In Bob Marley circles, he is known simply as the crazy-dancing guy with an Afro who showed up in the video of Marley's 1979 Santa Barbara concert. He gyrates ecstatically (if off-beat) and is totally lost in the music, Marley-style.
For decades, he has been semi-anonymous, his dancing performance known only to a handful of close friends and family members. In fact, for several years after the video was distributed worldwide, not even he knew that he pretty much stole the show.
But we found him!
"Yep, I am the Bob Marley guy," says Stanley Goldstein, a 58-year-old artist who lives with his wife and 9-year-old son, Leo, in San Francisco.
Goldstein, who back in 1979 was either still bagging bagels for local bakery or had just received his first major art commission for the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (sorry, but memories fade, he says), recalls that a colleague with connections gave him "the gift of a lifetime" -- front-row seats at Marley's Santa Barbara concert.
"I was -- and am -- a huge fan," Goldstein said. And what he remembers most about the concert was having "a really, really good time." We think it shows. (Especially at 11 seconds and at 49 seconds in the video.)
As for his own iconic appearance, not even Goldstein knew he was the video's true star until just a few years ago. A friend who owns a video store phoned to say "You know you're in this Bob Marley movie, right? Like REALLY in it."
"I saw it and thought 'OMG! I can't believe that's me!'" Goldstein said.
When the video enjoyed a more recent resurrection on YouTube, about 40 commenters took note of Goldstein's performance. "He's feeling no pain," noted one. Others were, perhaps, less kind, but Goldstein takes it all with a grain of salt.
He gets that his concert vibe has made him a celebrity, of sorts. Like the time he and his wife were having dinner with some family friends and a man from NIgeria mentioned his love of reggae. Goldstein told him about his role in the video and the Nigerian man nearly choked on his food with excitement.
"You're that guy! You're that guy!" Goldstein recalls the man screaming at him.
"He made me pose with him for pictures that he emailed to his friends back in Nigeria," Goldstein said. The Nigerian had grown up watching the Marley video.
"My 18-year-old niece brought her new boyfriend around and immediately she wanted me to show him the video," Goldstein said. And at son Leo's school, Goldstein said, his coolness factor has ticked up a few notches as word spreads about the video.
Leo, by the way, prefers playing the clarinet and listening to classical music. As for Dad, well, he's still a dancer, but only in the privacy of his own home. His art, however, can be seen at the George Billis Gallery.
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