Amazon.co.uk Review
Natty Dread captures Bob Marley's decisive transition from Wailers band member to auteur, his singing and writing now front and centre, and the revamped band securely reined in to his defiant, Rastafarian worldview. This 1974 release mirrors the line-up's more sinewy sound, carved by Al Anderson's spidery guitar fills, Touter's telegraphic keyboard, the I-Threes' female vocal choruses and vamping horns--a potent brew that bubbles under his then most openly political songs. A position paper on the daunting ghetto realities of Jamaica's Trenchtown, the album reels off a series of enduring Marley classics and kicks off with the giddy, sexy reggae anthem, "Lively Up Yourself", with its hilarious but mysterious spoken fadeout ("What you got in dat bag, dere?"). It continues with the uplifting pep talk in "No Woman No Cry", the grim dispatches of "Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)" and "Rebel Music (3 O'Clock Roadblock)", as well as the exhortations of the title song and "Revolution". Marley's own dreadlocks were still just growing in then, but this is nonetheless fully matured, riveting reggae at its most focused, righteous, and rhythmically irresistible. --Sam Sutherland
About the Artist
Bob Marley is still immensely popular, even 20 years after his passing. Reason enough for Music On Vinyl to reissue Bob Marley & the Wailers' 1974 album 'Natty Dread'. The oft-covered 'No Woman, No Cry'; the infectious and captivatingly cool 'Lively Up Yourself'; the Ska-inclined 'Rebel Music': this is just a hint at what 'Natty Dread' has to offer. We can't expect any new Bob Marley songs, but we can gladly rediscover his classics over and over again. Time to put these tunes on heavy rotation!
Product Description
Digitally remastered 2001 reissue of 1974 album with bonus track 'Am-A-Do'.
