Marley Escapes Rasta Retreat

Rip It Up, Issue 3, 1 August 1977, Page 11

Marley Escapes Rasta Retreat

John Malloy

Bob Marley and the Wailers Exodus Island i he editor tells me I'm fickle. I suspect he's right, and looking around the general rock audience, I get the feeling that I'm not alone. Today, you re a star, tomorrow we may not want to know you. So it is with Reggae. Last year it was codl, but this year its status is dubious. So, I was not approaching Exodus with as much enthusiasm as I might have shown twelve months ago. For a start, my favourite Wailers' album is Burnin’, made before Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingstone (two of the three original members) left to follow solo careers. Burnin' had the advantages of the distinctive high harmonies of the Wailers, and the contrast provided by Tosh's simple, direct tunes. Natty Dread just doesn't sound to me like the original Wailers did. I preferred Peter Tosh's Legalise It. So I was pleasantly surprised by this album. It’s consistently good, and the band is starting to sound like a unit again. Part of the difference is that the melodies on Exodus are consistently catchy and tuneful, whereas there were one or two fairly uninspired songs (eg, “Natty Dread", and "Three O'clock Road Block") on Natty Dread. As usual, the Barrett brothers lay down their distinctive rhythm. The keyboard work (Touter) is classically reggae-simple. Al Anderson, their Ameri-

can guitarist, is featured slightly more than previously, and adds a definite American

influence (compared, for example to the distinctively Jamaican Huks Brown, who plays on many Kingston sessions). It comes out sounding a bit like reggae for the masses white man's reggae. And that presents some problems. The further Bob Marley gets from the streets of Kingston (and he probably hasn't lived there for years) the more meaningless his Rastafarian Philosophy is. After all, while Jamaicans can get off on the idea of leaving Babylon, how many £Jew Zealanders would want togo and live in Ethiopia? And when, in "Guiltiness , Marley talks about the "hopeless sinners ', who does he mean? Finally, when the man who owns a mansion in Jamaica and a BMW claims to be one of the oppressed, a "small fish", his credibility sinks to an all time low. I'm sure he’s Been There but just look at him now. Not only is his hypocrisy outrageous, but he doesn't even sound convincing any more. Take a listen to Burning Spear and then see if you think Marley sounds for real. I don t believe he is.

In short, Bob Marley would do well to stick to songs with less Rasta propaganda if he wishes to keep his large Western following. The songs on Side Two of Exodus are free of heavyhanded biblical cliche, and they are better off for it.

Lyrics aside, though, Exodus is probably Marley's best album since the original Wailers broke up, and the first to reach the heights of Burnin’. It remains to be seen whether there is still an audience for good reggae in this country.