Bob Marley and the Wailers
Bob Marley and the Wailers were a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae band. The founding members, in 1963, were Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer.
During 1970 and 1971, Wailer, Marley and Tosh worked with renowned reggae producers Leslie Kong and Lee "Scratch" Perry.
Before signing to Island Records in 1972, the band released four albums. Two additional albums were produced before Tosh and Wailer departed from the band in 1974, citing dissatisfaction with their treatment by the label and ideological disagreements. Marley continued with a new lineup, which included the I-Threes, and went on to release seven more albums. Marley died from cancer in 1981, at which point the group disbanded.
The Wailers were a groundbreaking ska and reggae group, noted for songs such as "Simmer Down", "Trenchtown Rock", "Nice Time", "War", "Stir It Up", "Get Up, Stand Up" and "I Shot the Sheriff".
History
Early years
The band formed in 1963 following self-taught musician Peter Tosh meeting the singers Bunny Wailer and Bob Marley. They developed a ska vocal group called the Teenagers. The group soon changed their name to the Wailing Rudeboys and then to the Wailing Wailers before settling on the Wailers.The band topped the Jamaican charts in 1964 with "Simmer Down", which was recorded at Studio One with the rhythm section from the studio house band the Skatalites. "Simmer Down" was a message to the Jamaican rude boys to "simmer down, oh cool your temper" and became an overnight hit. The record played an essential role in changing the musical agenda in Jamaica from imitating foreign artists, to capturing the lives and spirit of Jamaica.
Wailer, Marley and Tosh recorded with Lee "Scratch" Perry and his studio band the Upsetters. They also worked with renowned reggae producer Leslie Kong, who used his studio musicians, called Beverley's All-Stars to record the songs that would be released as an album titled The Best of The Wailers.
By late 1963, singers Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso, and Cherry Smith had joined the group. The line-up consisted of Braithwaite on vocals, Marley on guitar, Tosh on keyboard, Wailer on percussion, with Smith and or Kelso on backing vocals. Kelso remembered those early recordings fondly:
In 1965, Kelso left the band. Marley, Tosh, Wailer and Braithwaite took turns on lead vocals. Braithwaite left shortly after providing lead vocals for the single "It Hurts to be Alone", leaving the band consisting of the trio of Wailer, Marley and Tosh. The band's first album, The Wailing Wailers, was released the same year, a compilation of tracks recorded at different times.
In 1966, they created a rocksteady record label Wail N Soul M. Constantine "Dream" Walker provided backing vocals from 1966 to 1967.
In May 1970, the band recorded with renowned reggae producer Leslie Kong; producing The Best of the Wailers, which they released later in 1971 as their fourth album. Over the rest of 1970 and 1971, the band worked with Lee 'Scratch' Perry, producing the band's second and third albums, Soul Rebels and Soul Revolution Part II. During this time, the Upsetters members Aston "Family Man" Barrett and his brother Carlton Barrett were recruited as instrumental backing for The Wailers.
Signing to Island Records
In 1972, while in London, the Wailers asked their road manager Brent Clarke to introduce them to Chris Blackwell, who had licensed some of their Coxsone releases for his Island Records. The Wailers felt they were due royalties from these releases. Blackwell was not convinced, but he was impressed by their character. He thought they "exuded power and self-possession" despite being poor. Despite not having seen the band perform live, he advanced them £4,000 to record an album. He did not even require them to sign anything, feeling they deserved a break. Jimmy Cliff, Island's top reggae star, had recently left the label. His departure may have primed Blackwell to find a replacement. In Marley, Blackwell recognized the elements needed to snare the rock audience: "I was dealing with rock music, which was really rebel music. I felt that would really be the way to break Jamaican music. But you needed someone who could be that image. When Bob walked in, he really was that image". The Wailers returned to Jamaica to record at Harry J's in Kingston, which resulted in the foundational tracks what would make up the album Catch a Fire. Primarily recorded on an eight-track, Catch a Fire marked the first time a reggae band had access to a state-of-the-art studio and were accorded the same care as their rock 'n' roll peers.The tracks were taken to Island Studios in London and worked on by Blackwell, with Marley supervising. Blackwell desired the tracks to appeal to rock audiences in the United Kingdom and United States, to whom the band would be novel. To this end, he made the tracks sound "more of a drifting, hypnotic-type feel than a reggae rhythm". He restructured Marley's mixes and arrangements. The tracks were overdubbed with the help of Wayne Perkins on guitar and John "Rabbit" Bundrick on keyboard. The mix deviated from the bass-heavy sound of Jamaican music, and two tracks were omitted. The album released in April 1973, closely followed by Burnin in October 1973. Burnin contained the songs "Get Up, Stand Up" and Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff"; a cover version of the latter was Eric Clapton's first US No. 1 in 1974.
