Bob Marley & The Wailers: Legend

This is the reggae album that is owned by millions of non-reggae fans, probably the only reggae album they own. I can't get too precious and snobbish about that can I? Hell - yes! Seriously, though, it firmly cemented Marley status in the mainstream, so I guess that was a good thing. It's never good, though, when you find someone you have cultishly loved for years is suddenly loved by seemingly everyone. It's kind of annoying. Reference: Bruce Springsteen and Dire Straits. The sane happened there, for me, when everyone bought Born In The USA and Brothers In Arms. 

Personally, I had got into Marley in October 1975 when a friend of mine played me the live version of No Woman No Cry that is now known the world over. After that, I got the Catch A Fire, Burnin' and Natty Dread albums and the rest is a huge part of my own history.

Now, it's time to get up and stand up.....

Is This Love, from 1976's Kaya album, is a perfect merge of chill-out and singalong pop to start off with. It's reggae, for sure, but it has many pop sensibilities. That is something Marley managed to master to perfection - melody and roots in perfect symbiosis. It is a perfect slice of seductive summer reggae. 

No Woman No Cry was a run-of-the mill album track from 1974's Natty Dread, but the iconic 1975 Live! album thrust it into the limelight. There is a proper "live" atmosphere, exemplified by the wonderful moment the crowd noise swells at the organ intro. I was totally captivated when I heard the single and the extended, full cut of the song that you get on the album (and indeed on here) is simply superb. It turns that somewhat throwaway album track from Natty Dread into a copper-bottomed, timeless anthem. It was the first Marley I heard, as I said above, back in October 1975. Before that, I only knew him as the writer of Johnny Nash's Stir It Up and Guava Jelly!

Could You Be Loved was the big hit single from the 1980 Uprising album - shuffling and catchy, almost dance-disco-ish in its cross-over appeal. It doesn't really fit in with the ambience and musical theme of the rest of its rootsy parent album but it is totally suited to the more commercial mix of tracks to be found on here. 

From 1977's million-selling Exodus album, Three Little Birds is chilled-out philosophical Marley at his best. 

Released posthumously in 1983, Buffalo Soldier is a horn-driven, bassy and melodic singalong number that became a huge hit, with its distinctive "woy-yo-yo" chorus. Its history lesson is interesting too - the first time I heard it I had no idea that Jamaicans had been taken to fight in the US army in the early/mid nineteenth century, before emancipation.

Militancy was always going to play a part in Marley's output, however, whether the record company liked it or not. Even the cover of 1973's Burnin' album made a statement, with its branding/slavery-inspired artwork and Marley's uncompromising expression. There is a convincing argument to be put forward that a militant number such as Get Up Stand Up was almost entirely Peter Tosh's and that the love songs like the early seventies leftover song Put It On from the album betrayed Bob as being an old softy at heart, still chasing girls when there were righteous battles to be fought. Here, actually, it is ever-so-slightly incongruous in its bristling militancy.

Stir It Up, previously recorded by Johnny Nash, and taken from Marley's seminal 1973 Catch A Fire album, is a masterpiece of intuitive, sensual seduction and it remains one of my favourite Marley songs of all time. Its beautiful slow skank matches its smooth, yearning, beseeching vocal. it is arguably this collection's best track. It formed part of the beginning of the soon-to-be successful crossover of Marley & The Wailers' music to the rock mainstream.

Up there with Stir It Up as a personal favourite is the uplifting, inspirational singalong joy of One Love/People Get Ready. To this day, though, I am still not sure where the musical link to Curtis Mayfield's People Get Ready is within the song. Maybe I'm missing something but I just can't hear it. Either way, I love the song. Who doesn't? "Let's get together to fight this holy Armagideon". 

A notable thing from 1973 was that The Wailers had become almost mainstream, almost overnight. Even Eric Clapton had a big hit with his credible cover of I Shot The Sheriff. As surprisingly convincing as Eric's version was, the original cannot really be beaten though, can it? In the broader scheme of things, here in 1973, Reggae had been sold successfully to the previously sceptical rock world, although only really via Marley and the Catch A Fire and Burnin' albums along with an Old Grey Whistle Test appearance on the BBC, it has to be said.

Waiting in Vain is another of those romantic Marley smoochers. 

Then we get Redemption Song (the album should have ended with this). It is a magnificent oddity. Not reggae at all in this form. It is a haunting, emotive, heartbreaking ballad sung out against a lightly strummed, folky acoustic guitar. Along with Jimmy Cliff's Many Rivers To Cross, it is a non-reggae reggae classic. The full band version, played as a proper reggae song, is included as a bonus track, and, while truly excellent too, with some Rasta drumming and dub undertones, nothing quite matches the evocative, raw feel of this. It was the last track on Bob Marley's last "living" studio album. A fitting epitaph. 

Satisfy My Soul is a light, catchy stepper. It has Marley in disarming mood, feeling "like a sweepstakes winner". Exodus is a rumbling, rootsy extended groove, a track that has always captivated me by its sheer pounding but rhythmic oomph. I love the bit where Marley shouts "move!!" and that intoxicating rhythm continues on its powerful way. 

This excellent collection ends with Jamming, a blatantly commercial poppy number. I have to admit that that song has never been one of my favourites. Many love it, though, and if it opens doors to reggae for them, then fair enough. It has a nice dub version, however. 

I bought this album in 1984, I think. Some twenty years later, in 2004, I visited Bob Marley's mausoleum in Jamaica. It was a touching moment for me to lay my hands on his sarcophagus and say a quiet "thank you". RIP.