Customer Reviews

Bob Marley and the Wailers: African Herbsman

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By this point in time everybody and their brother, sister, uncle and cousin own Marley's great collection LEGEND. And that's for good reason, as Marley was one of the most talented musicians to emerge in the late 20th century. A singer, songwriter, bandleader and social force that obliterated boundries of race and culture, he had a similar impact on world soceity as the Beatles, Dylan or Elvis. LEGEND is an excellent document tht shows all the things that led Bob Marley to that stature.

What few people know is that this album is an even better example than LEGEND of the genius that was Bob Marley and the Wailers. These are the tracks that he recorded in the early 70's that seperated him from the pack of other Jamaican groups and allowed him to approach global stardom.

Produced by the great Lee Perry, AFRICAN HERBSMAN is a solid collection of Roots classics recorded before Marley began to target the worldwide rock audience. Tracks such as TRENCHTOWN ROCK, LIVELY UP YOURSELF, SMALL AXE and KEEP ON MOVING are as vital as anything else in Reggae or Marley's vast catalog.

This is not to disrespect the fine music that Marley and the Wailers recorded for Island, but to point out to all that there are treasures to seek out beyond that fine album. Also of note, there are several versions of this album on the market. The one I own is not a dual disk release, but does include several interesting and essential versions that were dubbed over by Lee Perry's Upsetters and voiced over by proto rapper Big Youth.

Excellent album - essential Bob Marley. You'll be pissed at yourself later on for not picking this up as a dual disk with both stereo & surround, unless you hate dual disk of course. Considering the source material it's worth hearing the surround version, various with song with some sounding like crap but some are actually OK. Highly recommended.