Published on Aug 10, 1998
I never had the chance to see Bob Marley & The Wailers
perform live; I was only 10 years old when Marley died in 1981, and
watching videotapes just doesn’t seem quite the same.
Likewise, listening to their 1975 album
Live! doesn’t seem to capture all the majesty of Marley’s
live performances, though there are times when that magic is easily
carried over onto compact disc or cassette tape.
Recorded during the Wailers’s critically-acclaimed performances
at the Lyceum in London, Marley and crew tear through seven songs;
often, it seems like the band is playing far too fast for the songs
to truly develop into something special. “Lively Up Yourself,” one
of my favorites off of
Natty Dread, is one that doesn’t benefit from the added
speed. Suffering on this one are the backing vocals and the
choruses; this is a song that, while a celebration of the human
spirit, should glorify in every note played and every word spoken.
A faster tempo doesn’t allow for this to happen.
However, another song from
Natty Dread, “No Woman No Cry,” is thankfully slowed down
into a soulful reggae ballad, one in which Marley truly comes into
his own. The guitar solo on this one is something you might not
have expected from a reggae album (and although I don’t know who
performed it, it sounds bluesy enough to be the handiwork of Donald
Kinsey). This particular cut was included (wisely) on the best-of
disc
Legend (though the CD version unceremoniously lops off about
a third of the song for no good reason – this is the only time I
think I’d advocate against buying the CD).
Live! also adds a little extra kick to the hit “I Shot The
Sheriff,” which also seems to have a touch of soul thrown into the
mix. Marley’s delivery on this one is a little clearer than the
studio version, which is a change of pace. However, “Get Up Stand
Up,” the album’s closer, is one song that stretches out longer than
it should have, even with Marley’s ad-libbing with the audience in
chant mode. Granted, this is a hard song to stop (and they seem to
cut it on the studio version off of
Burnin’), but this one easily could have been shortened a
bit.
Of the remaining cuts on
Live!, “Trenchtown Rock” is my pick for the “closet
classic”, though I think the sound on the corresponding video is
better mixed (the organ is more in-your-face on the video). The
other two songs, “Burnin’ And Lootin'” and “Them Belly Full (But We
Hungry)”, are for-the-fans numbers that will probably not win any
new converts over.
The biggest complaint I have with
Live! is that it’s too damned short; clocking in around 37
minutes, Marley is an artist who begs to be heard live, and this
disc doesn’t give us enough of a taste but to get our mouths
watering. (This would be corrected in 1978 with Marley’s second
live album, the two-record set
Babylon By Bus.)
Live! is still a nice historical artifact to listen to,
though it’s nowhere near enough to satisfy one’s craving for the
reggae that Marley and his band created. And, believe me, getting
hooked on reggae produces a serious case of the munchies for more
of Marley’s music.