King Charles has paid tribute to the “marvellous, infectious energy” of the late reggae star Bob Marley, in a series of comments about his favourite music and musicians from around the Commonwealth.
In a broadcast released in a collaboration with Apple Music on Monday as part of Commonwealth Day celebrations, the king described meeting Marley and other music legends during his royal duties, as he shared his “personal playlist of hits that bring him joy”.
After playing a version of Marley’s Could You Be Loved performed by the King’s Guard, Charles spoke about meeting “the great man himself”, who would have been 80 this year.
“I remember when he came to London to perform when I was much younger, and I met him at some event,” the king recalled. “That marvellous, infectious energy, of course, he had, but also his deep sincerity, and his profound concern for his community. I always recall his words: ‘The people have a voice inside of them’. He gave the world that voice in a way that no one who heard can ever forget.”
The king also talked of his love for the “unexpected gift [of] the extraordinary voice” of the Jamaican-born Millie Small, whose song My Boy Lollipop is the second to feature on the King’s Music Room, broadcast on Apple Music 1. “I am always mindful how much we owe to the Windrush generation, whose gifts have so greatly enriched our country,” said the king.
Other stars enjoyed by the king include Grace Jones – whose version of the Édith Piaf classic La Vie en rose is included – as well as Jools Holland and Ruby Turner, and Michael Bublé.
Having said on Thursday that he was a fan of the Australian “princess of pop”, Monday’s broadcast reveals that the king’s Kylie Minogue track of choice is The Loco-Motion. Talking about a performance Minogue – an ambassador of the King’s Trust – gave in 2012 before the diamond jubilee visit to Australia, he described the song as “music for dancing”, adding: “Again, it has that infectious energy which makes it, I find, incredibly hard to sit still! There is such an irresistibly joyous feeling to that song.”
In a radio broadcast recorded at Buckingham Palace, the king said that throughout his life music had “meant a great deal” to him. “It can lift our spirits to such a degree, and all the more so when it brings us together in celebration. In other words, it brings us joy.”
Giving an insight into his childhood, the king spoke of his love of music from the 1920s and 1930, having chosen to share the track The Very Thought of You, by Al Bowlly, because it reminded him of his “much-loved” grandmother. “She used to play these sorts of music a lot, and [it] never fails to lift my spirits,” he said.
He also spoke of a visit to Ghana, and discovering the music genre Highlife “and the urge to dance to that pulsating rhythm”, before playing Mpempem Do Me by Daddy Lumba.
But he explained that his first experience of Ghanaian culture had been at Balmoral as a child. “I was eight or nine and the then Ghanaian prime minister, later president, Kwame Nkrumah, came to visit my late mother,” he recalled. “He very kindly gave me a bow with a quiver full of rather dangerous-looking barbed arrows – the sort of gift any young child loves – which, of course, I went straight out and fired into a nearby pine tree and then couldn’t get the arrow out again.”
Playing his final track, Upside Down by Diana Ross, the king said it was “absolutely impossible not to get up and dance” when it was played. “So, I wonder if I can still just manage it,” he said. “Thank you for listening. I wish you all every possible blessing.”
