Changes

The book gives an atmospheric picture of the life in their native land which they left behind for a while, to come and tour England in the spring of 1973. We have a vivid portrait of a country which was ''cold and unforgiving'', or ''a locked-up nation, a grey fortress of stone''. The author might have added that life in the cold country was however undoubtedly a good deal safer than it was at home. I felt that more could have been said on the period when they broke through to mass British acceptance in the summer of 1975, when critics were falling over themselves to praise the group. But by the time we reach this stage, the narrative seems to become somewhat rushed. In particular there is hardly any analysis of or attention to the individual songs. No Woman No Cry, a live recording of which was released as a single and really stands out as one of the most important tracks of the decade, gets barely a passing mention, while there is some discussion about I Shot The Sheriff as a lyric about birth control, but no mention of the fact that Eric Clapton’s successful recording of same in 1974 (No. 1 in America and top ten across much of Europe) probably did more to spread the word about Marley and boost his royalties than all the group’s live work in England the previous year had ever managed to do.

It’s a slightly disjointed book, and as an account of the group it does have its flaws. But it does give a good picture not only of the group and its three main personalities, as well as of the Jamaican heritage and culture from which they emerged.