Tosh and Livingston departure and I-Threes
In 1974, Livingston left the band due to various disagreements with Blackwell, including not getting paid for the English leg of their Burnin' tour, and his refusal to play in the "freak clubs" that Island had booked the band. Tosh believed that producer Blackwell, whom he unfavorably called "Chris Whiteworst", was responsible for the bad relationship between the band members. He thought Blackwell favored Marley over the rest of the band, giving him more attention and money, and with the decision to release their albums under the name "Bob Marley and the Wailers" instead of "The Wailers".Marley continued with a new line-up, which included Aston Barrett, Carlton Barrett, Junior Marvin, Al Anderson, Tyrone Downie, Earl "Wya" Lindo, and Alvin "Seeco" Patterson on percussion. Additionally, the I-Threes provided female backing vocals. The three I-Three members were Marley's wife Rita Marley, Judy Mowatt and Marcia Griffiths. Their name is a spin on the Rastafarian "I and I" concept of the Godhead within each person.
The album Natty Dread was released in 1974, the first without Tosh and Livingston and with the I-Threes. It featured "No Woman, No Cry", a seminal song in the Wailers' canon, along with "Lively Up Yourself" and the more political "Them Belly Full ". In 1975 a live version of "No Woman, No Cry", recorded at the Lyceum Theatre in London during the Natty Dread tour, became Bob Marley & the Wailers' first successful single outside reggae circles, reaching No. 22 on the UK singles chart.
Perry released two compilation albums for Trojan Records in 1974, Rasta Revolution and African Herbsman, which contained songs from Soul Rebels and Soul Revolution Part II, respectively, and he was the copyright holder of several songs from these albums. These changes caused a major dispute between Marley and Perry, when the former saw the albums, six months after their publication, in the Half Way Road in England.
Bob Marley & the Wailers' next album, 1976's Rastaman Vibration, was a breakthrough success in the US, reaching No. 8 on the Billboard 200 chart. The song "War" featured lyrics taken directly from the text of a Haile Selassie speech. The album credits numerous songwriters, including Bob and Rita Marley, the Barretts and Marley's childhood mentor and friend Vincent Ford amongst others. Marley was in dispute with publishing company Cayman Music and sought to avoid contractual entanglements by putting the songs in the names of his family and friends, and provide them with potential future income.
Also in 1976, Bunny Wailer released his debut solo album Blackheart Man, with Marley and Tosh contributing backing vocals and the Barretts forming the rhythm section on some tracks. Peter Tosh also released his first solo album entitled Legalize It. Marley and Livingston received co-writing credits on some of the songs. Most of the then-current Wailers band played on the record, with Rita Marley providing backing vocals.
Stay in London and ''Exodus''
Following an assassination attempt at their home in Kingston in December 1976, the Marleys moved to London, England in early 1977. Most of the current Wailers line-up followed, with Marley also recruiting Jamaican-born, London-raised guitarist Junior Marvin. This line-up recorded the next Bob Marley & the Wailers album, Exodus, released in June, 1977. The album title were conceived in response to Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley's campaign slogan, 'We Know Where We're Going'. Featuring downbeat reggae rhythms fused with elements of soul, blues and English rock, Exodus was a top-20 hit in the US and UK while the song "Exodus" was No. 1 in Jamaica. Exodus also featured numerous songs which would go on to be hits and iconic Bob Marley & the Wailers tunes in their own right, including "Jamming", "Waiting In Vain", a new version of 1965's "One Love/People Get Ready" and the carefree, optimistic "Three Little Birds". In 1999, Time magazine named Exodus the greatest album of the 20th century, and the album has continued to feature in best-of-all-time lists.In March 1978 the album Kaya was released. The record was coolly received by critics, who found it lightweight and uninspired following Exodus. Nevertheless, Kaya went top-5 in the UK Albums Chart and contained the hit single "Is This Love". Kaya also contained new versions of three songs from 1971's Soul Revolution II. Bob Marley & the Wailers toured Europe extensively in support of Kaya, resulting in the live album Babylon by Bus, also released in 1978.