Bob Marley’s Birthday Countdown 2012
Each day up to Bob Marley’s Earthday on Feb, 6th I will feature something special.
1977
Exodus Tour Rehearsal,
England
01.Burnin’ and Lootin’ (3:48)
02.I Shot the Sheriff (6:26)
03.Heathen (6:30)
04.So Much Things to Say (4:40)
05.Jamming (4:14)
Bob Marley and the Wailers live in Heidelberg, Germany
The Exodus Tour began in Paris, France, on May 10, 1977. The tour ended early in London with 4 shows being performed and 2 cancelled due to the toe injury Bob got during a soccer game in London. The US part of the tour was also canceled. The last show of the tour has been released, labeled Live! at the Rainbow. It is reported that all four shows have been recorded and taped on video. At least 3 of the Rainbows shows in audio format circulate with Marley collectors one of which is almost instrumental since the vocals are so low in the mix. Here is one of the rare non-official recordings from the tour. It features rare Photos from Heidelberg courtesy of Peter Sarowy who took these amazing pictures.
May 16, 1977
* Venue: Rhein-Neckar-Halle
* City: Heidelberg
* State/Province: Baden-Württemberg
* Country: Germany
* Recording Source Audience
Band lineup
* Bob Marley, vocals, rhythm guitar
* Aston Barrett, bass
* Carlton Barrett, drums
* Junior Marvin, lead guitar
* Tyrone Downie, keyboards
* Alvin “Seeco” Patterson, percussion
* The I-Threes, backing vocals
My Tape transfer notes: The recording is from my transfer.
Setlist:
*******************************************
Burnin’ and Lootin’
Bellyfull
crowd
Heathen
crowd
War > No More Trouble
crowd
No Woman NO Cry
Lively Up Yourself
crowd
crowd
I Shot the Sheriff
tape flip
To Listen just click each track.
To Download, right click of each track and save as.
Review
Good audience recording. Too bass heavy but vocals are strong. The first 1977 unofficial Bob Marley show I traded for long ago.
Another standout long version of Heathen and a great Lively Up Yourself. Both those songs are stand-outs during this tour.
Bob Andy and Alton Ellis Live and Direct from California
With the great recent blog on Bob Andy by Michael Watson called Ghost on Wax: Bob Andy’s Incomparable Song Book and my recent blog on Alton Ellis: The Godfather of Rocksteady, I thought I would share a few rare live tracks by these legends. These recordings have circulated with collectors for years and my guess is they originate from Roger Steffens collection. Big credit and thanks to him for his generosity towards reggae fans and collectors over the past 3 decades.
Bob Andy
Hollywood Palace
2/3/85 live in Los Angeles
Alton Ellis
Hollywood Palace
2/3/85 live in Los Angeles
I’m Still In Love with You/Breaking Up/I’m Just A Man
Alton Ellis
1984-06 Live in Los Angeles
Going Home (Bob Andy’s song)
Get Ready To Rock Steady
Many consider Alton the greatest Jamaican singer, and in Jamaica his voice is even bigger than Bob Marley. Dennis Alcapone had this to say about Alton. “Alton was a bigger artist in Jamaica than Bob Marley. Everybody, even Bob, would love if he could sing like Alton Ellis. All of them would sit back and listen to Alton because Alton was the king.” His soulful voice spanned all genres of Jamaican Music from Ska, to Rocksteady , and Reggae as Alton helped lay the foundation for Jamaican Music.
Alton Ellis came from Trenchtown, the same part of Kingston that was home to stars like Bob Marley. He and his younger sister Hortense got their start as kids competing on Kingston talent shows like “Vere John’s Opportunity Hour.” In 1959, as half of the duo Alton & Eddie, he recorded the R&B-style scorcher “Muriel,” which became one of the first hit records for the pioneering local producer Clement Dodd.
