An Englishwoman from the quiet seaside town of Ilfracombe has been confirmed as a distant cousin of Jamaican reggae legend Bob Marley — but she had never heard his music before, a report said last week.
Carole Tovey, 66, who was born Carole Marley, said she prefers more middle-of-the-road songs.
“I’ve never heard his music before today. I used to like people like Neil Sedaka and the Everly Brothers. No reggae. No heavy metal,” she told the Times newspaper.
Listening to a song by Marley — who brought reggae on to the world stage with hits like “I Shot the Sheriff” and “Get Up, Stand Up” before dying of cancer in 1981 — she appeared less than impressed.
“It’s all right,” she said. “I wouldn’t leave the room for it.”
Tovey, who is white, has lived in Ilfracombe, southwest England, since she was six years old and has never traveled to Jamaica or smoked cannabis.
Her relationship with Marley stems from her great-great uncle, Albert Thomas Marley, who went to Jamaica in the late 19th century to make a living in the mahogany trade, the paper said.
He married Ellen Bloomfield and they had a son, Norval — who had an affair with Cedella Booker, a 17-year-old girl of African descent, at the age of 50. The result was Robert Nesta Marley — Bob Marley.
“It has always been a joke in the family,” said Tovey. “People would always say: ‘Are you any relation to Bob Marley?’ and I would say: ‘Yes, he’s my cousin’. We would laugh about it. Now it turns out it is the gospel truth.”
She added: “We’ve not been anywhere other than Ilfracombe for years. We’re just country bumpkins.”(AFP)
上週一篇報導指出，一名住在寧靜的濱海小鎮伊夫拉康比的英國女子，已被證實是牙買加雷鬼音樂傳奇人物鮑布．馬利的遠房表親，但她從來沒有聽過他的音樂。
六十六歲的卡蘿．托葳本名卡蘿．馬利，她說她比較偏好大眾流行樂。
她對《泰晤士報》說：「在今天之前，我從沒聽過他的音樂。我喜歡尼爾．沙達卡和艾佛利兄弟二重唱這類歌手。我不聽雷鬼，也不聽重金屬樂。」
馬利以「I Shot the Sheriff」和「Get Up, Stand Up」等熱門歌曲把雷鬼樂帶向世界舞台，一九八一年因癌症過世。托葳聽了他的歌後，表現得興趣缺缺。
她說：「還不錯，但我不會花時間去聽。」
托葳（白人）自從六歲搬到英格蘭西南部的伊夫拉康比定居後，就再也沒有回過牙買加，她也從未抽過大麻。
報導指出，她和馬利間的連結是源於她的曾叔公艾伯特．湯馬士．馬利，他十九世紀末期到牙買加從事紅木貿易。
他娶了愛倫．布盧菲爾，育有一子諾爾佛。他五十歲時和一位非裔的十七歲女孩瑟黛拉．布可發生婚外情，生下了羅伯特．奈斯塔．馬利──也就是鮑布．馬利。
托葳說：「這一直是家族中的笑話，別人總問我：『妳是鮑布．馬利的親戚嗎？』我就會說：『是啊，他是我表親。』然後我們會拿這件事情說笑，結果現在它變成毋庸置疑的事實了。」
她還說：「我們已經好幾年沒有離開伊夫拉康比了，我們只是一群鄉巴佬。」（法新社╱翻譯：袁星塵）
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