Ok, so if you’ve got “Live” or even “Babylon by Bus” so, why do you have to purchase another live Bob Marley album? Just listen to a few seconds of the opening bass line to the first song “Trenchtown Rock” as i did, and as i did you will have to purchase the product inmediately. Don’t need to hear anymore. This is another great live album, perfect vocals, vibrant performances and fantastic sound ( !and its a 1976 recording!). The drum and bass from the BarretBrothers are outstanding ( listen with headphones ) and the songs are spectacular. Only the 24 minutes rendition of “Get up,stand up/No more trouble/War” worth the price of the record alone, but there are 12 other songs. So, this is as good as “Live” but longer, and much better than “Babylon by Bus”. If you like Bob Marley, you can’t go wrong with this one. This concert was originally broadcast live on the KMET radio station in Los Angeles. Because of the radio simulcast, this concert became widely bootlegged beginning in 1976.
Bob Marley and the Wailers“Live” was one of those seminal albums that I played to death when it came out. Then I came across a review of this album, so bought it, and have been blown away. Its easy to think that reggae is an easy music format to play, but it isn’t, and yet the Wailers make it sound like the easiest music form in the world. The opening is stunning, the rhythm section effortlessly dropping into a cool vibe – turn the bass up and listen to a true master at work.
And then there’s Marley himself, passionate, artful, giving a master class in singing with fire and bringing the crowd to a crescendo. This truly is a stunning album, with plenty of recognisable tracks from the earlier part of BobMarley’s career : Burning and Looting is terrific, Trenchtown Rock stunning, and I Shot the Sheriff steals the song back from Clapton.
The sound quality is excellent,turn it up and it feels like you are in the arena with them.The second disc shows what a great band they were with a 22 minute version of Get Up,War,No More Trouble all rolled into one.
The Marley Family, Island Records and UMe have announced a massive set of “Exodus” reissues to mark the 40th anniversary of Bob Marley & the Wailers’ landmark “Exodus”album, which was released on June 3rd, 1977.
On 2nd June, almost exactly 40 years to the day since Bob Marley And The Wailers released the “Exodus” , the iconic album will be given a suite of celebratory reissues. Alongside2CD, 3CD and limited 180g gold vinyleditions (the latter exclusive only through uDiscover and bobmarley.com), a super deluxe reissue due later in the month will consist of an expanded 3LP version of the album boasting an extra 12” and a pair of bonus 7” singles.
Alongside the original mix of Exodus, the super deluxe reissue will include a special Exodus 40: The Movement Continues “reinstatement” of the album, plus an Exodus Live disc recorded at London’s Rainbow Theatre across 1st to 4th June 1977, an expanded version of the Punky Reggae Party EP, and new single pairings of ‘Waiting In Vain’/‘Roots’ and ‘Smile Jamaica (Part One)’/‘Smile Jamaica (Part Two)’.
Overseen by Bob’s own son Ziggy, the Movement Continues mix recontextualises the original album for a modern audience, using unheard instrumentation and vocals taken from the recording sessions – including a stunning new version of ‘One Love’ pieced together from ten lead Bob Marley vocal outtakes, and an R&B-tinged backing for ‘Turn Your Lights Down Low’, newly recorded by a cast of musicians handpicked by Ziggy.
Released on 3rd June 1977, Exodus was recorded in London, where Bob was holed up following an assassination attempt on his life just six months earlier in Jamaica. An immediate classic once hailed by Time magazine as the “best album of the 20th Century”, Exodus was noted for its eclectic, laidback music, and a lyrical focus on change, as filtered through Marley’s explorations of politics, sex and religion.
As this reissue shows, time has not diminished the album’s potency. Forty years on from its original release, Exodus still has the power to move. Reel-to-tapes documenting reggae star’s Seventies shows in London and Paris found in rundown London hotel
Ziggy Marley is helming a “restatement” version, which will be included in some of the reissue sets. Revisiting his father’s original session recordings, he found previously unused and unheard vocals, lyric phrasing and instrumentation. His “restatement” version, dubbed Exodus 40 – the Movement Continues,utilizes his discoveries, which gives the songs new contexts.
For example, with “One Love” Ziggy found 10 new lead vocal outtakes and the newfound tape featured ad libs as well. For “Turn Your Lights Down Low” he assembled musicians to record a new music bed, which provides the song a more prominent R&B sway.