Alton had many hits with Coxsone and also Duke Reid like “Girl I’ve Got A Date,” “I’m Just a Guy” and his 1966 classic “Get Ready Rock Steady,” that ushered in a whole new style of music called Rock Steady. It is said that when the track was recorded Jackie Mitto had to fill in for the regular bass player and since that was not his regular instrument he had trouble keeping up with the fast ska beat, so he elected to slow down the tempo. Alton had several other major successes in 1966, including “Cry Tough” and the smash “Girl I’ve Got a Date,” the latter of which became his biggest hit and signature song.
Rock steady had a mellower, slower more soulful sound that formed the bridge between the hard-driving brass of ska and reggae. It was perfect for Altons sweet tenor voice.“Alton ruled the rock steady era,” Mr. Alcapone said. But Mr. Ellis’s influence did not stop there.
In 1969 his track “Get Ready Rock Steady” was used for “Wake the Town,” featuring DJ U-Roy which started the DJ revolution with it massive popularity. The instrumental track to Alton’s composition “Mad Mad” became one of the most covered recordings in reggae history, and his 1967 composition “I’m Still in Love With You” was covered several times, most recently by the dancehall artists Sean Paul and Sasha, reaching No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot Singles chart in 2004.
Having been so ripped of by Jamaican producers, Alton moved to Canada then to England where he created his own Alltone label. He was also awarded Jamaica’s Order of Distinction in 1994 and was inducted into the International Reggae and World Music Hall of Fame in 2006.
A real pioneer of Jamaican Music and Hailed as the King Of Rock Steady, Alton may have been eclipsed by Marley and Reggae but to many he is truly greatest singer to come from Jamaica.
Here is a very rare live clip of Alton Ellis.
Justin Hinds Ska Legend
Justin Hinds was and is considered one of the best singers from the ska era of Jamaican Music. A native of Sheer Town, Justin’s beautiful and unique tenor voice made him the most popular artist in Jamaican in 1963 with his #1 hit for Duke Reid “Carry Go Bring Come” that is said to have been done in just one take. From 1963 to 1966 Justin and his band the Dominos released a prolific 70 singles that included hits like “King Samuel,” “On The Last Day”, “Jump Out of the Frying Pan,” “The Ark” and “Rub Up Push Up.”
He continued with hits in the rock steady era and parted with Reid in 1972. In 1976 he released one of reggae best albums Jezebel produced by Jack Ruby with hits like Natty Take Over, Prophecy and a remake of Carry Go Bring Home.
He followed that LP with another classic Just In Time in 1978. Nighthawk Records in the US also released a great LP Travel With Love recorded at Tuff Gong Studios in 1984 which featured tracks like Get Ready Rock Steady, Travel With Love, and Weeping Eyes. Justin became less active after 1984 and did not ever leave Jamaica until 1997 to play shows in the US. Here is a very rare clip of Justin performing on that tour.
In 1992 he did return to the studio the last time for the album Know Jah Better but did stay active in with his collaboration with Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards and Wingless Angels project. Keith Richards said this about Justin, “ When he comes to mind or when you hear his voice, you get a nice warm glow. He was always incredibly attuned to what was going on around him,. And the thing I she wasn’t really reggae. He was more rocksteady or ska – that’s what he was into”. And in the session with Keith and the Wingless Angles Justin was very into the Nyabinghi sound. The main purpose for these roots session with Keith was to chill out, drum and smoke ganja Nyabinghi style. This years Grammy’s will be the first time a Nyabinghi album will be up for a Grammy with the Wingless Angles 2 being nominated.
Brian Jobson (bass player and producer on Wingless Angles 2) said this about Justin. ” he was one of a kind, really. And he was the first one from our area, as it were, before Ernie Smith and Bob Marley and Burning Spear Most of the musician before that were from Kingston or lived in Kingston, but he lived in the country and just went to Kingston and did his stuff, and always came back and had his little place in Steer Town. He was like the Don or Godfather of the community there”
Brian’s brother Wayne Jobson said this about Justin, “Basically Justin Hinds was the godfather of Jamaican music- one of the all-time greats. He helped to invent ska in the early day with Carry Go Bring Come and then later on he helped to develop rock steady with The Higher The Monkey Climbs and then he really helped to bring reggae to the world with the Jezebel album with Jack Ruby, who was Burning Spears producer.”
