Bob Marley & The Wailers: Kaya - 1978

 

This is Bob Marley & The Wailers’ most laid-back, easy going album, lacking the militancy that would be present on several songs on all the previous albums. 

The songs on here are about chilling out in the sun, letting in love, feeling romantic and smoking large quantities of marijuana (“kaya”). Marley admitted to be just a country boy at heart and this was his most relaxed, rural-inspired album that brings to mind vistas of the rolling green hillsides of Nine Mile, Jamaica, where he grew up. 

The album begins with the catchy, melodic Easy Skanking with its “excuse me while I light my spliff...” exhortation, and continues in the same vein, so to speak, with a hymn to the qualities of the said herb in the dubby Kaya. This is a track resurrected from the old early 70s pre-fame days. 

Also present are the huge hit in the singalong joy that is Is This Love, Marley's most relaxed song ever in the lovely Sun Is Shining and the incredibly catchy stepper Satisfy My Soul. All these songs are simply lovely in their varied ways and made for a decidedly impressive side one. 

The rest of the album continues in the same, blissed-out fashion, even more so on side two, although the run of tracks from the loved-up She's Gone to the folky chant of Time Will Tell, via the muddy, murky Misty Morning, the Jah-praising skank of Crisis and the wheezing of Bob on Running Away do seem to show a notably laid-back Marley with an increasingly gruff, croaky voice, as if the ganja was taking effect. Of course, they weren't necessarily recorded in that order. It definitely sounds like that, though, and that is the impression I always get when listening to the album. 

Anyway - a spin of this album just makes you feel chilled. Less instant than Exodus, this offering is, in some ways, more interesting because of it. I have a lot of affection for Kaya.

40th Anniversary edition

There is a 40th Anniversary remix of the album that utilises a bit more echo and percussion here and there, but doesn't really differ radically from the original. The bonus track available from this album's sessions is the "flying cymbals" backed dubby groove of Smile Jamaica. Its catchy female backing vocals render it more than just a riddim, however, as does the great wah-wah-ish guitar. It ends with some fine dub bass. It was a re-recording of a 1975-76 song that originally dated from the Rastaman Vibration sessions in a more acoustic form.