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Bob Marley: Talkin' Blues

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Island Records
Released: 1991
Time:
 61:50
Category: Reggae
Producer(s): Hooman Majd, Chris Blackwell
Rating: ********.. (8/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.bobmarley.com
Appears with: Peter Tosh
Purchase date: 2002.01.22
Price in €: 10,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Talkin' - 0:17
[2] Talkin' Blues (L.Cogil/C.Barrett) - 4:38
[3] Talkin' - 0:21
[4] Burnin' and Lootin' (B.Marley) - 6:36
[5] Talkin' - 0:49
[6] Kinky Reggae (B.Marley) - 5:08
[7] Get up, Stand Up (B.Marley/P.Tosh) - 4:44
[8] Talkin' - 0:57
[9] Slave Driver (B.Marley) - 3:47
[10] Talkin' - 1:31
[11] Walk the Proud Land (B.Livingstone) - 3:30
[12] Talkin' - 0:51
[13] You Can't Blame the Youth (P.Tosh) - 4:06
[14] Talkin' - 0:36
[15] Rastaman Chant (Trad. arr.: B.Marley/P.Tosh/B.Livingston) - 6:23
[16] Talkin' - 1:44
[17] Am-A-Do (B.Marley) - 3:07
[18] Talkin' - 1:00
[19] Bend Down Low [#] (B.Marley) - 2:41
[20] Talkin' - 1:52
[21] I Shot the Sheriff (B.Marley) - 7:12

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


BOB MARLEY - Guitar, Vocals

ASTON BARRETT - Bass
CARLTON "Carlie" BARRETT - Drums
JOE HIGGS - Percussion, Vocals
TYRONE DOWNIE - Keyboards
BERNARD TOUTER HARVEY - Organ, Piano
EARL LINDO - Keyboards
PETER TOSH - Guitar, Vocals
ALVIN PATTERSON - Percussion
AL ANDERSON - Electric Guitar

I-THREES:
RITA MARLEY - Vocals
JUDY MOWATT - Vocals
MARCIA GRIFFITHS - Vocals

CHRIS BLACKWELL - Executive Producer
HOOMAN MAJD - Executive Producer
TREVOR WYATT - Engineer
NEVILLE GARRICK - Art Direction
ADRIAN BOOT - Art Direction
ARTHUR GORSON - Photography
ROB PATRIDGE - Liner Notes

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


1991 CD Tuff Gong 422-848243-2
1991 LP Tuff Gong 422-848243-1
1991 CS Tuff Gong 422-848243-4



Valuable, previously unissued sessions (1973-1975) including a rare radio interview.

Ron Wynn, All-Music Guide, © 1992 - 2001 AEC One Stop Group, Inc.



Rolling Stone (3/7/91) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "a tribute befitting a king."

New York Times (2/10/91) - "...has something to add to the annals: a previously unknown song and, more important, a chance to hear the live Wailers as they played during their first United States tour, with Joe Higgs replacing Bunny (Wailer) Livingstone."

Musician (4/91) - "...a marvelously intimate document...Marley's singing has never seemed so freewheeling as here, his yodeling scats offset by snarling descants from Tosh...a revelation."



Reggae-Hero Marley hätte zum 10. Todestag mehr verdient. Schließlich gab der erste Superstar der Dritten Welt auch Poprockern wie The Police Im- pulse. Die Kompilation bietet immerhin neben Interview-Ausschnitten sieben tolle Songs aus einer US-Radioshow von '73, als Marley noch mit Peter Tosh Get Up, Stand Up forderte, brauchbare Alternativ-Takes, das un- veröffentlichte Am-A-Do und eine irre Live-Version von I Shot Ghe Sheriff aus dem Lyceum (nicht von Live!). Reggae nicht nur für Hasch-Pappies.

