Rivers of Babylon

Press, 25 January 1979, Page 15

Rivers of Babylon

808 MARLEY AND THE WAILERS “Babylon By Bus” (Island L7017/8): This is the second live album to be released by Bob Marley, and “Babylon By Bus” being a double, one would think that it was a bargain.

While it is nice to hear the reggae rhythm churn from the speakers, there is nothing really in the latest double-album to say that anything is new. Marley is the undisputed superstar of reggae music, but in his last two studio albums, “Exodus” and "Kaya,” Marley has been struggling to equal his earlier albums such as ‘ Catch a Fire” and “Natty Dread.”

An overseas critic remarked that Island Records needed the Marley live album to fill in a gap, and that the Wailers were the only artists in its “stable” making the money.

While this is a slightly cynical view, it does hold a’certain element of truth.

Only “Stir It Up,” “Concrete Jungle” and “Lively Up Yourself” really emerge better than the studio versions, and “Exodus.” too is catchy. But, there is no real atmosphere on the double a

bum, consisting of four songs from “Catch a Fire,” two from “Natty Dread,” three each from “Rastaman Vibration” and “Exodus,” one from “Kaya” and a dreadful

new song "Punky Reggae Party.”

“Babylon By Bus” is going through the motions of Marley history, and I think more interest is in seeing just what the Wallers will come up with next.

HEART "Dog and Butterfly” (Portrait PR 33011): This is Heart’s third album, or fourth, if you count the hodgepodge of “Magazine” after the infighting between Mushroom (the Canadian label) and the group. “Dog and Butterfly" represent the best synthesis yet of the two aspects of Heart, summed up in the title. “Dog” is the heavy metal side and “Butterfly” the silky soft folkish element.

The Wilson sisters have improved immeasurably. Nancy’s guitar playing is assured, while Ann’s vocals come out strong and clear.

“Mistral Wind” on the “Butterfly” side is the best track on the album, starting out softly and building up into a climax of guitars, the way that Led Zeppelin favour. “Dog and Butterfly” is what the last album ‘‘Little Queen” should ahve been.

NEIL YOUNG “Comes A Time” (Reprise MSK 2266: “Comes A Time,” or as it was to be called “Gone With The Wind,” has been out for a couple of months, and as a dedicated Young fan I finally got hold of a copy. Neil Young is one of the true great rock artists around, and “Comes A Time” shows he is not about to bow before the corporate record empire after endlessly changing songs, record covers,

engineers and producers so that the record cover at the back reads like the graffiti on a toilet wall. Yet “Come A Time” is one of the most commercial albums that Young has made. It contains none of the jagged edges of his last album “American Stars *n’ Bars,” with its roaring tension of “Hurricane” or the meandering “Will to Live.” Oh, his voice is still offkey, but he has laid down his guitar and the most prominent instrument is the fiddle, so that the music resembles the photo of Young on the cover — a smiling, slightly crazy Woody Guthrie.

Indeed, one of the songs on the album, “Field of Opportunity” contains lyrics that Guthrie might have liked to write about the Okies in California — “in the field of opportunity/it’s plowing time again” — except, it is tongue-in-cheek humour. A straight, beautiful cover version of lan Tyson’s folk song, “Four Strong Winds,” finishes the album. The frightening thing about Young is that he has more than 200 other songs recorded which he has never released, and one wonders just how good they are.