As a musician who helped to popularize reggae in America (at
\nleast for a short time), Bob Marley couldn’t help but be influenced
\nby rock and roll. After all, he and the Wailers had influenced so
\nmany artists in rock that there had to be some lessons that he took
\nfrom them.<\/p>\n
Those lessons manifest themselves the strongest in his 1980
\nrelease
\nUprising<\/i> – which, unfortunately, would be Marley’s last
\nalbum prior to his death in 1981. While it’s not his strongest
\nalbum of his career, it does contain two of the best songs that
\nMarley ever recorded.<\/p>\n
Marley and the Wailers hit paydirt on the song “Could You Be
\nLoved,” a song that is highlighted for me by the actual use of a
\nsnare drum instead of the traditional rim shot – to my ears, a
\nwelcome change. Peppy and poppy, Marley is in rare form on this
\ntrack, laying down a beat that is not only danceable, but one that
\ncontinues his pattern of challenging the listener to think past the
\nlyrics.<\/p>\n
The other track, “Redemption Song,” is the starkest portrait of
\nMarley as an artist. Featuring only Marley on acoustic guitar and
\nvocal, he offers this track almost as a known “farewell” to his
\nfans. It doesn’t have a traditional reggae feel to it (I can’t
\nimagine this song ever being done by a full band), and its sudden
\nstop to close the album almost is a reminder of how Marley would be
\nsilenced shortly after this album’s release.<\/p>\n
Of the remaining tracks on
\nUprising<\/i>, one can often hear in Marley’s vocals that
\nsomething was wrong. Honestly, they were not as strong as they had
\nbeen in recent years (and Marley was never an overpowering singer
\nin the first place), so the hint of weakness in this category
\nshould have put a red flag up for people.<\/p>\n
This notwithstanding, the first half of
\nUprising<\/i> is strong enough to stand on its own, with only
\n“Bad Card” being a weak link. Other songs like “Coming In From The
\nCold” and “We And Dem” carry the album to greater heights. “Work”
\nis an interesting track, a social commentary on how almost all of
\nus try to get through one day just to make the time to the weekend
\npass more quickly.<\/p>\n
And while the second half of
\nUprising<\/i> contains the two hits, the remaining three tracks
\nshow signs of slowing down. “Pimper’s Paradise” is not one of
\nMarley’s better works, while “Zion Train” and “Forever Loving Jah”
\nare marginal, at best.<\/p>\n
In a way, to even suggest the slightest hint of weakness on
\nUprising<\/i> may be seen as blasphemy, or disrespect to Marley’s
\nmemory. But when compared to some of his earlier works, there is a
\nnoticeable change in the songwriting – compare some of the weaker
\ntracks to numbers like “Lively Up Yourself,” “Is This Love” or the
\nkick-ass live version of “No Woman No Cry”, and tell me that
\nthey’re on the same levels.<\/p>\n
Still, there is enough on
\nUprising<\/i> to keep the listener intrigued for most of the time
\n– as well as to remind them just how much Marley and his music are
\nsorely missed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5702],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38687","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bob-marley-the-wailers","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38687","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=38687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38687"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}