I never had the chance to see Bob Marley & The Wailers
\nperform live; I was only 10 years old when Marley died in 1981, and
\nwatching videotapes just doesn’t seem quite the same.<\/p>\n
Likewise, listening to their 1975 album
\nLive!<\/i> doesn’t seem to capture all the majesty of Marley’s
\nlive performances, though there are times when that magic is easily
\ncarried over onto compact disc or cassette tape.<\/p>\n
Recorded during the Wailers’s critically-acclaimed performances
\nat the Lyceum in London, Marley and crew tear through seven songs;
\noften, it seems like the band is playing far too fast for the songs
\nto truly develop into something special. “Lively Up Yourself,” one
\nof my favorites off of
\nNatty Dread<\/i>, is one that doesn’t benefit from the added
\nspeed. Suffering on this one are the backing vocals and the
\nchoruses; this is a song that, while a celebration of the human
\nspirit, should glorify in every note played and every word spoken.
\nA faster tempo doesn’t allow for this to happen.<\/p>\n
However, another song from
\nNatty Dread<\/i>, “No Woman No Cry,” is thankfully slowed down
\ninto a soulful reggae ballad, one in which Marley truly comes into
\nhis own. The guitar solo on this one is something you might not
\nhave expected from a reggae album (and although I don’t know who
\nperformed it, it sounds bluesy enough to be the handiwork of Donald
\nKinsey). This particular cut was included (wisely) on the best-of
\ndisc
\nLegend<\/i> (though the CD version unceremoniously lops off about
\na third of the song for no good reason – this is the only time I
\nthink I’d advocate against buying the CD).<\/p>\n
\nLive!<\/i> also adds a little extra kick to the hit “I Shot The
\nSheriff,” which also seems to have a touch of soul thrown into the
\nmix. Marley’s delivery on this one is a little clearer than the
\nstudio version, which is a change of pace. However, “Get Up Stand
\nUp,” the album’s closer, is one song that stretches out longer than
\nit should have, even with Marley’s ad-libbing with the audience in
\nchant mode. Granted, this is a hard song to stop (and they seem to
\ncut it on the studio version off of
\nBurnin’<\/i>), but this one easily could have been shortened a
\nbit.<\/p>\n
Of the remaining cuts on
\nLive!<\/i>, “Trenchtown Rock” is my pick for the “closet
\nclassic”, though I think the sound on the corresponding video is
\nbetter mixed (the organ is more in-your-face on the video). The
\nother two songs, “Burnin’ And Lootin'” and “Them Belly Full (But We
\nHungry)”, are for-the-fans numbers that will probably not win any
\nnew converts over.<\/p>\n
The biggest complaint I have with
\nLive!<\/i> is that it’s too damned short; clocking in around 37
\nminutes, Marley is an artist who begs to be heard live, and this
\ndisc doesn’t give us enough of a taste but to get our mouths
\nwatering. (This would be corrected in 1978 with Marley’s second
\nlive album, the two-record set
\nBabylon By Bus<\/i>.)<\/p>\n
\nLive!<\/i> is still a nice historical artifact to listen to,
\nthough it’s nowhere near enough to satisfy one’s craving for the
\nreggae that Marley and his band created. And, believe me, getting
\nhooked on reggae produces a serious case of the munchies for more
\nof Marley’s music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5702],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-39245","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\/39245","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=39245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39245"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}