© Audio



Auch zehn Jahre nach dem Tod des "Löwen von Babylon" bleibt sein Thron unbesetzt - keiner konnte Bob Marleys Werk fortführen. "Talkin' Blues" bedient sich einmal mehr im Nachlaß. "Burnin' & Lootin'", "Kinky Reggae", "Get Up, Stand Up", "Slave Driver" und "Rastaman Chant" stammen aus einer Radioshow von 1973. "Walk The Proud" war als "Rude Boy" entstanden. Hinzu kommen Alternativ-Versionen bekannter Titel plus die unveröffentlichte Rarität "Am A Do". Zwischen die einzelnen Songs wurde ein Interview geschnitten, das der Rasta-König 1975 gab. Dieser Originalton macht das Album für Fans interessant. ** Interpret.: 07-09 ** Klang.: 05-07

© Stereoplay



The prospect of previously unreleased live and studio Bob Morley recordings culled from the vaults is enough to make one shudder; hearing them now, nearly 10 years since his passing, the music and impact of the Wailers is still indelible and undeniable. These tapes of 1973 live-in-the-studio radio broadcasts from California radio station KSAN are interspliced with other studio outtakes and excerpts from a Jamaican radio interview from 1975-the pairing of words and music underscores the missionary, visionary quality of Marley's best work. Closing out this excellent set is an absolutely glorious live rendition of "I Shot The Sheriff" taken from the same concerts that were documented on the celebrated Live! album, but this is a version which has never been heard before. As wondrous as these Marley recordings are in themselves, their message also has tremendous relevance and impact upon the current musical scene, even over 15 years later. Let it be considered by all reggae musicians, new and established, that Marley came to command the greatest empire ever built in reggae music, owning his own record label, headquarters and thousands no, millions-of followers around the world, and he did it not by following the latest trends or cashing in on market dictates and tastes. He was true to himself, and he became the guiding light of a whole generation and genre of music, all without a single computer-program, synthesizer or rhythm track, without slackness, boasting or attacking his competition. He did it by staying true, watchful and mindful of the roots, heritage and religion that first spawned his music and formed the fire that burned at its core.

CMJ New Music Report Issue: 224 - Feb 22, 1991
© 2001 CMJ Network, Inc.



Bob Marley remains the indisputable king of reggae. In the ten years since Jamaica's favorite musical son succumbed to the ravages of cancer, the search for a worthy successor – a "new Marley" with comparable vision, personality and musical nerve, not to mention the magic crossover touch – has yielded only flawed contenders, including Marley's eldest son, Ziggy, a noble scion who, unfortunately, lacks his father's charismatic authority.

But looking for a new Marley is as pointless as looking for a new Dylan or Hendrix. Bob Marley, like those other two originals, revolutionized pop music in his own singular image, transforming a regional mutant product of Caribbean rhythm, American R&B and African mysticism into a personalized vehicle for spiritual communion, social argument and musical daring. Others, including his fellow founding Wailers, Neville Livingston (a.k.a. Bunny Wailer) and the late Peter Tosh, were party to his revolution. Yet it was Marley, with his rootsy integrity and mainstream-pop savvy, who largely initiated and greatly accelerated reggae's coming of age as a music of the world, as opposed to simply world music. He still casts a long shadow over reggae because his peers and disciples can still find much to love, and learn from, in his legacy.

Talkin' Blues is a crucial addition to that legacy. Like many posthumous collections, the album is a motley assemblage of previously unissued concert recordings and studio outtakes, linked by short excerpts from a 1975 Marley interview conducted by Jamaican journalist Dermot Hussey. But the live material's uncompromised physical kick and the narrative unity provided by the interview segments belie the album's patchwork makeup. (Listeners who have trouble deciphering Marley's tapioca-thick patois can order a free transcription of the interview from Island.)

Actually, the seven tracks taken from the Wailers' legendary October 1973 radio broadcast on KSAN, in San Francisco, are sufficient cause to celebrate. These vintage, deliciously raw performances, which feature Tosh and noted Jamaican vocalist Joe Higgs (subbing for Bunny Wailer, who had just quit the band), are as vital as those on the epochal 1975 album Live! and capture Marley's riddim rebellion at a critical juncture, just as he began to take Babylon by storm.

The light, scattered applause on the KSAN tracks (there are only half a dozen people in the studio audience) lends an air of poignant, familial intimacy to the proceedings. The haunting clarity with which Tosh and Higgs raise their voices in tortured harmony on the "weepin' and a-wailin'" chorus of "Burnin' and Loot-in'" evokes images of a destitute family crying in the darkness of a Kingston tenement yard. On that tune, and on ferocious readings of "Slave Driver" and "Get Up Stand Up" from the same session, Marley's voice shivers with tangible fear and wounded defiance, echoed by the argumentative chatter of Tosh's rhythm guitar, keyboardist Earl "Wire" Lindo's percolating clavinet and the angry drive of the sibling bass-drums backfield, Aston "Familyman" Barrett and his brother Carlton.

