Bob Marley & Wailers - Exodus
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Free Music Notes for Exodus
Free Music Review: Iconic! Simply unmissable!
Hit: 5 Stars
I watched a TV documentary the other night about the making of this album and it was a spellbinding hour and a half. Apparently, Bob had to flee Jamaica for the UK after an assassination attempt and ended up living in London for a year. It was during this year that this phenomenal album was recorded. I've owned it for over 20 years now - first on cassette, then on vinyl and finally on CD - and I had no clue that this was so.
The album was released in 1977. It was the year of the Queen's Silver Jubilee but Britain was in a very bad place, the seeds of Thatcherism and the heartless 80s had already been sown and Punk ruled the airwaves. I lived a very sheltered life as a teenager and so it wasn't until 1979 when I went away to boarding school, that I finally get to hear the album in its entirety. It was a true revelation. I heard it on (what was then) a new invention my peers and I called a "hi-fi system" owned by an older student and I remember hearing the percussion on "Jamming" and being transfixed. No exaggeration; I was literally hypnotised.
The album is faultless with pristine production by Bob and The Wailers. From the minute the first strains of "Natural Mystic" fade in, through the accusatory "Guiltiness", on to the revolutionary title track, the slow jams "Waiting In Vain" & "Turn Your Lights Down Low", on to the optimitic "Three Little Birds" and right to the end of "One Love/People Get Ready", there is not a single note out of place. Each song, a potential hit single, (7 of the 10 songs on the original album were actually hits here in the UK) has a vibrant, totally relevant message - especially for a black teenager living in 70s UK, and Bob's primary ethos of peace & love have stayed with me ever since. That being said, this is the album that began to open my young eyes to the oppression and injustice that already surrounded me. The idea that music wasn't simply for entertainment or escapism but could inspire thought, behaviour and attitude change as well as activism, was new and very appealing.
And this was also the album that turned Bob from an international reggae star into a global prophet. Setting everything about Rastafarianism (respectfully) to one side, Bob the man and the music he made, the message he spread, have always educated and enthralled me in equal measure and always will. When I think about what are for me, consummately iconic, influential and superb recordings and I think about such albums as Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, John Coltane's A Love Supreme, Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life, Michael Jackson's Off the Wall, Pink Floyd's The Wall (Deluxe Packaging Digitally Remastered) and Radiohead's OK Computer, I also, immediately, think of Bob Marley's "Exodus". My life was definitely not the same after listening to it and now that I fully understand the story behind it, I hold the album in even higher esteem.
Whether this is Marley's best piece of work or not is, I guess, a matter of personal opinion and will always be open to debate. What is beyond doubt, is that it is my favourite Bob Marley album and I am proud and honoured to make this my 200th review on amazon.com. I'm a bit of a purist so I prefer the version I have which does not have the two extra tracks (though I have both on 12" single) but they are definitely worth having. As such, this is the version to get. There'll no doubt be a '30th anniversary edition' knocking around before too long as well.
Free Music Review: Jammin' .
Hit: 5 Stars
With Time magazine having awarded this album the distinction of Album of the (last) Century, it would be a bit contrarian to give it less than 5 stars, even though it is not my favorite Marley album--Kaya is.What is it that made this skinny, half white, soccer and ganja loving Jamaican such a beloved figure? Well, of course dying young always helps, and like his near contemporary John Lennon, Marley didn't make it into middle age. But Marley was truly one of a kind. His voice is not the kind of voice that you say is a good voice or a bad voice. Like Dylan's it is instantly recognizable as his voice and that is all that counts. The songs are brilliant, all self penned, and rarely covered by other artists. Marley, as far as I know, never performs cover versions of songs by other composers.
Marley is seen by many as a quasi religious figure, and I have to confess that though I am no Rastafarian (though I have smoked ganja) nor Christian (though I have taken communion), I find this album spiritually uplifting in a way that I do not find, say, contemporary Christian music uplifting. Marley's songs are replete with Biblical references and echoes, but to compare someone like Amy Grant with Marley would be absurd. However the fact that it IS so absurd is a measure of his status, which is head and shoulders above all but the very greatest artists. You have to put him up there in the pantheon of greats along with the Beatles, Stones, Miles Davis, Hendrix etc.
So like all of Marley's recordings, you cannot measure it simply in musical terms, because it is more than just music, it is inspiration too.
This album goes from strength to strength. Many albums start with the best track and then go downhill, but this one saves the best for later. Jammin' is probably my favorite Marley track, and you get two versions here. The first sounds very much as if it would fit right in on Kaya, with the booming bass, guitar lines adding a little color, and that voice, ah, that voice with the unique Marley lyrics. The second is a longer jazzier, more instrumental version.
Then come Waiting in Vain, Turn Your Lights Down Low, Three Little Birds, and One Love/People Get Ready, before the reprise of Jammin' and Punky Reggae Party.
Really, if you like Marley's music, you can't go wrong with this.
Since writing the above I have been listening to this album in my car almost every day from weeks and I have revised my opinion. It probably IS the greatest album of the twentieth century. Everything else I listen to now seems to pale by comparison.
