May 22, 2012

RhoDeo 1221 Roots


Hello,  last time we landed on an island with a huge place in the global music catalogue, Jamaica. A production hothouse and they say the Weed makes you slow and lazy-go figure. Without the ganja driven reggae music Jamaica would have remained a Caribbean backwater and dare i say would never have given us Bolt, the fastest man in the world.

These last months there's been plenty of reggae & dub from Jamaica,  we kicked off with a man who's name became synonymous with Jamaican Reggae, Bob Marley, together with The Wailers  It makes sense to me to finish our 9 months stay at Jamaica with a couple of posts of the man who in a sense made it all possible, and dragged a niche music into the global mainstream. And when I say global i mean truly global not just the ' West' , but from South America and Africa to the hights of the Himalayas his voice can be heard and all this expansion predating the Internet, truly remarkable.

Todays post concentrates on what was to become Marley's great breaktrough albums first and foremost the live album that seemed to feature on every party i visited in the late seventies and on through the eighties, a standard floorfiller. It was to be followed by two great studioalbums that cemented his status in the musicworld here presnt in their extended remastered versions.

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Most of Bob Marley's early music was recorded with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, who together with Marley were the most prominent members of Bob Marley & The Wailers. In 1972, Bob Marley had his first hit outside Jamaica when Johnny Nash covered his song "Stir It Up", which became a U.K. hit. The 1973 album, Catch a Fire, was released worldwide, and sold well. It was followed by Burnin' which included the song "I Shot the Sheriff", of which a cover version by Eric Clapton became a hit in 1974.

Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer left The Wailers in 1974. Bob Marley proceeded with Bob Marley & The Wailers, which included the Wailers Band and the I Threes. In 1975, he had his first own hit outside Jamaica with "No Woman, No Cry," from the Natty Dread album. His subsequent albums, including Rastaman Vibration, Exodus, Kaya, Survival and Uprising, were big international sellers. Between 1991 and 2007 Bob Marley and The Wailers have sold in excess of 21 million records. These statistics did not begin to be collected until ten years after his death

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As the title implies, this is indeed Bob Marley & the Wailers captured in performance at the Lyceum Ballroom in London during the final U.K. leg of the Natty Dread tour. Passionate and symbiotic energies constantly cycle between the band and audience, the net result of which is one of the most memorable concert recordings of the pop music era. With the addition of lead guitarist Al Anderson during the recording sessions for their previous long-player, Natty Dread, the Wailers took increasing strides toward a seamless transition into the consciousness of the rock music audience. Anderson's bluesy guitar runs liberate "Burnin' and Lootin'" as well as "Trench Town Rock," the only new composition on Live! Anderson bobs and weaves his supple-toned fretwork among the somewhat staid rhythms common to reggae.

The mutual affinity that binds Marley with his audience is evident in the roars of approval that greet the opening notes of "Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)," "I Shot the Sheriff," and "Kinky Reggae." Likewise, "No Woman, No Cry" elicits a group singalong as the sheer volume of the audience challenges that of the amplified musicians. With this evidence, there is no denying that Bob Marley & the Wailers were becoming the unlikeliest of pop music icons. Additionally, Live! underscores the underrated talents of the Wailers as musicians. Recorded at the Lyceum, London 18th July 1975 recorded by Island employee Danny Holloway using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. Mixed at Basing Street Studios. Remastered from the original tapes at Barry Diament Audio, NYC.


Bob Marley & The Wailers - Live ( 316mb)

01 Trench Town Rock 4:22
02 Burnin' And Lootin' 5:08
03 Them Belly Full (But We Hungry) 4:29
04 Lively Up Yourself 4:32
05 No Woman No Cry 7:00
06 I Shot The Sheriff 5:15
07 Get Up, Stand Up 6:35
Bonus Track
08 Kinky Reggae 7:35

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Live (ogg 116mb)

