamaican Reggae Music legend Bob Marley, but were attributed to Marley’s friends and collaborators.  The list includes one of Bob’s most famous hits, “No Woman, No Cry”.

And here come the links.

Besides “No Woman, No Cry”, the other songs involved were:  “Crazy Baldhead”; “Johnny Was”; “Natty Dread”; “Positive Vibration”; “Rat Race”; “Rebel Music (Road Block)”; “Talking Blues”; “Them Belly Full”; “Want More”; “War”; “Who The Cap Fit”; and “So Jah She”.

Cayman Music – which Marley’s early catalogue from 1967 to 1976 – had demanded the rights to the music from Blue Mountain Music – the company associated with Island Records which launched Marley’s international career.  Marley was unhappy about the strict terms of the earlier contract.  So he spread out his writing credits to family and friends in order to provide them with an ongoing source of income. 

Such was the case with “No woman, no cry”, which is credited to Marley’s friend Vincent Ford.  He ran a soup kitchen in Kingston, Jamaica’s Trenchtown ghetto, and the song ensured the charity’s survival until Ford died in 2008.

Blue Mountain’s attorneys even stipulated that Marley “falsely claimed” the songs had been written by others in an bid to “escape the automatic assignment of their copyright to Cayman”.  But the court ruled the name on the documents is more important.  Judge Richard Meade concluded that Cayman had no rights to the songs because “Marley did not publicly describe himself as the author”.

But that’s not the only legal wrangle the Marley estate is dealing with.  Bob might have another son.

Back in Kingston, the Marley family sent a cease and desist order to singer Fabian Marley, telling him to stop using Bob’s name.  Fabian responded by sending in a DNA sample to prove his paternal heritage.

“I know I am a true Marley.  Whatever is to be must be and the world will see what is fake and what is true,” the 46-year old told the Jamaica Observer. 

Fabian Marley performs under the name Gong Kid, a reference to the Marley family’s Tuff Gong recording studio, where he recorded part of his debut album.  His mother Ralphie Munroe listed Bob Marley on Fabian’s birth certificate back in 1968.  And let’s face it; Bob Marley might very well have fathered a generation on his own.  But Fabian Marley is not looking for a handout from Bob’s family.

“I just want them to unite and love people, just like my father. My father legacy is his musical heritage, and that is here for all of us,” he said.