Bob Marley & The Wailers

Vinyl Discography:

Biography:

While Bob Marley, the Wailers, and Bob Marley & the Wailers have become interchangeable names used haphazardly to refer to recordings actually made by different entities, the group went through several lineup shifts that defined its distinct phases. They transitioned from their beginnings as a teenage ska act in the early '60s to the more roots-focused lineup that created '70s masterpieces like Catch a Fire and Burnin'. The departure of Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer in the mid-'70s marked a different era for the Wailers, as did the death of bandleader Bob Marley in 1981. Several offshoots of the band were subsequently formed by surviving members, keeping the Wailers' legacy alive for new generations of fans.

The Wailers, formed in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1963, were a vocal group consisting of Junior Braithwaite, Beverly Kelso, Bunny Livingston, Bob Marley, Peter McIntosh, and Cherry Smith; they were also called the Teenagers, the Wailing Rudeboys, the Wailing Wailers, and finally, the Wailers. Braithwaite, Kelso, and Smith left in 1966, leaving the trio of Livingston, Marley, and McIntosh. By the early 1970s, they had begun playing instruments and added a rhythm section consisting of brothers Aston “Family Man” Barrett (bass) and Carlton “Carly” Barrett (drums). After extensive recording in Jamaica, the group signed with the British Island Records label, which released their debut album, Catch a Fire, in April 1973, followed by Burnin' in November. These albums attracted critical attention but initially failed to chart.

By the time Natty Dread (1974) was released, the original group had split. McIntosh (later billed as Peter Tosh) and Livingston (later billed as Bunny Wailer) left. The album was credited to Bob Marley & the Wailers, the group consisting of Marley, the Barretts, keyboardist Bernard "Touter" Harvey, and lead guitarist Al Anderson, with backing vocals by the I-Threes (Marcia Griffiths, Rita Marley, and Judy Mowatt). Their breakthrough performance at the Lyceum in London on July 18, 1975, was recorded and soon released on LP as Live!, and Marley and his reggae music became an international sensation. The success of Eric Clapton's cover of "I Shot the Sheriff," a Marley song from Burnin', in the summer of 1974 had done much to popularize reggae (the original version charted on the US R&B charts that fall), but Marley himself had also achieved stardom as a recording artist. "No Woman, No Cry," a song originally featured on Natty Dread, charted in the UK in his live version in September 1975 and became a Top 40 hit. This brought both Natty Dread and Live! to the UK charts. In the US, Natty Dread charted in May; it was followed by Burnin' and Catch a Fire in the fall. (Live! remained unreleased in the US for a year; upon its release, it charted in the Top 100.)

Bob Marley & the Wailers reached their commercial peak in the US with the April 1976 release of their next studio album, Rastaman Vibration, which reached the Top Ten; "Roots, Rock, Reggae" became a minor pop hit and a Top 40 R&B hit. At this time, the group consisted of Marley, the Barretts, the I-Threes, keyboardist Tyrone Downie, percussionist Alvin "Seeco" Patterson, rhythm guitarist Earl "Chinna" Smith, and lead guitarist Donald Kinsey. Exodus, released in May 1977, saw Marley & the Wailers take a slightly more uptempo (and disco-influenced) direction; it produced three Top 40 chart hits in the UK ("Exodus," "Waiting in Vain," and the Top Ten "Jamming," supported by the non-LP "Punky Reggae Party"), and became their first Top Ten album in the UK. In the US, it sold about as well as Rastaman Vibration, but the band began to encounter resistance from category-conscious radio programmers who couldn't decide whether to classify it as rock or R&B. "Exodus" became a Top 20 R&B hit, and "Waiting in Vain" reached the R&B Top 40, but neither single charted in the pop charts. Once again, Marley had reworked the band's personnel, which for Exodus consisted of himself, the Barretts, the I-Threes, Downie, Patterson, and lead guitarist Junior Marvin.

Kaya, the fourth studio album by Bob Marley & the Wailers, was released in March 1978. In Britain, it was the band's biggest success to date, reaching the Top Five; it was propelled by the lead-off single "Is This Love," which became a Top Ten hit, and by the follow-up single "Satisfy My Soul," which reached the Top 40. But the story was very different in the US, where the album struggled. Black radio seemed to have decided the group didn't fit into disco-dominated formats, while pop radio was increasingly drawn to new wave sounds and treated reggae as a fad that had passed. The double live album Babylon by Bus, released in November and marking the return of Al Anderson and the addition of keyboardist Earl "Wire" Lindo, was a modest seller and again performed better in Britain than in America.