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Bob Marley had reached critical mass as an international star when he came to make Rastaman Vibration in the winter of 1975-1976, having scored a Top 40 hit in the U.K. with "No Woman, No Cry" and seen his and the Wailers' last three studio albums belatedly enter the U.S. charts. Marley was acutely aware of his increasing status and its value. "We bubbling on the Top 100, just like a mighty dread," he sang in "Roots, Rock, Reggae," which indeed became his first American chart single when it was pulled from the album, while Rastaman Vibration itself spent four weeks in the Top Ten of the Billboard charts, the highest-charting LP of his career. Marley used his soapbox to emphasize his religious/political concerns in socially conscious songs like "Johnny Was," "Want More," and the musicalization of one of Haile Selassie's speeches, "War." The result was one of his most substantive collections. This vastly expanded reissue adds more than an hour and a half to the original 34-minute album, providing a musical view of the entire period in Marley's music. "Jah Live," the single that preceded the album, and "Smile Jamaica," which followed it, are included, along with six previously unreleased alternate mixes of songs from the album .

This was a key point in Marley's life, marking the consolidation of his international renown and prefacing the assassination attempt that exiled him from his native country. It is chronicled here. Although the album's liner notes list multiple songwriters, including family friends and bandmembers, all songs were written by Marley. Marley was involved in a contractual dispute at the time with his former publishing company, Cayman music. A decde later Marley's widow and his former manager Danny Sims sued to obtain royalty and ownership rights to the songs, claiming that Marley had actually written the songs but had assigned the credit to Ford to avoid meeting commitments made in prior contracts. A 1987 court decision favored the Marley estate, which assumed full control of the songs


Bob Marley And The Wailers - Rastaman Vibration ( flac 403mb)

01 Positive Vibration 3:34
02 Roots, Rock, Reggae 3:38
03 Johnny Was 3:48
04 Cry To Me 2:36
05 Want More 4:14
06 Crazy Baldhead 3:12
07 Who The Cap Fit 4:43
08 Night Shift 3:10
09 War 3:36
10 Rat Race 2:50
Bonus Tracks
11 Jah Live (Original Mix) 4:15
12 Concrete 4:21
13 Roots, Rock, Reggae (Single Mix) 3:37
14 Roots, Rock, Dub (Single Dub Mix) 3:35
15 Want More (Alternate Mix) 5:08
16 Crazy Baldhead (Alternate Mix) 3:06
17 War (Unreleased Alternate Mix) 4:01
18 Johnny Was (Alternate Mix) 3:40

Bob Marley And The Wailers - Rastaman Vibration  ( ogg 162mb)

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Recorded in London following an attempt on his life, Exodus shows Bob Marley mellowing a bit. Despite some powerful political tracks, Marley adopts a less fiery, more reflective approach than his previous outings. Still, it's hard to find reggae as good as this. Exodus has all one would expect from a Bob Marley album: rumbling statements like "Exodus" and "The Heathen" as well as poetic love songs like "Turn Your Lights Down Low." Considering how good these tracks are, Exodus does not stop here. Marley also unleashed the huge international hits "Jamming," "Waiting in Vain," and "One Love/People Get Ready." These inspired tracks, perhaps more than any others, came to define Marley around the world. They are irresistible no matter how many times they are played. Never one to dodge innovation, "Exodus" hints that Marley was taking cues from the emerging dub scene. Exodus, even though it contains some of Marley's best work, has an underlying nostalgic feel to it, hinting that Marley was getting a little formulaic.

Exodus has been recognized by music critics as one of the greatest albums of all time. In 1999, Time magazine named Exodus the best album of the 20th century. In 2003, the album was ranked number 169 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time


Bob Marley And The Wailers - Exodus ( flac 409mb)

01 Natural Mystic 3:28
02 So Much Things To Say 3:08
03 Guiltiness 3:19
04 The Heathen 2:32
05 Exodus 7:40
06 Jamming 3:31
07 Waiting In Vain 4:16
08 Turn Your Lights Down Low 3:39
09 Three Little Birds 3:00
10 One Love/People Get Ready 2:52
Bonus Tracks
11 Roots 3:42
12 Waiting In Vain (Alternate Version) 4:43
13 Jamming (Long Version) 5:52
14 Jamming (Version) 3:04
15 Exodus (Version) 3:08

Bob Marley And The Wailers - Exodus ( ogg 158mb)

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