by Howard Campbell
SOUTH FLORIDA – Before taking the stage at Stanley Theatre in Pittsburgh on September 23, 1980, Bob Marley beckoned to his close friend and manager, Allan “Skill” Cole.
“Him sey, ‘Allan, don’t stay too far’,” Cole recalled.
The ominous request just ahead of what would be the reggae star’s last show, was understandable. Two days earlier, while he and Cole were jogging in New York’s Central Park, Marley collapsed.
Doctors said he suffered a seizure and discovered that the skin cancer he was diagnosed with in 1977, had spread to his brain. They advised him to cancel his US tour and seek treatment.
The Stanley Theatre gig was the fifth on his most ambitious American tour, to promote his Uprising album for Island Records. In New York, on September 19 and 20, he opened for The Commodores at Madison Square Garden as part of a determined effort to break into the African-American market.
Forty years ago, he did a full set at the Stanley Theatre, opening with Natural Mystic and closing with Get Up, Stand Up.
“He wasn’t upbeat like previous occasions but he went out there and gave it his all,” said Cole who first met Marley in the late 1960s when he was a struggling artist.
After the Pittsburgh show, Marley returned to New York where he prepared to leave for West Germany to be treated by Dr. Josef Issels, a controversial physician with radical methods to fight cancer.
Cole sought out Issels in New York after he was recommended by a colleague. The German allegedly had ties to the Nazi Party during the 1940s, something Cole said the Marley camp was unaware.
He remembers leaving for West Germany with Marley via John F. Kennedy Airport. Accompanying them to the airport was Rhythm And Blues star Roberta Flack.
Marley received treatment at Issels’ clinic in Bavaria for several months and though he showed signs of improvement, his health deteriorated by April, 1981.
He decided to leave West Germany for Miami where he died on May 11 at age 36.
Bob Marley’s final concert is captured on the album, Live Forever: September 23, 1980 • Stanley Theatre • Pittsburgh, PA, released in February, 2011 by Island Records.