Bob Marley & the Wailers' fifth studio album, Survival, was released in October 1979. It reached the Top 20 in the UK, with the chart-topping single "So Much Trouble in the World," but its sales in the US were modest, although "Wake Up and Live" became a minor R&B hit. Uprising, released in June 1980 and preceded by the driving single "Could You Be Loved," gave Marley a commercial resurgence. Both the single and the album became Top Ten hits in the UK. In the US, there was more resistance, but "Could You Be Loved" reached the R&B charts, and the album charted higher than any of the band's albums since Exodus. Uprising might have fared better in its home country had Marley not fallen ill shortly after its release and had his tour promoting the album been canceled after just a few dates.

His death in May 1981 naturally brought an end to the band known as Bob Marley & the Wailers, but it didn't affect the success of Bob Marley & the Wailers. Even before his death, Marley's back catalog had begun selling well, with a UK single of Exodus's "Three Little Birds" reaching the Top 20 in the fall of 1980. Shortly after Marley's death, "No Woman, No Cry" was re-released and reached the Top 10 in the UK. Live! (retitled Live at the Lyceum) returned to the album charts. The posthumous Confrontation was released two years after Marley's death, in May 1983. Both the single "Buffalo Soldier" and the LP reached the UK Top Five. In the US, the single charted in the R&B charts, and the album was a moderate seller.

But the album that truly made the defunct band a mainstream success was the hit collection Legend: The Best of Bob Marley & the Wailers, released in Britain three years after Marley's death, in May 1984, and in the U.S. that August. The album topped the British charts, with "One Love/People Get Ready" (originally released on Exodus) becoming a Top 5 single, "Waiting in Vain" returning to the Top 40, and "Could You Be Loved" returning to the charts. The U.S. charts were less spectacular, but the album became a steady seller; by the end of the century, it had sold over ten million copies. The success, in turn, boosted sales of Marley's catalog in the US, and throughout the 1990s, Burnin', Live!, Rastaman Vibration, Exodus, Kaya, Uprising, and Confrontation all went gold, while Island continued to top the charts with compilations like Rebel Music (1986), Talkin' Blues (1991), and Natural Mystic (1995). Often, the focus was solely on Marley: the 1992 four-CD box set Songs of Freedom, which included recordings dating back to the early 1960s, focused on Marley, not Marley & the Wailers, as did the chart-topping 1999 album of newly created duets, Chant Down Babylon. On the other hand, the many repackagings of Wailers recordings from the 1960s have long tended to credit their material to Bob Marley & the Wailers, even though the material was cut by the Livingston/McIntosh/Marley group, and Island has long credited reissues of Catch a Fire to Bob Marley & the Wailers (the first American release even carried that credit). In practice, Bob Marley & the Wailers recordings can therefore refer to any music featuring Marley made in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. However, cautious listeners will insist that the credits apply only to recordings and performances by Marley and his regular backing group from the breakup of the original Wailers trio in 1974 until Marley's death in 1981.

In the years following Marley's death, subgroups emerged from various former Wailers members. Barrett formed the Wailers Band in 1989 and continued playing in various formations for decades. Besides extensive touring, the band released albums such as 1991's Majestic Warriors and 2020's One World. In 2008, Junior Marvin and Al Anderson split from the Wailers Band to form the Original Wailers. This splinter group released their debut EP, Miracle, in 2012, which was nominated for Best Reggae Album at that year's Grammy Awards. Keyboardist Tyrone Downie died on November 5, 2022, at the age of 66.

In August 2023, Island Records released Africa Unite. The ten-song set was titled after a track from Marley's 1979 album, Survival. Paying tribute to the reggae pioneer of the 2020 generation of Afrobeat artists, they added voices and rhythms to the Wailers' iconic songs. The set's first single was a performance of "Three Little Birds" by Nigerians Teni and Oxlade. Other contributors included Tiwa Savage, Sarkodie, Utty O, Winky, Rema, Ami Faku, Afro B, Ayar Starr, and Patoranking. Aston "Family Man" Barrett, bassist and co-producer on most of Marley's most successful albums, died on February 3, 2024, at the age of 77.

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