The musical cross-talk is evident on Exodus, as it strays from traditional Jamaican reggae styles and embraces some elements of British R&B and soul. His music, and Jamaican music more widely, had by this point achieved international success and spurred musicians around the world to incorporate reggae-inspired musical material. Marley’s arrival in England happened at an interesting moment. Soon after arriving, Marley called his bandmates, the Wailers, out to England, and they set about writing and recording a new album, with the addition of a new guitarist, Junior Marvin. The resulting two-year exile would make international headlines and also yield what is widely considered to be the musician’s finest work, fittingly titled Exodus. With a target on his back, Jamaica’s most iconic artist fled his home, first for the Bahamas, and then ultimately to England. The political situation in Jamaica in the 1970s was rapidly deteriorating, with both competing political parties funding paramilitary gangs and political violence.

There is some speculation that the gunman was retaliating against Marley for his seemingly tacit endorsement of Michael Manley’s People’s National Party. In December of 1976, Bob Marley and his wife Rita faced an assassination attempt in their Jamaica home, with the singer suffering nonlethal gunshot wounds.

Marley & Me by John Grogan