This remarkable session was broadcast live by San Francisco's KSAN-FM at the very end of The Wailers' tribulation-laden first American tour. While not strictly a "live" album in the conventional sense of the word, all but four of the tracks were recorded in front of five or six people in a closed studio session at the Record Plant in Sausalito in 1973. I believe I was spoiled when my introduction to reggae came in the guise of this album. While dope is usually never very far from the grooves and digits of Bob albums the world 'round, the music's weight, the lyrics' power, and the incessant drive of reggae require no "artificial flavoring" in order to be appreciated. It takes a great deal of dope and time to be able to do this.…
Talkin' Blues, a compilation album released in 1991, was in constant rotation, along with Santana and The Dead, and so much so that I found myself eventually being able to decipher some of Bob's Jamaican patois during the interview extracts. So it was in a place called the "Red Room," the living room of a triple in which lived a couple of cheery stoners, that I first really heard Bob Marley.
I exaggerate somewhat, of course, as Maine's long winters were anything but illustrious for cold-hating me, and the isolation of Lewiston - an ex-industrial shithole - only compounded my unhappiness further. My introduction to this extraordinary man and his band of musicians came shortly after my arrival in the U.S., where I was to attend college in the illustrious state that is Maine. Produced by Chris Blackwell & Hooman Majd
The word spread so much the next day, with everybody going on as if they were there. “It was one of those shows - even though it was a capacity of 1800, in which 20,000 people were there. Rather, he stood in the audience and watched as Marley's career crystallized. Though Blackwell produced Live!, he insists he had no hand in recording it. That night Bob Marley was at the center of the world.” Live! is potently concise, from the opener “Trenchtown Rock” to the closing “Get Up, Stand Up.” “There is always an energy that goes to a band when they walk onstage,” says Blackwell, “and if the mood is right the performer can harness that energy and take off. “1975 was the defining point of his career,” says Blackwell, “because Bob broke out of Jamaica and England and the whole world began to listen.” I thought, 'Boy, I've got to record this live', because it sounded so incredible.”Ī few months later, Marley recorded the album, and his life in music, moving quickly from R&B enthusiast and activist to pop superstar and universal ambassador of reggae music, would never be the same. “At his shows he was doing 'No Woman, No Cry' and the audiences were singing so enthusiastically. Island/Tuff Gong ILPS 9376 (LP), 422-846 203-2 (CD)īefore Bob Marley cut Live! at the Lyceum in London, Marley's producer Chris Blackwell remembers how the fanaticism surrounding the singer was escalating. Produced by Steve Smith and Chris Blackwell
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