Three of the four new Exodus sets are due June 2nd. A two-CD package includes the original album along with Ziggy Marley’s “restatement” version. A three-CD set, which will also be available digitally, features the original Exodus, Ziggy’s Movement edition and Exodus Live. There will also be a limited edition gold vinyl version comprising the original 1977 album.
The Super Deluxe four-LP, two 7-inch singles edition will be released on June 30th. It will include the original LP, Ziggy’s Movement version, and an Exodus Live set, which was recorded at London’s Rainbow Theatre the week of the album’s release. The fourth LP is entitled Punky Reggae Party. It packages a previously unreleased extended mix of “Keep on Moving” along with a pair of vinyl 7-inches: “Waiting in Vain” backed with “Roots” and “Smile Jamaica (Part One)” backed with “Smile Jamaica (Part Two).”
Exodus is Bob Marley & the Wailers’ ninth studio album. The album was released six months after an assassination attempt was made on Marley while he was in his native Jamaica, which led him to exile in London where Exodus was recorded. The album featured a newer backing band at the time, as the original Wailers disbanded in 1974. Exodus‘ backing band included brothers Carlton (drums) and Aston “Family Man” Barrett (bass), keyboardist Tyrone Downie, percussionist Alvin “Seeco” Patterson, guitarist Junior Marvin and I-Threes backing vocalists Judy Mowatt, Marcia Griffiths and Marley’s wife Rita Marley.
Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer are gone. This is completely Bob Marley’s show. And is it ever his show, a triumphant concert July 19th, 1975 at London’s Lyceum Theatre. The new format had been introduced on 1974’s Natty Dread album to great effect. But every note on the live album is as alive as Marley’s flying dreadlocks on the cover photo.
Far more modest in its intentions is this document of Bob Marley & the Wailers’ two night stand (July 17th and 18th, 1975), at London’s The Lyceum. When Live! first arrived on vinyl, the edited version with seven cuts — all from the second evening barely broke 40 minutes. This appropriately subtitled “deluxe edition,” oddly only available on vinyl, leaves that in the dust.
The entire, previously unreleased first night is here, (14 tunes) along with more selections from the second show and full versions of those tunes once edited for time constraints have been restored. The result is a 22 track, beautifully and faithfully packaged triple vinyl package including the tour program, that clocks in at a never boring 2 ¼ hours.
But clearly his music was well known by this rowdy UK crowd who often boisterously sings along, and whose sheer energy helped push the already electrifying Marley to new heights. The band reinvigorates early tunes such as “Slave Driver,” “Trenchtown Rock” and “Stir it Up” in versions that make the already sturdy studio ones sound like cardboard cutouts. The closing “Get Up Stand Up,” here presented in its full 10 minute plus unedited glory, is alone worth the price of admission as Marley channels the positive vibrations that informed his best work, into a performance that feels as spiritual now as it did over four decades ago.
Must-hear tracks “No Woman, No Cry”, doubled in length from the ‘Natty Dread’ studio version, vividly brought the streets of Kingston to the stage of London via Memphis soul worthy of Otis himself.
Bob Marley and the Wailers’ 1975 Natty Dread tour began in America, where some 15,000 fans watched the reggae band perform in Central Park. By the time they crossed the Atlantic, the verdict was in: After two sold-out shows at London’s Lyceum, a Melody Maker cover story pronounced Bob Marley “possibly the greatest superstar to visit these shores since the days when Dylan conquered the concert halls of Britain.” Neither of these gigs were intended to be recorded, but when Island Records founder Chris Blackwell witnessed the madness of the first, he made sure that the Rolling Stones’ mobile studio was parked outside the venue for the second. The result was a song collection of pointed lyrics, political chants and funk grooves enlivened by new guitarist Al Anderson. The seven-minute “No Woman, No Cry” reached the U.K. Top 10 and remains the definitive version of the classic song, eventually appearing as track two of the 15-times-platinum Legend set. Even the mic feedback that echoes over the first verse has become imbued with emotion
The professional recording puts the listener in the audience, making this an essential addition to anyone’s collection and manna from heaven to existing Marley fans who had to suffice with dodgy bootlegged copies … until now.
There is plenty of terrific Marley concert material out there, including 1976’s Live at the Roxy, but this particular stand remains tougher, rawer and edgier. Let’s hope 1978’s phenomenal Babylon by Bus gigs get similar treatment too.
The long-planned deluxe edition with a fuller take on Marley’s two-day Lyceum .
The Fat Angel Sings 