After some ska from The Beatles and a bit of calypso from Harry Neilsson, finally we get some reggae from actual Jamaicans. Paul Simon gets part of a pass because at least he worked with Jamaican musicians for Mother And Child Reunion.
Now, reggae in this form is actually relatively new as of this album, but has been around since the days when psychedelia began to blend into country-rock. Which is why this is The Wailers’ fifth studio album, not their first. And thankfully no Three Little Birds, which gets played to absolute death.
It does contain one of the other popular Wailers tracks, Stir It Up, featuring some great walking bass from, I believe in this case Robbie Shakespeare rather than the usual bassist Aston “Family Man” Barratt. The tracks are a mix of romantic songs (Stir It Up, Baby We’ve Got A Date), songs reflecting Jamaican life (Kinky Reggae), and songs about social justice (Concrete Jungle, 400 Years) which to me are the stand-out tracks. Concrete Jungle in particular has a surprisingly rocky guitar solo (possibly Wayne Perkins).
Throughout, the characteristic scratchy off-beat guitar “skank” comes, I would guess, from Peter Tosh, who also provides the same on keyboard where necessary, except when John “Rabbit” Bundrick comes in on clavinet. By and large, each musician plays a simple sequence but they blend to give a deeply complex whole, with enough space that you can hear it when they break out a little – 400 Years is an excellent track to exemplify this, and is far far too short in my opinion.
What I hope to hear, going forward, is greater incorporation of reggae elements into other artists’ work, now that Marley has brought the music finally to a wider audience.
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