Let’s discuss any and all music here. Got a new artist who’s rocking your boat that you want to talk about? Post a video! Found out about that unearthed Coltrane album that has the jazz freak in you losing your mind? Lay it out for us! Have a theory about what your favorite band might do for their next album? Let’s hear it! Anything and everything music-related goes here.
This week’s discussion prompt: What are some songs where a live version has supplanted the studio version?
BONUS PROMPT: What are some cases where you think a particular live version should supplant the studio one?
Most of you have probably heard “No Woman, No Cry” by Bob Marley and the Wailers before. It’s featured on Legend, a compilation album first released in 1984 that has since gone on to sell over 25 million copies worldwide. At one point the compilation, which contained a deliberately inoffensive selection of Marley’s less political music so as to appeal to “mass” (i.e. white) audiences, went on to become a permanent fixture in many a wine bar, college dormitory, and shopping or dining establishments designed to appeal solely to tourists in tropical countries. It was pretty much inescapable, and for better or worse has served as many an average person’s introduction (or sole reference point) for all of reggae music.
But the version of “No Woman, No Cry” on Legend (and that is used in the official music video in this header) is a live version, which was recorded on 17 July 1975 at the Lyceum Theatre in London and originally appeared on the Wailers’ album Live! from that same year.
The studio version, which was released the previous year on the album Natty Dread, is at a faster tempo has and different instrumentation, prominently featuring a Hammond organ and a drum machine!
If you haven’t heard the studio version up until now, it can come as a bit of shock. It might even sound “wrong”, which seems like a silly complaint but makes sense if one has only ever heard the much more famous live version countless times. Personally I also prefer the Lyceum version, though don’t stop there: in addition to the entire Live! album being all-killer-no-filler, I highly recommend going back and checking out the early tracks by Bob Marley and the original Wailers (Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer). The material they recorded in the pre-Island years (especially the tracks they did with Lee “Scratch” Perry producing) are well worth checking out. If you’ve only ever heard the “Legend” version of Marley or reggae music, then you’re missing out on so much.
As always, any and all music-related posts are welcome. Have fun, and rock out with yr guac out!