Justin appears in this great documentary by a student Mark Gorney called Before Reggae Hit The Town. A rare clip is included here.
Justin Hinds passing away quietly at his Jamaican home on March 16, 2005. He suffered from lung cancer. His music and impact on those that knew him will live on.
What is the First Dub Album?
Dub music is a genre of music from Jamaica that developed in the early 70′s, but has its roots in B side’s or Versions which originate in the 60′s. It is one of the many musical inventions that Jamaicans have given the world of music. Instrumentals versions did not contain the effects that became synonymous with dub music. The emphasis on echo, reverb, panoramic delay and even sampling was more creative than just the drop out of vocals or an emphasis on the drum and bass common in early versions. The versions were mainly used for the massive popularity of DJ’s at the time that needed a blank riddim to chant over. The early dub producers like King Tubby, Herman Chin Loy, and Lee Perry saw the peoples interest in the version itself when it was mixed and mashed up into the dub style.
It was 1968 when Ruddy Redwoods went to Duke Reids to cut the first dub plate but the engineer accidentally left the vocal track out. The instrumental track was played for the crowd at the dance that night and was a huge hit, so much so that Byron Lee when to King Tubby the next day to tell him he needed to make some instrumentals. King Tubby started playing around with the vocals and the instruments in the mix, leaving the vocals out, pumping up the bass, and basically early dub was born. But these instrumentals were not Dub. It wasn’t till Little Roy’s “Hard Fighter” recorded in March 1971 was released that the first vocal record with a full dub version on the flip B side existed. Soon must singles had a dub version on the other side of the vocal side. The popularity was there and innovative Jamaican mixing engineers were ready to start the new age of Dub Albums. But the first so called dub albums were really instrumental albums since they did not contain any special effects or sampling.
Aquarius Dub
It wasn’t till 1971, 1972 that the first albums started to feature instrumental tracks like Java Java Dub in 1972 what would be the first instrumental LP if not for a few DJ tracks with toaster Crutches. Augustus Pablo’s 1972 release This Is Augustus Pablo is the first complete instrumental LP but there is conflicting views on the date of its release as being from 1972 or 1973.
A few different albums would like to claim to be the first dub album being released close the same time in 1973. Herman Chin Loy – Aquarius Dub, Lee Perry’s Blackboard Jungle Dub, and Java Java Dub. 1974′s Pick A Dub by Keith Hudson is 
said to be the first thematically made dub release but Lee Perry’s Blackboard Jungle dub is more thematically expressive then Pick A Dub and was released a year earlier in 1973. Aquarius Dub and Java Jah Dub are basically instrumental sets. So is Blackboard Jungle or Pick A Dub the first Dub Album? I would have to agree with Michael Veal who wrote “Dub, Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae” that Blackboard Jungle Dub was the first self contained and thematically consistent dub album. Scratch used more innovative effects and sounds in his release and it would not be till King Tubby started releasing his Dub Albums that someone would use similar and more wild special effects. So the award goes to Lee Perry and Blackboard Jungle Dub. Now the research will look into which album was the first to have all it’s riddims and music created originally and specifically to make a dub album with no reuse of older riddims.
Blackboard Jungle Dub Tracks
Java Java Dub 1972 but not a complete Dub LP more a instrumental
Pick A Dub 1974 featuring members of the Wailers
Many Bob Marley concerts circulate in trade circles with collectors, hardcore fans, and archivists, and of all those shows one of the best that has never been officially released is this epic show from the Quiet Knight in Chicago 1975. It was on June 10th 1975 that Bob Marley And The Wailers performed their second of 2 nights at the Quiet Knight Club.
The Quiet Knight is now a hair salon. It’s hard to believe the list of bands that played there, not only Bob Marley but Tom Waits, R.E.M., Prince, Run D.M.C., The Cramps, Bauhaus, The Stray Cats, Psychedelic Furs. The first Smashing Pumpkins show was there. And before then it was a mainstay for Chicago Blues with many blues legends playing there. The Rolling Stones even showed up there after one of their shows to jam with Muddy Waters.
