Bob Marley & The Wailers – Uprising

Great, great, great sounding record; clear, punchy with presence and details.

I think the subject of Rastafarianism is foremost in the music Bob Marley made. Rastafarianism is, to me, a bizarre religion. It was based on a revised version of the Bible called "The Holy Piby"written by a Rev. Robert Athlyi Rogers between 1913 and 1917: to found a religion he called "Afro-Athlican Constructive Gaathly"-I kid you not. The guy killed himself in 1931. He wrote his treatise in his homeland-on the island of Anguilla-a sparsely populated UK island territory that only had about 2000 residents in 1970-so you can imagine how few people probably lived there c.1915. The funny thing about the history of Anguilla is that it was first settled by South American Indians circa 1300 BC so its origins as a place to live had little or nothing to do with Africa. Anyway-Bob Marley was a big Rastafarian-and this was the last album he did before ing away from cancer in May of 1981. Its an OK disc but BM mixed human rights issues and Rasta theology-which also names Haile Selassie as a 'God King' even though the man himself-Haile Selassie-never made any such claims, I am told. Given the totally confused nature of Rastafarianism I always found it amazing that Bob Marley ever managed to record anything at all. They went from short hair & suites in the 1960's & long dreadlocks in the 1970's. A band loved by many-this album is-in my opinion-barely average. I think many people listen to the Wailer's but are not Rasta's. I think BM overestimated the bands conversion rate. Apparently the "Holy Piby" is the only book to not to be given a number in the Library of Congress. Its probably hard to find also...