Bob Marley og The Wailers: 'Natty Dread' albummet

Bob Marley started off playing homemade instruments with his friends and in 1964 he formed a vocal group called the Wailers. Music was the way for him to stay out an forget his troublels. Even in the early days, there was something special about the wailers, they had an energy and excitement. Many others groups sang about fast cars and expensive nightclubs, the wailers sang about bad hausing, hard work and poor wages- things people understood. In 1963 one of the leading companies in kingston gave them a recording contract. Marley’s third album for Island Records “Natty Dread”, released in October 1975, was the first credited to Bob Marley and The Wailers; the harmonies of Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer were replaced with the soulfulness of the I-Threes, Rita Marley, Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt. The Wailers band now included Family Man and Carly Barrett, Junior Marvin on rhythm guitar, Al Anderson on lead guitar, Tyrone Downie and Earl Lindo on keyboards and Alvin Patterson playing percussion. Characterized by spiritually and socially conscious lyrics, the “Natty Dread” album included a rousing blues-influenced celebration of reggae, “Lively Up Yourself”, which Bob used to open many of his concerts.A commercial as well as a critical success, “Natty Dread” peaked at no. 44 on Billboard’s Black Albums chart and no. 92 on the Pop Albums chart.