The result is 100-proof rebel music, bristling with the same aggressive spirit and embattled dignity that distinguished the original Wailers' classic Jamaican singles of the late Sixties and early Seventies. One Talkin' Blues number, "Walk the Proud Land," dates back even further. First issued in the mid-Sixties as "Rude Boy," a brisk, ska street-punk anthem, the song is slowed down and torched Chicago-soul-style here, with Marley, Tosh and Higgs singing like a rougher, Trenchtown version of the Impressions. Higgs, who was the Wailers' harmony coach in their schoolyard days, lends a strong Smokey Robinson flavor to "Slave Driver" with his powerful falsetto while Tosh takes a smoldering vocal turn of his own on "You Can't Blame the Youth," a sardonic black man's view of revisionist white history ("You teach the youths about the pirate Morgan/And you said he was a very great man").

The KSAN recordings effectively marked the end of Marley and the Wailers' first golden era. Within weeks, Tosh and Higgs were gone and Marley hit the crossover trail, enriching his sound with bluesy lead guitar, fuller keyboards and the I-Threes' hearty female hosannas – all elements that characterized later albums like Natty Dread, from 1974. The alternate takes of "Talkin' Blues" and "Bend Down Low" that appear on the new album are a little less polished than the versions on Natty Dread but no less fun. More interesting, though, is an unfinished song from those sessions, "Ama-Do," a racy love song that juxtaposes corny lovey-dovey clichés with the I-Threes' saucy rejoinder "Do it with your bad self!"

The final track on Talkin' Blues – a searing, previously unissued version of "I Shot the Sheriff," recorded during the historic 1975 London shows that yielded the Live! album – simply reaffirms everything that's already been said and written about Marley's mid-Seventies concert prowess. He is in full warrior vocal rapture here, the band stoking the rhythm fire underneath him with hardened aplomb. Though not as revelatory as the KSAN material, it is a fitting finale to this album, vivid proof not only of Marley's commanding stage presence but of the long distance he'd come in so short a time. In less than two years, Bob Marley had changed the face and future of reggae. Talkin' Blues is the sound of those changes in motion. It is also a tribute befitting a king.

DAVID FRICKE - RS 599
© Copyright 2001 RollingStone.com
 

 L y r i c s


TALKIN' BLUES

Yeah, oh yeah, no!
Cold ground was my bed last night
And rock was my pillow too
Cold ground was my bed last night
And rock was my pillow too, yeah

I'm sayin talkin' blues, talkin' blues
They say your feet is just too big for your shoes
Talkin' blues, talkin' blues
Your feet is just too big for your shoes

I've been down on the rock so long
I seem to wear a permanent screw, yeah
I've been down on the rock so long
I seem to wear a permanent screw
But I'm gonna stare in the sun
Let the rays shine in my eyes
I'm gonna take a just a one step more
Cause I feel like bombing a church, now
Now that you know that the preacher is lying

So who's gonna stay at home
When, when the freedom fighters are fighting
Talkin' blues, talkin' blues
They say your feet is just too big for your shoes, whoa
Talkin' blues, keep on, talkin' blues
They say, you hear what they say, didn't you hear?

Cold ground was my bed last night
Rock stone, rock stone, rock stone was my pillow
Cold ground was my bed last night
And rock was my pillow too

Sayin talkin' blues, talkin' blues
I seem to wear a permanent, permanent screw
Talkin' blues, talkin' blues
They say your feet is just too big for your shoes 


BURNIN' AND LOOTIN'

This morning I woke up in a curfew
Oh god, I was a prisoner too - yeah
Could not recognise the faces standing over me
They were all dressed in uniforms of brutality

How many rivers do we have to cross
Before we can talk to the boss
All that we got seems lost
We must have really paid the cost

(That's why we gonna be)
Burnin' and a-lootin' tonight
(Say we gonna burn and loot)
Burnin' and a-lootin' tonight
(One more thing)
Burnin all pollution tonight
(Oh yeah, yeah)
Burning all illusions tonight

