Bob Marley

This 1974 release was the first to feature the Wailers. The line-up included the I-Threes vocal trio and the bass/drum combo of Aston and Carlton Barrett. They brought such a strong new dynamic to Marley's sound that he kept them for the remainder of his career. Highlights include "Lively Up Yourself," "Rebel Music," and the influential ballad "No Woman No Cry."

Reggae in this country tends to attract rabid, cultish, blanket admiration. The sanctification
of the form doesn't always allow that much of the stuff can be, well, boring. But the wild
range in reggae's quality is actually one of the strongest arguments in favor of the
legendary Bob Marley -- he wasn't passionate, moving and disciplined because he was a
reggae artist but because he was Bob Marley. And 1974's Natty Dread proved for... More >

You'd figure the loss of vocal and songwriting input from Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston would be crippling, and reggae melodies being what they are that's the way I heard it at first. But the I-Threes pitch in like comrades rather than backup (can the Blackberries or the Sweet Inspirations claim the same?), and while the material has thinned out slightly I'm sure there are guys in Kingston who would kill for Marley's rejects. "No Woman, No Cry," a masterpiece on the order of "Trench Town Rock" or "I Shot the Sheriff," encourages him to bend and burr his sharp timbre until it's lyrical and incisive both at once. Lyrical and incisive--that's the combo. (Grade - A)