Bob Marley and The Wailers – Live! (Vinyl LP)

Bob Marley’s 70th birthday year-long celebration (2015) continues with the release of individual LPs from two new box sets, The Complete Island Recordings and The Complete Island Recordings: Collector’s Edition. These two stunning vinyl collection sets will release September 25th, 2015, and feature 11 albums on 180-gram vinyl spanning a decade’s worth of Bob Marley & The Wailers releases on Island Records.

As the title implies, this is indeed Bob Marley & the Wailers captured in performance at the Lyceum Ballroom in London during the final U.K. leg of the Natty Dread tour. “When Bob Marley and the Wailers recorded their legendary 1975 London gig, little did they know of its lasting power. From the opening shuffles of “Trenchtown Rock” to the rabble-rousing ‘Get Up, Stand Up,’ this brief recording captured Marley’s combo of critical invective and languid musical power. The rhythm team of Aston and Carlton Barrett make time-keeping splendidly melodic as Marley’s gently scouring voice gets woven in with his backup vocalists in a mellowly dazzling display. On fire, the band jumps into the discovery of its power without regard to keeping the songs tidy or reflective of anything other than the moment of execution. No matter the years between its original release and the present, this recording will always breathe. Between Live! and the later, longer Babylon by Bus, Bob Marley showed categorical know-how in the art of executing state-of-the-art performances in the era of arena rock’s supremacy.” — Amazon.com