the strange case of bob marley

[bungo the mungo]

a musical giant in his field, but one that rarely gets discussed. reggae in general, is a genre which suffers the same fate. such an influence on the UK punk scene too.

even 'rolling stone' dissed him by including the compilation 'legend' in their top 500 when there are plenty of authentic albums of his which should easily have made their list.

so where do you stand on marley? favourite tracks?

i'll start with a couple of faves:

[tory]

Absolutely not interested. Never have.

I think part of that was is his utter ubiquity during the late 80s and early 90s. Like Queen & Dire Straits, him and Sade seemed, at least to me, to occupy the music collections of people who had no other interest in music. When I was a teen, that seemed like an almost criminal offence.

[sloopjohnc]

The US never got much exposure to reggae. My Boy Lollipop, although no one in the US knew that was ska, and Clapton's I Shot the Sheriff. Until the Police, I guess.

I was hooked on the rhythm. On my first trip to England you could hear lots more and I dove headfirst, buying three Marley albums, Rastaman Vibration, the first. I became a fanatical Marley fan and got my hand on everything I could as well as other artists.

The next year after England, he went on tour, his last as it turned out and my brother and I went to see him and the Wailers. He lived up to every expectation and turned a fairly big venue, The Kaiser Auditorium, into the most intimate place you could imagine. Ron Wood, who was in town, joined them for encore.

I had hundreds of reggae albums and consider myself a pretty knowledgeable connoisseur. Sadly, the only Marley album I play now is Survival.

Below is a great book on reggae artists and albums by chronology and genre. I got a new one every time it's updated.

["BING E BONG"]

He's absolute rubbish

[bungo the mungo]

Oct 22, 2020 16:27:02 GMT tory said:

Absolutely not interested. Never have.

I think part of that was is his utter ubiquity during the late 80s and early 90s. Like Queen & Dire Straits, him and Sade seemed, at least to me, to occupy the music collections of people who had no other interest in music. When I was a teen, that seemed like an almost criminal offence.

i think you've hit the nail on the head.

it's a terrible shame though.

[Half Machine Lipschitz]

My older sister had "Exodus", so I grew up being quite familiar with that one, and then in the late 80's I listened to the previous album "Rastaman Vibration" for a little while after borrowing it from a friend, but that's as far as I ever got with him. Like Toby I got turned off by his increasing popularity amongst college types and other goofs and aside from the odd "ooh, this is an early deep cut - you should check it out" I pretty much cut him out entirely. I've got some friends that are complete reggae and dub crate miners and I definitely prefer the rough gems they come up with to Marley's polished cuts.

["BING E BONG"]

This is lovely, mind

[~ / % ? *]

Legend has sold 15 million in the US, the boxed set sold 2 million, all this of course long after his passing. He sort of represents a sort of Grateful Dead continuum for many in the US, tie dyed shirts, peace love, hakysaks, etc., His Perry stuff is essentially reggae's Sun sessions but has been cheapen by constant repackaging. From what I can remember, he could do 3-5000 seaters in the US by 75/76, moved up to 15000-17000 seaters by his death in 1980. Marley was the only one who could move to late night FM airplay, but he got solid college/community airplay on reggae shows, particularly those broadcasting to US Jamaican communities quite large in Bos-Wash corridor. I do avoid his stuff, just too overplayed. The old unremastered cds are the way to go sound wise, though.

Talking Blues is an interesting collection taken from 1973(?)stripped down US radio show 

Bob Marley Small Axe (Originally done with Perry, later redone for RastaMan Vibration)

[Deleted]

Oct 22, 2020 16:48:27 GMT "BING E BONG" said:

He's absolute rubbish

Of course he isn't.

[bungo the mungo]

Oct 22, 2020 17:23:17 GMT ~ / % ? * said:

I do avoid his stuff, just too overplayed.

i'll skip to the most interesting part of your post.

you could argue that there are plenty of 60s and 70s sacred cows (beatles etc) who have also been overplayed to death, but still hold their appeal.

for some reason, marley seems to be the artist most open to that criticism and the most chastised for it.

i'd like to get to the bottom of it.

[~ / % ? *]

Oct 22, 2020 17:33:06 GMT bungo the mungo said:

Oct 22, 2020 17:23:17 GMT ~ / % ? * said:

I do avoid his stuff, just too overplayed.

i'll skip to the most interesting part of your post.

you could argue that there are plenty of 60s and 70s sacred cows (beatles etc) who have also been overplayed to death, but still hold their appeal.

for some reason, marley seems to be the artist most open to that criticism and the most chastised for it.

i'd like to get to the bottom of it.

Good Point, his music and image were pretty ubiquitous after his death thanks to the family and Universal. 15 million cds in the US means a certain distillation  of his work was played in stores, festivals, restaurants, radio, whereas Toots, Bunny, Spear, Romeo,  Meditations, etc., were not. Ironically, the 90s really exploded with digital/dancehall which ran from the Marley legacy whilst his sales were peaking, so who knows? Dancehall has puttered out here, but Marley's legacy continues on, just not for all reggae/roots fans. Jah-adam, rastafari.

The rush to make him a peace/love saint may have also set him as a caricature. Remember, everybody had a reggae tune (usually humorous, sometimes with patois ) : zappa, Police, Lindley, Dead, etc., and Bob was usually as far as the depth went. 

[cousinlou]

He, and other reggae artists, made some great music. The genre, however, seems too narrow.

[sloopjohnc]

Oct 22, 2020 21:32:33 GMT cousinlou said:

He, and other reggae artists, made some great music. The genre, however, seems too narrow.

As a reggae lover, I'd say you're right.

[~ / % ? *]

I assume inspector skope got to the bottom of the marley maliase in his usual "distracted by butterflies hey let me go run through those high grasses" high concentration way, OOps, is it time for Lulu, Sandie video already, again

[bungo the mungo]

Oct 23, 2020 13:33:51 GMT ~ / % ? * said:

I assume inspector skope got to the bottom of the marley maliase

yes, i did Gav. apparently he is overplayed, reggae is too narrow a genre and too many non-music fans own 'legend'.