Bunny Wailer in Los Angeles in 1998: “An idiosyncratic presence”
ANN SUMMA/GETTY IMAGES; MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES
WITH the passing of Bunny Wailer, one of the great founding acts of Jamaican music – The Wailers – is no more. Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer (born Neville Livingston) tore up Jamaica as a teenage vocal trio in the mid-1960s, swiftly scoring a string of hits that included “Simmer Down”, “Love And Affection”, “Put it On” and “Rude Boy”. Initially signed to Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One label, The Wailers typified the exuberance of their newly independent nation in the era of upbeat ska; they would later reflect the rebellious “rude boy” phase of rocksteady, and later still reggae’s defiant doctrine of Rastafari. The Wailers were always leaders.