Bunny Wailer, also known as Bunny Livingston (born Neville
O'Riley Livingston April 10,
1947 in Jamaica), is a singer songwriter and percussionist and was
an original member of reggae group The Wailers along with Bob Marley and Peter
Tosh. His father Thaddeus "Toddy" Livingston lived for some time with
Bob Marley's mother Cedella Booker and had a daughter with her named Pearl
Livingston.
As he was by some way the least forceful of the trio, he
tended to sing lead vocals less often than Marley and Tosh in the early years,
but when Bob Marley left Jamaica in 1966 for Delaware, to be replaced by
Constantine "Dream" Walker, he began to record and sing lead on some
of his own compositions, such as "Who Feels It Knows It", "I
Stand Predominant" and "Sunday Morning". His music was very
influenced by gospel and the soul of Curtis Mayfield. in 1967, he recorded
"This Train", based on a gospel standard for the first time at Studio
One.
As the Wailers moved from producer to producer in the late
1960s he continued to be underused as a writer and lead vocalist, although he
sang lead on "Riding High", and on one verse of the Wailers cover of
the Impressions "Keep On Moving", both produced by Lee Perry. By
1973, each of the three founding Wailers operated their own label, Marley with
Tuff Gong, Tosh with H.I.M. Intel Diplo, and Bunny Wailer with Solomonic. He
sang lead vocals on "Reincarnated Souls", the B-side of the Wailers
first Island single of the new era, and on two tracks on the Wailers last trio
LP, "Burnin'" , "Pass it On" (which had been cut a
sound-system only dub plate five years earlier) and "Hallelujah
Time". By now he was recording singles in his own right, cutting
"Bide Up", "Arab Oil Weapon" and "Life Line" for his
own label.
Bunny Wailer toured with the Wailers in England
and the United States,
but soon became reluctant to leave Jamaica.
He and Tosh became more marginalized in the group as the Wailers became an
international success, and attention was increasingly focused on Marley. Bunny
subsequently left the Wailers to pursue a solo career, which continues in the
present.
Taken From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunny_Wailer