Wailers Legend Tour 2014

I was just informed by my friend and Wailers tour manager Rich Allis that the Wailers will be touring 2014 to mark the 30th anniversary of the release of Bob Marley LEGEND compilation album.  At each show, they will play the LEGEND album from start to finish.

Click on Family Man’s Fender Jazz bass to access tour dates!

There is also a rumor that TUFF GONG will release the 30th anniversary edition of LEGEND  to mark the 30th anniversary of the world’s most popular reggae album of all time.  Have not confirmed that but it is being kicked around…a lot.

BOB MARLEY LEGEND is a greatest hits collection of singles in its original vinyl format, and the best-selling reggae album of all-time, with over 14 million copies sold in the United States and approximately 25 million copies sold globally.  In 2003, the album was ranked number 46 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

It contains all ten of Marley’s Top 40 hit singles in the UK up to the time,^[4] plus three songs from the original Wailers with Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston in “Stir It Up,” “I Shot the Sheriff,” and “Get Up, Stand Up,” along with the closing song from the album Uprising, “Redemption Song.” Marley enjoyed fewer chart hits in the United States, “Exodus,” “Waiting in Vain,” “Could You Be Loved” and “Buffalo Soldier” the only ones included on this collection.  Of the original tracks, only four date from prior to the Exodus album.

LEGEND holds the distinction of being the second longest-charting album in the history of Billboard magazine. Combining its chart life on the Billboard 200 and the Top Pop Catalog Albums charts, LEGEND has had a chart run of 992 non-consecutive weeks,^[9] surpassed only by The Dark Side of the Moon at 1574 weeks.  In 2012, 31 years after the passing of Bob Marley, the album peaked on the chart at #18.

Most Marley heads will agree that his best material was left off the album, replaced instead by the clichéd, feel-good, la-la-la, herb-smoking drivel that frat boys sing while drinking themselves to death.  This of course was an intentional move by Chris Blackwell and Dave Robinson of Island Records, and a brilliant one at that.  While many fans, including myself, pan this album and it’s soft-edge approach to marketing Marley while suppressing his true essence, it is the ONLY reason that the man’s message of One Love has reached every corner of the globe, making Marley one of the world’s most recognizable figures.  Had it not been for this album, and this album alone, most of us wouldn’t know the first thing about this groundbreaking artist who is, in my humble opinion, the greatest artist and live performer of the 20th century.

Here is an interesting mix of “Waiting in Vain” alternate versions (everyone loves “Waiting in Vain” right?).