Customer Reviews

Babylon By Bus

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My favorite reggae album. Bob Marley's lyrics are easy to sing along to. The quality of musicianship, and the clarity of the cd is surprisingly great. You get the best of both worlds; good lyrics, and superb music; regardless of your musical taste.

The tempo is slightly faster than the regular albums, so you can dance to it;anybody can dance to it. Man this thing touches the soul. I play mine almost every day.

Bob was known for his concerts, and this is a GREAT cd if you're looking to capture a little of what it was like to be there. The sound quality is great, at least as good as "Live!," and the set list is also incredible. Bob goes off on "Punky Reggae Party," and this is my favorite song out of ALL the albums I've heard. Just look at the songs! If you're a Marley fan, you NEED this album. I've got a lot of his albums, and this is by far my favorite. I wish they played this at parties rather than Puff Daddy (ugh!) cause it's really something you have to dance to...

This exciting album clearly reveals that Marley and the Wailers were, many times, at their best when they were performing live before an audience. This long-playing collection involves many live hits performed in many parts of the world. The rich speaking and singing voice of Marley, amidst the excitement, is loud and clear. I like the hits versions here of "Kinky Reggae," "Rastaman Vibration," "Rat Race," "Concrete Jungle," "Jammin," "Heathen" and "Rat Race" more than on other records. But I must say that my favorites in this collection are "Concrete Jungle" and "Kinky Reggae"...make a point of listening to them, and you will do so over and over again. This becomes the most exciting album a Marley fan would possess. However, the listener is urged to listen and compare these live versions with the versions on such albums as "Exodus," "Catch a Fire," "Rastaman Vibration," and "Rebel Music." Live versions of such famous political songs as "War" and "Rebel Music" are found in this Babylon album as well as on such other albums as "Rebel Music." There is also a "Stir it Up" live version in this Babylon collection...it is truly all big exciting hits in the collection that you would not want to miss. I need not say more. Who can resist the excitement generated by such other hits as "Kinky Reggae Party" and "Lively Up Yourself"?? The listener gets to enjoy and appreciate a marvelous live collection, while appreciating the strength of song, music and dance that the unparalleled Wailers generated as they appeared on stage and performed. The applause is tremendous!! The audience sometimes sings along with Marley, a testimony to how so popular the legendary Marley has been admired all over the world, with so much sentiment. I regretted that it took me so long to discover this live collection, but I have subsequently played it over and over again, over the years.

By 1978, the Wailers were an internationally known band who had found the all-important formulas to help them reach the pinnacle of their success and stay there. Naturally, Bob and his flowing dredlocks was at the epicentre of this, and his charisma was second to none (though second to Peter Tosh's in my book). The band had hit lps of increasingly middle of the road anthems so as not to ruffle as many feathers as he once did yet still get his points across.

The apex of Marley's success were his live performances, regarded by all as a religious revival, and 1975's "Live" lp clearly shows the band in action and amazing crowds as they went. The show was amazing, as was the energy they exerted. After all, they were an act with something to prove.

1978's "Babylon By Bus," in my view, is a much more guarded lp, and one by a band who had hit its collective stride and were probably in cruise control by this point. To my tastes, the performance, while competent, lacks the same fire that "Live" offers the listener. The inspiration was more or less gone. They had nothing to prove at this point, and that is a shame, in my view.

The recording itself is well made, and the musicianship is excellent, but I recommend "Live" over this performance any day of the week, as it has the intangibles on it that make a great band GREAT- desire, inspiration, the willingness to prove itself, laying it all on the line for all to see. "Babylon By Bus" lacks in these qualities, in my view, and the lp suffers due to it.

When describing Bob Marley, words are never powerful enough. I'm still trying to understand what exactly makes Bob Marley so hypnotic. Perhaps because the songs were all done with LOVE in its purest sense, they transcend our imagination and connect with folks from all walks of life even decades after the man's physical absence. The guy never discovered how to make a bad song.

...Haile Selassie I, Jah Rastafari!, ever living, ever faithful, ever sure. That is how Bob greeted you and started his set on many of these concerts that are recorded here as 'Babylon by Bus'. This was from his huge European tour in 1978, most of the recorded tracks coming from the shows at the Paris Pavilion. The greeting was exuberant, the music was good and the crowds were loud - listen on many of the tracks and you can get a feel for it.

The tracks were all from previous Island albums with one noticeable exception - 'Punky reggae party' - the only time you will find it on an Island album, but just like the line from the song says "/and it's all right" Personally, I don't rate 'Babylon by Bus' as one of his best, largely because the studio versions, on the earlier albums, sound crisper. But to be fair my criticism of this album is biased by the fact that I already owned quite a few of the earlier studio albums.

If you don't want to invest in the individual albums though, this is good enough because it has a nice mix of lesser known but good songs, staying away from the 'hits' which by this time had been getting a lot of airplay anyway.

This album smokes ;)

One of the greatest live albums of all time, indeed. Recorded at various European tour sites supporting the EXODUS album in '77-'78, all of these songs are done wonderfully, with more intensity than the original album cuts.

Sporting such Wailers classics as "Stir It Up," "Jammin'," "Exodus," and "Lively Up Yourself," Bob and friends are in full swing.

Super intense versions of some of his classics, but the real magic is spun on live versions of "War" (this HAS to be heard,) "Heathen," and the autobiographical "Concrete Jungle."

Essential live music.

Coming from a HUGE Marley fan, I must say that this is one of his best albums. The live version of "Stir It Up" on this recording gives me the chills every time. Essentially, this will make you wish you were at a Marley show. This is the next best thing. BUY THIS NOW!!!

Marley at its best, great performance showing excited audience as well. Top 3 of my CD collection

This 1978 album is taken from a live recording of Bob Marley's concert in Paris.
His popularity is made clear at the beginning of the album.
It is the essence of Bob Marley's heady reggae.
`Punky Reggae Party' is one of Marley's best-known hits, and I heard it recently performed by an Israeli reggae band in Jerusalem. Other uplifting dance songs
include `Stir It Up' and Lively Up Yourself', `Jamming' and one of the best love songs of all time ` Is This Love?' , which is also sung by songbird Carly Simon. This is a wonderful party album with music that really makes you want to get up and dance.
A note on the song "War" which also appears on this album: Marley performed at Zimbabwe's independence celebrations of 18 April 1980. He did not know that the performance on the first day would be reserved for the special guests of the new elite. When the masses tried to attend the concert they where tear-gassed and hounded out the stadium by Mugabe' s militia.

Marley responded by singing "War". The next day his performance was subdued as he was already disillusioned by the behaviour of the new Mugabe regime.