Faux Fu

Saturday, August 16, 2008

The Natural Mystic

I just started reading Timothy White's masterful biography of Bob Marley, "Catch a Fire." I'm kind of amazed it took me so long to get to it. I'm sure I'll have more to say after I finish it. It's so good, reads like a great novel. Surely a great achievement.

I actually saw Marley and the Wailers play the Auditorium Theater in Chicago in 1976.

Marley was such a force unto himself. There were/are other great Reggae stars - Toots and the Maytals, Jimmy Cliff, Burning Spear, Peter Tosh, Bunny Livingstone, but really none could quite match the incandescence of Marley.

Marley is certainly the most famous Rastafarian that ever walked the planet. He re-defined "world music," and gave voice to the voiceless living in Concrete Jungle and Trench Town.

He made the trek from a one-room shack in the Jamaican hills, to the slums of Kingston, to a world stage. Improbable. Magic.

Check this out. A great version of Concrete Jungle. It begins and ends with a wobble! Superb!

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