I never had the chance to see Bob Marley & The Wailers perform live; I was only 10 years old when Marley died in 1981, and watching videotapes just doesn't seem quite the same.
Likewise, listening to their 1975 album Live! doesn't seem to capture all the majesty of Marley's live performances, though there are times when that magic is easily carried over onto compact disc or cassette tape.
Recorded during the Wailers's critically-acclaimed performances
at the Lyceum in London, Marley and crew tear through seven songs;
often, it seems like the band is playing far too fast for the songs
to truly develop into something special. "Lively Up Yourself," one
of my favorites off of
Natty Dread, is one that doesn't benefit from the added
speed. Suffering on this one are the backing vocals and the
choruses; this is a song that, while a celebration of the human
spirit, should glorify in every note played and every word spoken.
A faster tempo doesn't allow for this to happen.
However, another song from Natty Dread, "No Woman No Cry," is thankfully slowed down into a soulful reggae ballad, one in which Marley truly comes into his own. The guitar solo on this one is something you might not have expected from a reggae album (and although I don't know who performed it, it sounds bluesy enough to be the handiwork of Donald Kinsey). This particular cut was included (wisely) on the best-of disc Legend (though the CD version unceremoniously lops off about a third of the song for no good reason - this is the only time I think I'd advocate against buying the CD).
Live! also adds a little extra kick to the hit "I Shot The Sheriff," which also seems to have a touch of soul thrown into the mix. Marley's delivery on this one is a little clearer than the studio version, which is a change of pace. However, "Get Up Stand Up," the album's closer, is one song that stretches out longer than it should have, even with Marley's ad-libbing with the audience in chant mode. Granted, this is a hard song to stop (and they seem to cut it on the studio version off of Burnin'), but this one easily could have been shortened a bit.
Of the remaining cuts on Live!, "Trenchtown Rock" is my pick for the "closet classic", though I think the sound on the corresponding video is better mixed (the organ is more in-your-face on the video). The other two songs, "Burnin' And Lootin'" and "Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)", are for-the-fans numbers that will probably not win any new converts over.
The biggest complaint I have with Live! is that it's too damned short; clocking in around 37 minutes, Marley is an artist who begs to be heard live, and this disc doesn't give us enough of a taste but to get our mouths watering. (This would be corrected in 1978 with Marley's second live album, the two-record set Babylon By Bus.)
Live! is still a nice historical artifact to listen to, though it's nowhere near enough to satisfy one's craving for the reggae that Marley and his band created. And, believe me, getting hooked on reggae produces a serious case of the munchies for more of Marley's music.