Event merits commemoration
Sept. 23, 1980, was a Tuesday, just like today. The Pirates drew 26,000 people to Three Rivers Stadium that night, and they saw the team lose to the Montreal Expos by a score of 7-1. The Steelers were recovering from a narrow loss to the Cincinnati Bengals two days before, and there was a concert happening that night at the Stanley Theater in downtown.
The two sporting events have long since faded into a jumble of statistics and trivia. The concert, however, has become the stuff of legend.
It turned out to be the final live performance by Bob Marley and the Wailers. The reggae superstar had just burst out of Jamaica seven years before, and though he and his band had not yet found the same level of success in the United States as they had in Europe and elsewhere, Marley was enough of a name to draw a crowd to what we now call the Benedum Center.
It turned out to be Marley’s final concert. He was claimed by cancer just seven months later at the age of 36.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that Marley is bigger now than he was when he died. The Marley greatest-hits collection, appropriately titled “Legend,” has become one of the best-selling albums in history, moving over 10 million copies and landing at No. 17 on the list of the best-selling albums ever. A steady stream of books about him are being published, a biopic is in the works and you can always see posters of Marley’s smiling face in clothing stores, smoke shops and other places where young, hip people congregate.
And this is for someone who died more than 10 years before today’s college students were born.
Pittsburgh City Paper reported recently that concert promoter Rich Engler is pushing a plan to have a plaque installed at the Benedum, perhaps a year from now, on the concert’s 35th anniversary, to commemorate the event. The venue is owned by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, and it has expressed support for the notion.
Southwestern Pennsylvania is rich in history, from the Whiskey Rebellion to Bill Mazeroski’s home run in the 1960 World Series. The final concert by one of the world’s most revered musicians deserves similar recognition.