Oh stop them

Give me the food and let me grow
Let the roots man take a blow
All them drugs gonna make you slow now
It's not the music of the ghetto

Weeping and a-wailing tonight
(Ooh can't stop the tears)
Weepin' and a-wailin' tonight
(We've been suffering all these long, long years)
Weeping and a-wailing tonight

Give me the food and let me grow
Let the roots man take a blow
All them drugs gonna make you slow now
It's not the music of the ghetto

We gonna be burnin' and a-lootin' tonight
(To survive, yeah)
Burnin' and a-lootin' tonight
(Save your babies lives)
Burning all pollution tonight
Burning all illusions tonight

Burnin and lootin tonight
Burnin and lootin tonight


KINKY REGGAE

Uh, ah-oh-oh!  I went downtown, (I went downtown)
I saw Miss Brown;   (said, I saw Miss Brown)
She had brown sugar   (had brown sugar)
All over her booga-wooga. (over her booga-wooga)

I think I might join the fun, (I might join the fun)
But I had to hit and run. (had to hit and run)
See I just can't settle down  (just can't settle down)
In a kinky part of town.

Ride on;
Don't you know I've got to (ride on), oh baby,
Ride on; see I just can't settle down.  (ride on)
Oh, I'm a leavin' town. (kinky reggae)

Kinky reggae, take me away!  (kinky reggae, now)  Kinky reggae, now!
Oh, kinky reggae; all I've got to say, kinky reggae, now!
Kinky reggae, oh baby!   Kinky reggae, now!
It's gonna be kinky reggae (keep it up).  Kinky reggae, now!
An' I would say: ride on, ride on, ride on (ride on)!
  Oh, ride on, baby!
Ride on, come on, woo-o-o!  (ride on)  Wo-now!  Eh!

I went down to Piccadilly Circus; (ooh-ooh-ooh)
Down there I saw Marcus: (oo-oo-oo-ooh)
He had a candy tar (ooh-ooh-ooh)
All over his chocolate bar. (oo-oo-oo-ooh)

I think I might join the fun, (I might join the fun)
But I had to hit and run. (had to hit and run)
See I just can't settle down  (just can't settle down)
In a kinky, kinky part of town.

Nice one; that's what they say, (nice one)
But I'm leavin' you today.  (nice one)
Oh, darlin', please don't pay:  (nice one)
Mama say - mama say.

Kinky reggae - kinky reggae, uh!  Kinky reggae, now!
  Take it or leave it!
Kinky reggae, believe it!  Kinky reggae, now!
Kinky reggae - it's gonna be: kinky reggae!
  Kinky reggae, now!  Cuka-yeah, now!
Kinky reggae - sca-ba-dool-ya-bung, baby!
  Kinky reggae, now, oh-oh-ooh!
(Ride on!)  Ride on!  Come on, yeah!  (Ride on)
  Riding on - riding on!
Ride on, kinky reggae.   Come on, ride on!  Eh!  Eh!
Kinky, kinky, kinky as kinky (kinky reggae) can be !  Reggae!  Eh!
Kinky reggae!  Let me hear ya say, now: kinky reggae, now.  Oh!
Kinky reggae!   Kinky reggae, now!  Kick it away!
Kinky reggae - kick it away, now!  Kinky reggae, now, oh!
Ride on!


GET UP, STAND UP

Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right (3 times)
Get Up, Stand Up, don't give up the fight

Preacher man don't tell me heaven is under the earth
I know you don't know what life is really worth
Is not all that glitters in gold and
Half the story has never been told
So now you see the light, aay
Stand up for your right.  Come on

Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don't give up the fight
(Repeat)

Most people think great God will come from the sky
Take away ev'rything, and make ev'rybody feel high
But if you know what life is worth
You would look for yours on earth
And now you see the light
You stand up for your right, yeah!

Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don't give up the fight
Get Up, Stand Up.  Life is your right
So we can't give up the fight
Stand up for your right, Lord, Lord
Get Up, Stand Up.  Keep on struggling on
Don't give up the fight

We're sick and tired of your ism and skism game
Die and go to heaven in Jesus' name, Lord
We know when we understand
Almighty God is a living man
You can fool some people sometimes
But you can't fool all the people all the time
So now we see the light
We gonna stand up for our right

So you'd better get up, stand up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don't give up the fight
Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don't give up the fight.


