"It’s sort of hypnotical": When George Harrison described Bob Marley's stage presence

Bob Marley will soon get the deserved tribute to his life and music with the upcoming Reinaldo Marcus Green biopic, Bob Marley: One Love. Speaking about Marley, it is an unending string of praises. The singer-songwriter is widely regarded as one of the greatest musicians of all time as well as a pioneer in the genre of reggae, which became a popular music genre in the years that followed.

However, there was also something electric about the way Bob Marley performed, something that Kingsley Ben-Adir will surely try to replicate while portraying the mammoth character. While it may be practically impossible to describe Bob Marley in a few words, The Beatles guitarist and songwriter George Harrison did that in a 1979 interview for BBC Radio 1.

Speaking about Marley's style, George Harrison said:

"Yeah, yeah. I like reggae,...In fact, the first time I saw Bob Marley, I was so impressed with his band and the show, I went back… I mean, I stayed for the second show, and I went back the next night and saw him again, so…Bob Marley in particular, because, apart from the musical thing–I mean, it’s sort of hypnotical–apart from that, I just liked the way he looked and the way he moved, sort of like he was in a dream. I don’t know why."

George Harrison went on to sing praises of reggae, and Marley and even compared it to the music of the legendary Beatles.

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George Harrison talked about how Bob Marley's music is "the hardest thing really to play right"

Apart from his humanistic messages and grand persona, Marley was also one of the most gifted musicians of all time. This means a lot more coming from Geroge Harrison, who was known for being critical of his contemporaries.

However, while speaking about Marley, George Harrison was all praises and even admitted that his style was one of the hardest to get "right."

He later compared reggae to his own legendary band's pioneering works, saying:

"It’s incredible–it’s like, well, like Lord Buckley said, ‘It’s just like a jitterbug, it’s so simple it evades me.’ It is. It’s like the hardest thing really to play right. I decided a few years ago that the way it must have evolved–or the way it could have evolved–was that they were probably copying rock ‘n’ roll, or copying the music of the ’60s, like we were, like a lot of the stuff we did, we were trying to do like other people but we could never do it right, and it turned into something else."

He added:

"And I think that’s how reggae–they were sort of doing their version of what they thought everybody else was doing, and it turned into reggae."

In the same interview, Harrison also revealed that he wanted one of his songs to sound like a reggae tune but could not nail it down perfectly.

Marley's musical journey will always be one of the most fascinating things to look back at, especially with the upcoming biopic, Bob Marley: One Love, set to cover the best aspects of his career.