Bob Marley & the Wailers: Live! (Deluxe Edition)

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Videos by American Songwriter

Bob Marley & the Wailers
Live! (Deluxe Edition)
(Ume)
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The recent trend of reissuing classic live albums with more music from the concerts that created them continues. From the Allman Brothers Band’s full March 1971 run at the Fillmore East, to shows from acts as disparate as Humble Pie (Rockin’ the Fillmore), the Grateful Dead’s Europe ’72 (at 73 discs!) and Van Morrison’s It’s Too Late to Stop Now tour, tapes long collecting dust have been excavated, buffed up and fed to rabid fans hungry for more. This has also served to create historical documents of these legendary time pieces. Add the current accumulation of nearly every gig from Bob Dylan’s 1966 tour (36 CDs) to understand the record business’ realization that to the hardcore devotee, too much is never enough.

Far more modest in its intentions is this document of Bob Marley & the Wailers’ two night stand (July 17 and 18th, 1975), at London’s The Lyceum. When Live! first arrived on vinyl, the edited version with seven cuts — all from the second evening — barely broke 40 minutes. This appropriately subtitled “deluxe edition,” oddly only available on vinyl and digital (no CD, at least yet), leaves that in the dust.

The entire, previously unreleased first night is here, (14 tunes) along with more selections from the second show and full versions of those tunes once edited for time constraints have been restored. The result is a 22 track, beautifully and faithfully packaged triple vinyl package including the tour program, that clocks in at a never boring 2 ¼ hours.

Even though there is repetition, the performances on Live! (the explanation point is well earned) catch Marley and band in full flower, relatively early in his career. It would take another few years until his talent reached widespread crossover status on 1977’s Exodus, which explains why this wasn’t originally a double album. But clearly his music was well known by this rowdy UK crowd who often boisterously sings along, and whose sheer energy helped push the already electrifying Marley to new heights. The band reinvigorates early tunes such as “Slave Driver,” “Trenchtown Rock” and “Stir it Up” in versions that make the already sturdy studio ones sound like cardboard cutouts. The closing “Get Up Stand Up,” here presented in its full 10 minute plus unedited glory, is alone worth the price of admission as Marley channels the positive vibrations that informed his best work, into a performance that feels as spiritual now as it did over four decades ago.

The professional recording puts the listener in the audience, making this an essential addition to anyone’s collection and manna from heaven to existing Marley fans who had to suffice with dodgy bootlegged copies … until now.

There is plenty of terrific Marley concert material out there, including 1976’s Live at the Roxy, but this particular stand remains tougher, rawer and edgier. Let’s hope 1978’s phenomenal Babylon by Bus gigs get similar treatment too.

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