SLAVE DRIVER

Slave driver the table is turned
Catch a fire so you can get burned
Slave driver the table is turned
Catch a fire you're gonna get burned

Ev'ry time I hear the crack of the whip
My blood runs cold
I remember on the slave ship
How they brutalised our very souls
Today they say that we are free
Only to be chained in poverty
Good god, I think it's all illiteracy
It's only a machine that make money

Slave driver the table is turned

Slave driver the table is turned baby now
Catch a fire so you can get burned baby now
Slave driver the table is turned
Catch a fire so you can get burned

Ev'ry time I hear the crack of the whip
My blood runs cold
I remember on the slave ship
How they brutalised our very souls

Oh god have mercy on our souls


WALK THE PROUD LAND

Instrumental


YOU CAN'T BLAME THE YOUTH

Instrumental


RASTAMAN CHANT

I hear the words of the rasta man say
Babylon your throne gone down, gone down
Babylon your throne gone down

Said, I hear the words of the higher man say
Babylon your throne gone down, gone down
Babylon your throne gone down

And I hear the angel with the seven seals
Babylon your throne's gone down, gone down
Babylon your throne gone down

I say fly away home to zion, fly away home
I say fly away to zion, fly away home
One bright morning when my work is over
Man will fly away home

One bright morning when my work is over
Man will fly away home
One brlght morning when my work is over
Man will fly away home

I say fly away home to zion, fly away home
I say fly away to zion, fly away home
One bright morning when my work is over
Man will fly away home


AM-A-DO

Instrumental


BEND DOWN LOW

Bend down low, let me tell you what I know now;
Bend down low, let me tell you what I know.
Oh!  Fisherman row to reap what you sow now;
Oh, tell you all I know (Oo-oh!),
    you've got to let me go now (Oo-oh!),
And all you've got to do:
(Bend down low)   Oh yeah!  Let me tell you what I know;
Bend down low, let me tell you what I know.  Oh yeah!

You keep on knockin', but you can't come in.
I get to understand you been livin' in sin,
But if you love me, woman, walk right in.
I've got a notch for your safety-pin,
But bend down low.
---
/Instrumental break/
---
Keep on knockin', but you can't come in.
I get to understand you been livin' in sin,
But walk right in, woman, sit right down.
I will keep on lovin' you; I play the clown.
But bend down low, baby, let me tell you what I know;
Bend down low, let me tell you what I know, yeah!
Let me tell you, baby!   Let me tell ya -
Knock on, babe!   Just won't let ya in!
You been livin' in sin.   Knock on!


I SHOT THE SHERIFF

I shot the sheriff, but I didn't shoot no deputy
Oh, no, oh
I shot the sheriff, but I didn't shoot no deputy
Ooh, ooh, ooh Yeah

All around in my hometown
They're tryin' to track me down, yeah
They say they want to bring me in guilty
For the killing of a deputy, for the life of a deputy
But I say, oh, now, now...

Oh, I shot the sheriff, but I swear it was in self defense
Ooh, ooh, ooh
I said, I shot the sheriff, Oh Lord
And they say it is a capital offense
Ooh, ooh, ooh
Hear this

Sheriff John Brown always hated me
For what I don't know
Ev'ry time I plant a seed
He said, "Kill it before it grows."
He said, "Kill them before they grow."

And so, oh, now, now,
Read it in the news

I shot the sheriff, but I swear it was in self defense
Ooh, ooh, ooh
Where was the deputy?
I said I shot the sheriff but I swear it was in self defense

Freedom came my way one day
And I started out of town, yeah!
All of a sudden I saw Sheriff John Brown
Aiming to shoot me down
So I shot, I shot, I shot him down
And I say, if I am guilty I will pay

I shot the sheriff, but I say, but I didn't shoot no deputy
Ooh, no, oh
I shot the sheriff, but I didn't shoot no deputy
Ooo, ooo, ooh

Reflexes had the better of me
And what is to be must be
Ev'ry day the bucket a-go-a well
One day the bottom a-go drop out
One day the bottom a-go drop out
I say, I, I, ...

I, I shot the sheriff, but I didn't shoot the deputy, no
(Repeat)

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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