Free Music Review: Exodus
Hit: 5 Stars
Bob Marley & The Wailers-Exodus *****
Released in 1977, the year that 'punk broke' Exodus was the most important album to emerge that year, not The Sex Pistols' Never Mind The Bollocks, not The Clash, not L.A.M.F., no, Exodus far passes those in terms of importance, and really in over all quality. The overall spirituality and tone of the album is very different from all the other albums the group had previously released. The same can be said for the production of the album and the band, both of which are tighter and sound better then any other album the band ever recorded, though that does not make this the groups best album.
Exodus was released and recorded while Marley was living in England after fleeing his home land due to a assassination attempt on his life. This may explain the sudden change in subject matter. Marley was always known for being very spiritual but it seems as though the hit on his life brought him closer to his faith, songs like the angelic 'One Love' the equaly big hit 'Three Little Birds' and the albums incredible opener 'Natural Mystic' are excellent examples of this. Marley had also been known as some what of a rights activist for his people, but living in another part of the world seemed to have brought peace to his mind about the harsh conditions back home because he was more focused on his universal truths such as fate.
Songs like 'Jamming' and the beautiful 'Waiting In Vain' brought Marley & The Wailers to the masses. These songs along with basically the rest of the album made the group giants in the United States and in the U.K. where seven of the albums songs became hit singles, and for that, bringing a whole style of music to the rest of the world on that large of a scale, Exodus is easily one of the most important albums ever made.
With such great songs and amazing musicianship in the group Exodus is a instant classic and essential for all those interested in any form of music. Though I must say that this is not the best album by the group, it is a very close second, but with out any question, Catch A Fire, the groups first album is the best. The group plays tighter then ever here, showing that change is not always a bad thing, that it is not something to fear, but also showing once again that Marley never wrote any bad material.
Free Music Review: excellent
Hit: 5 Stars
I grew up in a non-musical household: no one played anything, and the only music we heard was in church and my mother's occasional white southern gospel music (the Oak Ridge Boys and so on). Rock was Satanic, and no one had heard of classical music. I've spent the nearly two decades of my adult life compensating for this tragedy!
Of course reggae wasn't on the map either. (Had it been, it would've been forbidden due to its association with Rastafarianism.)
Well, no matter what your religious views, this is an album that you really should hear, and I should've heard sooner. I got it a few weeks ago, have heard it a few times, and it is unquestionably excellent in every way: musically, lyrically, technically, spiritually. (This is not to endorse Rastafarianism, about which I know almost nothing, but the lyrics of the song "Guiltiness," for instance, are solidly in the great prophetic tradition stretching back to Amos and Isaiah.)
What I mean to say: this album is an essential moment in the history of 20th century popular music. If you've educated yourself about classic rock, jazz, the blues, it's time you got some reggae, and you won't want to miss this.
Let me toss in some other "Latin" albums (a category that doesn't really please me, but it's out there anyway and I'll use it this time) I'd consider important for anyone aspiring to cultural literacy: Calypso stands at the beginning of this tradition; I Can See Clearly Now is probably the most famous example of it; Mambo Diablo seems to have been unfairly neglected in recent decades; Getz/Gilberto may be the all-time single greatest album in this category; but Wave should not be overlooked. Many hours of great pleasure await us!
"Don't worry about a thing, cuz every little thing is gonna be alright."
Free Music Review: My First Marley Album and Arguably the Best One!
Hit: 5 Stars
From personal experience, I can say that if you are trying to get into Bob Marley, start with this album! Let me start out with this: A lot of people(and I used to be one of them) say that all of Bob's songs sound the same. I have learned, from actually listening to his songs thoroughly, that that is an ignorant statement. Yes, the guitar does sound the same on 98% of the songs. But I have come to learn that the guitar in Reggae is just like the drums are in others genres of music; it keeps the beat. If it didn't sound like it does in every song, then it WOULDN'T be Reggae. The appreciation comes when you listen to how the song is built up around the guitar part; the horns, the keys/piano, and especially the BASS.
Now that I've said my part, I'll talk about the album. This is, from start to finish, an excellent album. If I were to be completely honest, it took a long time for it to grow on me. But once it did, it became my favorite Bob album. It is so emotional, and it contains my second favorite Bob song "Waiting in Vain." This album is also special because I believe that this was the first recording on which Marley knew he had cancer and was dying. To make music with this much passion and make your 5 best albums(Exodus-Confrontation) AFTER you know that you have cancer deserves a hell of a lot of admiration if you ask me. Anyway, don't take my word for it, buy this album. If you don't like this one, chances are you won't really like any other Bob Marley. But if you do like this, every recording after this one is also excellent. This is not to say that all the pre-Exodus albums aren't good, but they are very different than this one.
In short, if you are trying to get to know Bob Marley's music, you should:
1)Know how to appreciate Reggae music
2)Start with this album, and if you like it, then
3)Buy any/all albums AFTER this one (Kaya-Confrontation)
4)Then move on to the ealier albums