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and without hesitation tore into an incredible set including Natural
Mystic, Positive Vibration, Burnin and Lootin , Them Belly Full,
Heathen, and Running Away/Crazy Baldheads. As part of the Wailers
90-minute set, the Barrett Brothers moved the rhythms of the songs
along at a faster than ordinary pace. Although deathly ill, Bob gave his
traditionally energetic performance, following the opening numbers with
War/No More Trouble, Zimbabwe, Zion Train, No Woman, No
Cry, Jamming, and Exodus. The crowed erupted in applause at the
end of the standard set. The Wailers then broke into a series of encores.
Typically, Bob did not entertain four encores, but he stayed on stage as
long as he could this night.
The first encore was performed by Bob alone, with only his guitar to
accompany him. His performance of Redemption Song was rendered
more poignant with the knowledge that this was his final show. After this
solo performance, the rest of the Wailers retook the stage and the second
encore was a performance of Coming In from the Cold. The end of this
song should have been the end of the concert. However, Bob motioned
to the band to stay on stage and tore into Is This Love. The final song
of the night was the Wailers classic Work. Constructed as an old-
fashioned counting song (counting down instead of up), the performance
of this song was Bob marking the end of the band. As he sang five days
to go, working for the next day, four days to go now, working for the
next day, the members of the band realized that their leader was count-
ing down to the end of the band. With this the concert ended, and Bob
Marley and the Wailers left the stage for the final time.
In the wake of the Pittsburgh show, the rest of the Uprising tour was
canceled and the Wailers touring machine was dismantled. The group
and entourage refocused their energies from performing to caring for and
about Bob. With Rita, Bob went to his mother s house in Miami to con-
sider the next move. Bob wanted to pursue a second opinion and to that
end he submitted to additional testing at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital. The
doctors at Cedars referred him to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer
HOME TO MOUNT ZION 69
Center in New York. In early October, Bob was tested by the experts at
Sloan-Kettering. Bob s hopes were that the original diagnosis would turn
out to be incorrect. Instead, he quickly learned that his condition was
even worse than originally reported. He not only had a cancerous tumor
in his brain, but he also had cancer in his lungs and stomach.
MORE BAD NEWS
With this more specific diagnosis, Bob was informed that he likely had
between four and five weeks left to live and that he should put his affairs
in order. As a means of relieving the pressure caused by the tumor in his
skull, Bob began receiving radiation treatments to try to reduce the size
of the brain tumor. An unfortunate result of the Sloan-Kettering visit
was that Bob s condition was leaked to the media. On October 8, 1980,
news of Bob s cancer was announced on various radio stations in New
York. Station WLIB was the first to announce Bob s health concerns over
the radio. The news spread quickly and soon Bob s condition was known
internationally.
In order to be near to his place of treatment, Bob took up residence in
New York. He checked into the historic Wellington Hotel. The hotel s
central location, just a few blocks south of Central Park, allowed Bob easy
access to his outpatient treatments as well as to anything else he wished
to do. Initially, the radiation treatment that Bob had agreed to was suc-
cessful in controlling his discomfort and he grew stronger. In fact, Bob felt
well enough to attend his friend Muhammad Ali s first comeback fight
against Larry Holmes. The fight was billed as the Last Hurrah and Ali
fought valiantly, but at almost 39 years old, he was beaten by a technical
knockout by the much younger Holmes, who was in his prime and had
been champion for over two years. Bob also attended the New York per-
formance of the rock band Queen, which was touring in support of its
1980 album The Game.
At times, Bob even felt well enough to return to his favorite pastime,
soccer. He and Cole attempted to play, but Bob soon realized that he
was not strong enough to run and he could only sit on the sideline and
watch. Although Bob was pushing himself and generally feeling better,
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