Bob Marley & The Wailers - Live At The Rainbow, 4th June 1977 (Remastered) (2020) [Hi-Res]

At the time, Bob Marley and the Wailers, already huge in the UK, were on tour in support of the locally produced Exodus. While the show starts off with the slow-burning “Trenchtown Rock” (1973’s African Herbsman), Marley’s performance grows increasingly incendiary until, by the time they get to the climactic closer, “Exodus,” it looks as he’s in another world entirely.

The turning point is an extended version of “Crazy Baldhead” (1976’s Rastaman Vibration), in which Marley seemingly enters a trance, performing primarily with eyes closed.

By the late-1970s, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer were long gone, making the electrifying Marley more the focus than ever before (and for the first few songs, the rest of the band is barely visible). Other highlights includes “Lively Up Yourself” (1974’s Natty Dread), in which Julian “Junior” Marvin throws some Hendrix-style moves into the mix, and “Get Up, Stand Up” (1973’s Burnin’), in which the audience echoes Marley’s words, as lost in the moment as the man on the stage. This two-disc set includes the 1984 BBC documentary Caribbean Nights (AKA The Bob Marley Story). It features performance excerpts (“Slave Driver” from 1972, “Stir It Up” and “Rastaman Chant” from 1973, “Bad Card” from 1980, etc.), and interviews with Tosh, Joe Higgs, Chris Blackwell, Judy Mowatt, wife Rita Marley, and mother Cedella Booker. –Kathleen C. Fennessy

"Recorded live in 1977 while the band was on tour for the Exodus album, Live! At the Rainbow captures the Wailers, sans Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh, at an ambitious stage of their career. Offering a more driven and tense show than the 1979 Santa Barbara concert that was released on DVD as Legend Live, Rainbow is as exhausting as it is rousing. Hits like "I Shot the Sheriff," "Jamming," and "Get Up, Stand Up" are more urgent than they would become in their later, more languid performances, and the difference is worth experiencing. Not that Bob Marley & the Wailers were ever complacent or lazy, but the rebellious fire that the English punks were being called to is evident here. The way Bob twitches like a puppet on a string would soon be replaced by a more easy skanking, and background singers the I-Threes would become more soulful sisters than the horn section-emulating trio they are here. The excitement generated by this more driven Wailers could start a discussion on whether all the maturation was really better for the band, but for those who come to Bob Marley through the Clash and the punkier side of ska, this show is most certainly gold." (David Jeffries, AMG)