I have mixed feelings about
\nRastaman Vibration<\/i>, the 1976 release from Bob Marley &
\nThe Wailers. On one hand, I don’t often find myself drawn to the
\nPierce Memorial Archives to listen to this one, simply because it
\ndoesn’t scream “greatest hits” from its track listing. (It could
\nalso be that I’m hesitant to listen to “War,” thanks to what Sinead
\nO’Connor turned that track into during her appearance on Saturday
\nNight Live all those years ago.<\/p>\n
Yet when I did finally dig my old cassette out from the Archives
\nand popped it into the tape deck, I found myself pleasantly
\nsurprised by this album. In a sense, it doesn’t need to have any of
\nthe hits on it, for the music in general holds its own quite well.
\nYet it also suggests that Marley and crew were reaching a comfort
\nlevel that threatened to be harmful to the music.<\/p>\n
For the most part, Marley’s style of reggae dared to be more
\nthan one or two chord progressions; this allowed him to grow as a
\nsongwriter and help to become reggae’s best-known spokesperson. (I
\nrealize the track “Exodus,” one of Marley’s biggest hits, is
\nconstant riffing of an A-minor chord… but that’s a different
\nalbum which we’ve already talked about on this site.) On
\nRastaman Vibration<\/i>, there’s a lot of settling in to simple
\nchord patterns which don’t vary at all – and that suggested
\nstagnation on the part of Marley and all the other song
\nwriters.<\/p>\n
Even so, tracks such as “Positive Vibration,” “Roots, Rock,
\nReggae” and “Who The Cap Fit” shine on this album – and even though
\nnone of them were featured on the best-of package
\nLegend<\/i>, these songs all show they had the power to be
\nremembered on their own terms.<\/p>\n
Yet some of the tracks you’d expect to be the ones that leap off
\nthe album into your heart are the ones which are the most
\ntroubling. “War” is one of the tracks which sticks to a simple
\nchord progression, and though Marley’s rendition blows all others
\nout of the water, it still is weak in comparison to the outstanding
\ntracks on this disc. Likewise, “Crazy Baldhead” has its moments,
\nbut its overall power is compromised by a bizarre war-like whoop
\nthat Marley lets loose with at the start.<\/p>\n
What’s a little more disturbing is that other tracks, which
\nprobably would have been standouts in their own right had they been
\non a different disc, are lost in the shuffle. “Night Shift” and
\n“Rat Race” both come to mind as examples.<\/p>\n
\nRastaman Vibration<\/i> is by no means the nightmare I once
\nthought it to be, but it also is not the best of Marley’s catalog.
\nThat said, it is worth checking out for the hidden gems, and is
\nstill recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5702],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-36872","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bob-marley-the-wailers","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36872"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36872"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}