For me this show has been a treasured piece of history I have been enjoying for 3 decades now. Not only a wicked performance with Bob chanting back and forth with the crowd, but one of the best recordings in sound quality. So good Starbucks did release a CD called Live 1973-1975 that contains Trenchtown Rock and Natty Dread. Those are omitted here do to being officially released. One of the most notable parts of the show is Bob doing the band introductions and really getting into it during I Shot The Sheriff. Also the famous guy yelling from the crowd during Natty Dread is actually cool and enhances the feeling of being at a Bob live show. Below are notes from Bob Marley Concerts.com.
This Recording source below is from a PREFM tape, the best sounding source for this concert I have heard.
June 10, 1975
* Venue: Quiet Knight Club
* City: Chicago
* State/Province: Illinois
* Country: United States
* Recording Source Soundboard
Band lineup
* Bob Marley, vocals, rhythm guitar
* Aston Barrett, bass
* Carlton Barrett, drums
* Al Anderson, lead guitar
* Tyrone Downie, keyboards
* Alvin Patterson, percussion
* The I-Threes, backing vocals
* Lee Jaffe, harmonica
Setlist
1. “Slave Driver”
2. “Trenchtown Rock”
3. “Concrete Jungle”
4. “Midnight Raver”
5. “Talkin’ Blues”
6. “Rebel Music (3 O’Clock Roadblock)”
7. “I Shot The Sheriff”
Notes
* 2 songs are used on the Starbucks official release Live 73-75
* second night at the Quiet Knight Club.
* band intros done by Bob Marley during “I Shot The Sheriff”.
* various bootlegs of this show have been released, like
“Jah Joys And Rainbows”, “Live In Chicago” or “The Last Club Tour ’75″,
and has also been aired on various radio stations.
* it is possible that more songs have been performed that evening.
Youtube Clip of the whole set.
Another Classic From the Dubwise Garage Collection.
Bob Marley Concerts is a website livicated to the research, history, documentation, and preservation of those special moments, Bob Marley performing live. Each Bob Marley show was unique and as fans and historians we are blessed so many were recorded for generations and generations to enjoy. Why was Bob Marley the most important live performer ever? No other artist has used the power of music to bring his message and philosophy to the world like Bob Marley. At his peak performing live Bob was able to out-draw the Pope and blow headlines like the Commadores away with his shows.
The site features a list of most known Bob concerts, many with set lists and photographs. reviews, cover art, collectors information, and the only place on the web you can listen to various tracks from many different concert performances by Bob Marley. Most shows on Bob Marley Concerts are in their complete full form easy to listen to for the first time to the mass fans of the King of Reggae. Here is an example of a tribute page on Bob Marley Concerts about the Historic show in Milan, Italy 1980 which includes a setlist, review, and audio for all tracks > LINK Here
Here is War live from Milan 1980
The purpose of this site is to document the concerts for historical preservation and research. Bob Marley Concerts does not have any ads, it does not gain any monetary value from the site. The owner is only interested in sharing with the people of the world the works of one of the most influential figures in modern music. From the Beacon Th. in NYC, April 30th 1976 here is an amazing live version of 2. “Rastaman Chant” -> “Lion Of Judah” -> “Keep The Faith”
Click any photo to be taken to Bob Marley Concerts.com
Fans of Bob Marley and his family can enjoy this new youtube channel livicated to the spirit of 1LOVE and Positive Vibrations. Check out Tuff Gong Television HERE. Set up by the Marley Family and linked to one of the Marley Family Websites www.anicetime.com, this channel features an insiders look at recent happenings, future projects, and rare blasts from the past. Videos range from the old Melody Makers days, Ziggy Marley, Stephen Marley, Julian Marley, Cedella Marley, Rohan Marley, Damian Marley, and many other family members plus clips chosen by the Marley’s done by fans. You will also find exclusive audio mixed clips set to rare Family Photos.
