Bob Marley: The Legend Live
Filed Under: Music, Reviews | Article Tags : dvd review , music on dvd
By: Erik Swift
March 2004
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Ah, March. NCAA picks are organized, the Allman Brothers Band is gearing up for nine nights at the Beacon Theater, the Yankees are beating the Red Sox again just like last year, and I’m packing my bag for an unknown number of days in the Florida Keys. This past winter season has been a bitter one in the northeastern US, and just about everywhere else. However, sweet relief comes from the positive vibrations on Sanctuary Records’ “Bob Marley: The Legend Live.”
A perfect DVD for these waning weeks of winter, the first sign that spring and summer loom on the horizon during this killer release has to be the clouds of marijuana smoke that billow across the screen before the reggae icon is able to address the audience. Originally released on VHS in the early ‘80s, this November 25, 1979 concert is Marley’s final performance to be captured on film. Don Letts (the Grammy-winning documentary filmmaker behind The Clash’s “Westway To The World”) did some serious work on this DVD’s seven new songs, and a host of extras - including the 51-minute “Prophecies and Messages” documentary – more than double the initial collection’s seventy minutes.
From the start, the music from the Third World rocks the First at Santa Barbara’s County Bowl. The newly added “Wake Up And Live” features some great work from Marley on the axe, while “Concrete Jungle” and “Heathen” are showcases for guitarists Al Anderson and Junior Marvin. Listen to the mourning, soulful “Heathen” solo – it’s a beautiful performance. The dependable rhythm section of the Barrett brothers (drummer Carlton and the late Aston “Family Man” on bass) is solid on every song – check out the duo during “Running Away”: the bass and drums taper off to a slow ebb only to quickly flow again as the song seques into “Crazy Baldhead.” Listening to the Barretts’ jamming throughout this concert, especially on “I Shot The Sheriff,” could cause you to finally book that flight to Kingston. “JAH!” Marley yells several times at the Santa Barbara crowd, who are caught dancing worse and worse as the show goes on. Bob and the Wailers plunge into a galloping “Exodus” as the setting southern California sun darkens the grooving people, and the band gets a good workout during “Zimbabwe.” A knockout “Get Up Stand Up” ends it, the crowd chanting, “Never give up the fight.”
A world-class ambassador of Jamaica and dedicated Rastafarian , Bob Marley predicted his May 1981 death – just one of the facts revealed during the “Prophecies And Messages” bonus documentary. One of the more striking aspects of the interview material is a gaunt-looking Bob, who at times sounds and looks so out of it that keyboardist Tyrone Downie needs to step in and make things more coherent – when he’s not toking on a giant spliff. While it’s good to hear the reasons why “Africa Unite” namechecks Marcus Garvey or the influence of Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie (a large figure in the Rastafari religion) on Marley’s material, this is incredibly overlong and unfortunately cannibalizes the disc’s concert footage big-time.
Another bonus DVD extra is a performance of “War/No More Trouble” from a few days later and 90 miles south from the Santa Barbara County Bowl at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. Solely covered with one camera, it’s a great version from a benefit concert that Bob Marley and the Wailers gave to assist the charity foundation run by the former heavyweight-boxing champion Sugar Ray Robinson. The visual clarity of this song – like the rest of the DVD – is of less than stellar quality, but it’s great to see more Marley footage going digital. “The Legend Live” is a great DVD that sets the mood for making mohitos, firing up the grill or just to grove to. Like the song says, “Make way for the positive day.”
Reviewer’s Opinion: RENT IT!!
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