Stolen from Africa, brought to America

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

05/06/83 : Confrontation - Bob Marley And The Wailers

I like Bob as a person and there are some fascinating stories out there about him, but I never quite click with his music (or reggae as a whole really).  But before we get on to him, we have another compilation album to discuss...

...because at #5 we have Chart Encounters Of The Hit Kind.  Could they have come up with a worse title if they'd tried?  It's also amusingly inaccurate in places because some of the featured tracks got absolutely nowhere near the charts - I can't give you an exact DTR because I actually only know about 50% of the tracks on there (which would probably go up if I listened to them all, but that's not gonna happen).  Of the one's I know the DTR is 78%, but I think we can safely revise that downwards.  What I have to say is it's a very eclectic mix - where else would you find Haysi Fantayzee next to Phil Collins or Colourbox next to Kenny Everett's Snot Rap?  Eclectic does not always (or even often) equate to good though, so I think I'm fine without having listened to this.

So instead I listened to Bob.  And there's nothing wrong with "Buffalo Soldier" and the rest of the stuff passed me pleasantly enough - I actually found my mood improving as I listened to it, but I when I thought about it, I realised it was because the sun came out.  If the album made this happen then I'm happy to praise it lavishly, but I suspect it was more likely to be a coincidence.  All in all, I'd go as far as saying this album is "perfectly fine" - I'm sure Bob would have been pleased with such a ringing endorsement.  And yes, once again this is one that we've never owned (the fifth one in a row!) - 9/30.

We're at #6 in the charts this week - its third week in a 19 week run, before disappearing from view in October.  Above it in the chart this week were Michael, David, Spandau, Kool and CEOTHK (as described above).  We also have a new entry in the top ten - Elton John's Too Low For Zero, which I've not heard in a very long time and, despite it having a 79 week run in the charts, I'm not going to get to listen to as part of this exercise because it never got any higher than #7.  The next three new entries were Dio (#13), The Beat (#15) and Agnetha Falskog (#23) - which is quite a mix, you'd have to say.

Wikipedia doesn't have a lot on the album but does tell me it was their final album, released two years after Bob's death - shamefully, I think it was around this time I had my first exposure to the man (we all have to start somewhere I guess).  The album cover is Bob as St George slaying the dragon, which was the theme of the reverse of the standard of Haile Selassie (which was probably intentional) but the original model for the album artwork was a British World War I recruitment poster (which probably wasn't).  The album did OK over here but didn't exactly set the charts alight elsewhere - #199 in France, anyone?

"Customers also listened to" Bob Marley albums and The Wailers albums.  Oh, and Peter Tosh  - I guess the fans know what they like and they like what they know.  As I said earlier this was perfectly fine, but I struggle to imagine too many reggae fans consider it to be peak Bob and I doubt anyone else bothers even thinking about it.

29/05/83 - In which I write a lot about an album I don't care for
12/06/83 - Fine, but pointless.  And a complete lie.