VIVIEN GOLDMAN is a writer, broadcaster, and musician who has devoted much of her work to Afro-Caribbean and global music. She is the adjunct professor of punk and reggae at NYU's Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music. Originally from London, Goldman now resides in New York City.The Book of Exodus is her fifth book. She began her career as a PR officer for Island Records, which is how she met Bob Marley. Goldman has written about reggae, punk and post-punk for the New York Times, Interview, Rolling Stone, The Observer, NME, The New Stateman, Sounds and Melody Maker. She was a founding member of The Flying Lizards, shared a flat with fellow NME journalist and Pretenders singer Chryssie Hynde, wrote songs for artists such as Massive Attack, and launched the video career of Flava Flav. Goldman is also an accomplished documentarian.
About The Book of Exodus: The Making & Meaning of Bob Marley & the Wailers' Album of the Century by Vivien Goldman
Follow the Sacred Journey to Create One of the Lasting Musical Masterpieces of Our Time
Bob Marley is one of our most important and influential artists. Recorded in London after an assassination attempt on his life sent Marley into exile from Jamaica, Exodus is the most lasting testament to his social conscience. Named by Time magazine as Album of the Century, Exodus is reggae superstar Bob Marley's masterpiece of spiritual exploration.
Vivien Goldman was the first journalist to introduce mass white audiences to the Rasta sounds of Bob Marley. Throughout the late 1970s, Goldman was a fly on the wall as she watched reggae grow and evolve, and charted the careers of many of its superstars, especially Bob Marley. So close was Vivien to Bob and the Wailers that she was a guest at his Kingston home just days before gunmen came in a rush to kill The Skip. Now, in The Book of Exodus, Goldman chronicles the making of this album, from its conception in Jamaica to the raucous but intense all-night studio sessions in London.
But The Book of Exodus is so much more than a making-of-a-record story. This remarkable book takes us through the history of Jamaican music, Marley's own personal journey from the Trench Town ghetto to his status as global superstar, as well as Marleys deep spiritual practice of Rastafari and the roots of this religion. Goldman also traces the biblical themes of the Exodus story, and its practical relevance to us today, through various other art forms, leading up to and culminating with Exodus.
Never before has there been such an intimate, first-hand portrait of Marley's spirituality, his political involvement, and his life in exile in London, leading up to histriumphant return to the stage in Jamaica at the Peace Concert of 1978.
Here is an unforgettable portrait of Bob Marley and an acutely perceptive appreciation of his musical and spiritual legacy.
The Book of Exodus can be ordered online at:
The Slits bring up Vivien Goldman on stage
