[edit] Bob Marley & the Wailers: Exodus

Produced by: Bob Marley & The Wailers Engineer-Mixing: Carl Pitterson Assistant Engineer (1): Terry Barham Assistant Engineer (2) Guy Bidmead Mixing: Chris Blackwell

(Recorded in London while Marley recuperated from an assasination attempt)

[edit] Track Listing:

Natural Mystic - 3:28 So Much Things to Say - 3:08 Guiltiness - 3:19 The Heathen - 2:32 Exodus - 7:39 Jammin' - 3:31 Waiting in Vain - 4:15 Turn Your Lights Down Low - 3:39 Three Little Birds - 2:60 One Love/People Get Ready - 2:53

As soon as we approach the Bob Marley myth, any rock critic will inevitably mention his Opus "Catch A Fire" and the next one deserves Kudos for the fantastic "Get Up Stand Up" and the 'Live At The Lyceum' is considered to be the end of the adventure of the mixed blood Jamaican who had become a global superstar.

And we can understand why some consummers have not hesitated to buy a compilation like "Legend" that offered some forgotten gems who had been found back like "Iron Lion Zion"...

But i've chosen to review "Exodus" that formidable album from 77 (the punk year, the year when the two seven collided) ...

It's a record, that's never quoted in any of the best ever albums lists and it offers a wide range of pure Bob Marley songs, a genuine masterpiece.

With that album (recorded in one go) Bob Marley and the Wailers will kick the competition that started to be fierce in Jamaica. (very good efforts from Junior Murvin, Burning Spear, Gregory Issac to name a few cauz there are lots) ...

As the world of rocknroll was focused on the new Punk movement, Marley will barely escape an attempt on his life in Hope Road December 76. The causes are very unclear but like in a Steve Barker novel, all the gunmen guilty of having tried to end the 'Tuff Gong's life, will all be eliminated: brutally and viciously assasinated in the mountains; hanged or machine gunned. The last of that gang of seven will beg Marley's pardon. "Impossible" he was told, "the Gong' has disappeared"...

Hidden in Nassau, at his mother's house, Marley had a brief stay in Miami and then flew to London where he was due to record. That's when the paparazzis discovered his presence when he was arrested for possession of Cannabis ....

When Marley heard 'The Clash' for the first time and will admire their rebellion, and their stand against a National Front that had become way too powerful and was organizing "hunts against the Rastas" in the London suburbs. And that's also when Marley entered the Island Studios of Basing Street, to record the very catchty 'Punk Raggae Party' ... (you can find that one as a maxi single with those Lee Perry's dubs on side B...

In June of that year 77, then "Exodus" was released. The album starts with that superb "Divine Mystic" a very great opening for such a great album. That track let the auditor expect some great musical pleasures out of that album ... The bass is very powerful, and that masterful production supports ideally those haunted lyrics whom Marley seemed to have been inspired after reading the Apocalypse: "this could be the first trumpet and the one of the judgement will be the last". Al Anderson (that extraordinary guitarist) had squeezed out sounds from his Les Paul recalling some dangerous mewling cats. The track ends up with a sax as cunning as those we heard on the Rolling Stones "Sticky Fingers"...

Two tracks later, starts the monumental song (that gave it's title to the album) "Exodus". On that fantastic track, (which is an absolute Funk masterpiece) the Wailers will reach the same levels of the likes of James Brown. On a furious rhythm section, Marley will tell about the tribulations of that Rasta tribe, and will imagine their return to their original roots, namely Ethiopia; where men are supposed to be like lions. At any rate, the real meaning and interpretation of that song will be the source of endless discussions in the Ghettos.

"Open your eyes and look inside you/ are you satisfied with the life you are living" ? that's what Marley sang....... Like a Chaman, he continues with "We know where we're going cauz we know where we come from we're leaving Babylon to finf back the land of our ancestors" Musically, it's not the drums that made that track what it was, but the Bass Fender Precision of Aston "family man" Barret.... Junior Murvin's twisted guitar, reaps apart the amplifiers.

As soon as the album was released, the American radios stations (still hesitants then as it was still Disco time) will broadcast that number endlessly giving way to a triumphal American Tour ...

"Jammin" opens side B, co-written with Stevie Wonder, it was dedicated to the woman Marley loved and with whom he will share a deserved rest.(in that song, with those back vocals by the I-three), Marley appears like the negligent lover and sometimes sarcastic. Let's note that the bass line on that track is a little marvel...

The following tracks are pure Raggae too, like "Waiting In Vain" The keyboardist Tyron Dowie, is particularly brillant here, "Three Little Birds" is a song that Marley could have sung to his children. And finally "one Love/people get ready" that immortal Raggae hymn: that track, was like an ultimate call to the Rasta faith: " One Love/ One Goal/ One Faith" Of course, the message was the one of the Patriarch Curtis Mayfield: "get ready my friends it is the end of things as we have known them" ...

Exodus was the sound of a revolution to come, and at the same time a hell of a way to test your neighbours patience with your stereo.

It's as legendary as it's been influential. Period ...

[edit] Personnel:

Bob Marley - Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar, Percussion, Guitar (Rhythm), Vocals Rita Marley - Vocals, (background Vocals) Judy Mowatt - Vocals, (background Vocals) I-Threes - (background Vocals) Junior Marvin - Guitar Aston "family man" Barrett - Bass, Guitar, Percussion, Fretless Bass, Mixing Carlton "Carlie" Barrett - Percussion, Drums, Engineer Tyrone Downie - Percussion, Keyboards, (background Vocals), Engineer Marcia Griffiths - Vocals, (background Vocals) Alvin Patterson - Percussion

Neville Garrick - Photography, Cover Design Adrian Boot - Photography