The Wailers
Burnin'

THE REVIEW

What is Bob Marley's place in modern music twenty-six years after his passing? Will he be remembered by future generations for his dazzling inventions in the music field? In my very personal opinion, no. The genre he proposed and then took to levels of worldwide success, reggae, had existed long before he appeared on the scene. Rather, the credit that can be attributed to him is that of—as stated above—bringing it to the top, making the most of his Wailers bandmates (especially Peter Tosh) and then choosing—let's call them—shorter paths to success.

Will he then be passed down through generations for his highly poetic lyrics? Once again, in my opinion, no. With verses in hand, his words take on a very specific meaning only when related to the background of their author—Jamaica, a country notoriously poor and overexploited—and with his strong desire to connect with his roots, in Africa, where he truly felt he belonged. Not without reason, his concert in Zimbabwe, following the country's liberation from the slave regime, is historic.

Nonetheless, it's undeniable that good old Bob had, for better or worse, a more than notable influence on his contemporary musicians and beyond. Just consider the enormous amount of fake-reggae songs that have appeared over the years (even from Led Zeppelin!) or the cover bands and such. And this is precisely where I think the crux of the matter lies: the risk of evaluating all of the artist's works based solely on the persona, and his charisma, rather than the quality of the work itself. It often happens that a highly valuable album like "Natty Dread" (1974), if only because it includes a classic like "No Woman, No Cry", along with "Lively Up Yourself", can be placed on the same level as "Burnin'", his second album, and in truth, the last recorded as a real band in 1973.

This LP therefore contains the usual songs of the usual Marley. Nothing more and nothing less. No variation on the pattern. Certainly, two great hits like "Get Up, Stand Up", which opens the album, and "I Shot the Sheriff", covered many times over, would justify its purchase by fans of the genre and others. Yet, it's still more evident the rawness of the remaining compositions, all too similar to each other to be remembered (which is not the case in "Natty Dread"). On the back cover, good old Bob enjoys a joint, seemingly caring little about the actual value of the produced record. He probably knew that he would have his place in history anyway.