The Truth: His Secretary Denise Is A Witch

On this 30th anniv. of Bob Marley's death, something on you stupid wasted hippies & how you're fucking it up again.

But Marley didn't really become a mainstream fixture—a singer instantly recognizable to anyone who's lingered over a fajita at Chili's or wandered through a freshman quad in the springtime—until after his death, and after. Greatest-hits collections are notoriously bad showcases, but Legend was a doozy—a defanged and overproduced selection of Marley's music. Listening to Legend to understand Marley is like reading Bridget Jones's Diary to get Jane Austen.

Fortunately, our people have weighed in, & found it wanting.

In turn, the music cognoscenti and hipsters seem to hold his mainstream appeal and lame followers against him.

Of course we do. What's the point of knowing what is & isn't hep if you can't use the knowledge to discriminate?

Bob Marley's golden period was the three albums he cut with the original Wailers and the brilliant, certifiably insane, Jamaican producer Lee "Scratch" Perry: Soul Rebels, African Herbsman, and Rasta Revolution. These records are more satisfyingly complex, both lyrically and instrumentally, than much of Marley's later work. The Perry recordings are steeped in R&B and soul harmonies, but also tough.

[...]

When the English producer Chris Blackwell took over in 1973, intent on making Marley a star, the music, despite a couple of great albums, notably Catch a Fire! and Natty Dread, became steadily more mellow and digestible.

Chris Blackwell is a vampire, too.Personal note: At any given time, the above number may be as close to a "favorite" song as we'll ever get.

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UPDATE (2100ish PDT, 29 April 2012): And therefore have embedded a working video thereof. Shove it, BMG.