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Published 14 March 2021
If you attend church or been to a dance party or a night club, there is a very good chance you have rocked to the rhythm of reggae. In that case you owe some obeisance to Bunny Wailer, who died early this month, just eight days before his 74th birthday. He was one of the reggae trio, The Wailers, that took reggae to its international stature. He was the only one of the trio that lived to witness UNESCO proclaim reggae a World Cultural Heritage in November 2018.
The other members of the trio, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, were much more famous. Yet, in many ways, Bunny Wailer was the soul of The Wailers, and he remained a musical icon in his native Jamaica and the global reggae fandom until his death. His mellow tenor was the distinctive voice of the early Wailers. In fact, the man who changed his name from Neville Livingston to Bunny Wailer when they formed the group was the smoothest vocalist of the three.