There are some amazing videos that have never been on youtube like this clip from Gusman Hall 1982
Or this wicked clip of a young Damian Marley
Also on the channel are some cool video mixes, that contain multiple sources of videos put together all from an archive of rare Bob Marley material. Check this video of Bob Marley and the Wailers doing War No More Trouble from 4 different sources.
So much music and love to share….We had to make a channel. Check out Tuff Gong Television for exclusive performances, interviews with the family and more.
Anthony B Mashes Up Humboldt One More Time
Known to many in Northern California for his wicked performances
at Reggae on the River and Reggae Rising, Anthony B returned to
Humboldt County for a show at the Arcata Theather Lounge on Tues.
Jan. 17th. Touring with his full band Anthony took the stage
around 11.30 with a beautiful intro version of Peter Tosh’s
Rastafari Is. He continuted with a series of his hits, followed
by 3 songs from last years Rasta Love release. I enjoyed the those tracks
especially the roots vibes of the title track and Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
You can purchase songs here.. http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/anthony-b/id4637663
Back into his hits like Smoke Marijauna Every Day” chanting to the crowd
how Arcata has “the best marijuana in the world”. I did not
recogize members in his band who were very tight and
busted out some sick dubwise action at the end of
a few songs. Anthony B and his bass player even had some fun
doing some syncronized dance moves. Truly a star performer
Anthony B gets the crowd fired up, he uses in personality to
connect to the crowd and his high high energy to keep the crowds
attention to the fullest. Big Ups to promoter Bonusman for the recent
run of great roots reggae shows. Soon to Arcata, CHUCK FENDA and I WAYNE with the IKRONIK band
Thursday, February 2 at 10:00pm at Arcata Theatre Lounge (ATL)
Included are 2 tracks from Anthony B at Reggae Rising last year. New to Youtube Here Only on This Blog.
For more info. on Anthony B on tour.
www.anthonybmusic.net
Anthony-B Rasta Love USA 2012 Tour Schedule
with Special Guests Zamunda & Delly Ranx
Starting on January 4th in LA Ending on the 13th of FEB in NYC… LOOK OUT for the RASTA LOVE USA 2012 in a CITY near you….
Jan 4th 2012 – THE DUB CLUB – 1822 Sunset, LA CA
Jan 7th 2012 – MOE’S ALLEY Santa Cruz,CA
Jan 8th 2012 – COHIBA NIGHT CLUB. Long Bach CA
Jan 12th 2012 – THE INDEPENDENT San Francisco,CA
Jan 13th 2012 – THE HARLOW Sacramento,CA
Jan 14th 2012 – FAIRFAX 19 Broad Way CA
Jan 17th 2012 – ARCATA THEATER Arcata,CA
Jan 18th 2012 – Provolt Community Center 14458 Williams Hwy Grants Pass OR 97527
Jan 19th 2012 – THE DAMINO ROOM 51 NW Green Wood Bend,OR 97701
Jan 20th 2012 – MT.TABOR THEATER 4811 SE Hawthrone Portland,OR
Jan 21st 2012 – KING CAT THEATER 2130 6av Seattle,WA
Jan 23rd 2012 – THE TOP HAT 134 West Front Street Missoula, Montana 59802
Jan 24th 2012 – THE SIDE CAR Park City, UTAH
Jan 27th 2012 – CERVANTES MASTERPAICE BALLROOM 2364 Welton ST Denver,CO
Jan 28th 2012 – Granada Theater 1020 Massachusetts St,Lawrence KS 6604
Feb 3rd 2012 – THE GROG SHOP 2785 Euclid HTS Blvd Cleveland,HTS, OH
Feb 4th 2012 – AL ROSA BALLROOM 5055 Sinclair RD Columbus,OH
Feb 9th 2012 – B.B.KINGS BLUES CLUB 237 W 42 ST, NY,NY 10036
Mar 5th 2012 – TEMA SPORTS STADIUM Dema Ghana AFRICA
