Album Review: Bob Marley and The Wailers, Live Forever

Bob Marley. File photo / NZ Herald

Some albums are more important for what they are than what they deliver. So it is with this double-disc, the final concert Bob Marley ever played: September 23, 1980 in Pittsburgh.

Marley was already gaunt from the cancer that would claim him eight months later and he'd collapsed two days before while jogging in Central Park. There was briefly talk of adding a second Pittsburgh show, but he was too ill.

Given his poor health it's remarkable he got through the long set, but there is an audible flatness throughout. Line it up against the classic Live! from '75 and it is somewhat sad. You cannot help but hear some of it differently: "I know it's impossible to go living through my past" in Natural Mystic leaps out now for very different reasons.

But the extended grooves, soloing, dub-lite passages and electric keyboards show Marley was ratcheting up his deeply spiritual and politically-fuelled material for American stadiums. Although he rises to the occasion in places (Crazy Baldheads) at other times songs sound leavened out (Rastaman Vibration) and hardly reflect their uplifting sentiment. He sounds weary, both physically and emotionally.

Never intended for release, this is historic because of the circumstances, but hardly among Marley's essential albums.

Stars: 2.5/5
Verdict: The final and exhausted flourish from the figurehead of reggae

-TimeOut