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| Bob Marley |
The first serious and seriously good concert I attended was 33 years ago. Bob Marley and Wailers at Northrup Auditorium on the campus of
the University of Minnesota.
I used to cook in a greasy spoon open-all-night campus café
with a guy who worked in a local record shop, named Ned. He had an amazing and eclectic record
collection and will always be remembered as the guy who introduced me to such
artists as Fela, The Flamin’ Groovies and The Bonzo Doo Dog Band. One late Saturday night when we were both
covered in flour (our café’s speciality was pizza that in the immortal words of
one reviewer tasted like ‘it had been scraped off the carpet’) Ned told me that
Bob Marley was coming to town soon.
I had never heard the name. “What kind of music?” I asked.
“Reggae,” Ned said.
“What?”
“Just come along.”
I did and wow, what a night. We sat right in front the light
board from which clouds of ganja smoke drifted through our heads. Bob raced and
jumped back and forth across the stage, his dreadlocks covering his face all
the time. The I Threes swayed and cooed throughout and the band sizzled like a
bbq in the desert. A new world opened
before me. How, I wondered, have I not heard this groovy music before?
I recently listened to tonight’s selection, Babylon by Bus, which was issued around
the same time as the concert I attended. It deserves all 5 stars awarded by so
many critics. The sound is crisp, the band is tight and Marley simply bristles
with energy. Exactly as I remember.
Some say this is the best live reggae record ever made. Who
knows. But God, it is exciting! Give it a spin. It will get your blood flowing.
Track
Listing:
01 Positive Vibration
02 Punky Reggae Party
03 Exodus
04 Stir It Up
05 Rat Race
06 Concrete Jungle
07 Kinky Reggae
08 Lively Up Yourself
09 Rebel Music
10 War/No More Trouble
11 Is This Love
12 Heathen
13 Jamming
