“All the way from Trenchtown, Jamaica – Bob Marley and the Wailers.” So started one of many transcendent albums of the fashionable pop period. Stay! was recorded on July 18, 1975, on the second of two beyond-sold-out exhibits on the Lyceum Ballroom in London and launched within the UK on December 5 the identical 12 months. Experiences of those exhibits on the time have been couched when it comes to bemused wonderment. The critic from The Occasions remarked on the “curious odor” within the air which he couldn’t determine however which reminded him of “newly-pressed shirts.” The NME reviewer had his pocket picked. What all of them agreed on was Marley’s messianic charisma, the infectious brilliance of the music and the musicians, and the overwhelming sense of event. Certainly, such was the long-lasting significance of Marley’s efficiency, that it reminded the reviewer from Sounds of Bob Dylan’s present on the Albert Corridor in 1966. Marley’s present tour would, he mentioned, “finally make reggae respectable.” With the assistance of this album, it actually took reggae to a brand new stage of visibility and acclaim, though “respectable” was by no means actually Marley’s factor.
Marley and the Wailers have been touring to advertise the Natty Dread album, launched the 12 months earlier than. Beginning in Miami, Florida on June 5, the band had performed a lot the identical set-list of songs at venues throughout the US. However though the critiques had been favorable, Marley had but to make his huge breakthrough. A critic on the band’s present on the Wollman Skating Rink in New York spoke for a lot of when he famous that, “Seeing the Wailers live made one wonder once again why Jamaican reggae is so slow to catch a fire in the States.”
The London exhibits have been in the beginning of a short UK leg of the tour which additionally took in Birmingham and Manchester. The Lyceum was a West Finish theatre transformed right into a 2,100-capacity Mecca Ballroom greatest identified for its huge band live shows and Miss World contests and notable for having a retractable roof that may very well be opened throughout live shows in the summertime. It grew to become a rock venue within the Sixties and Nineteen Seventies when bands together with Queen, Led Zeppelin and The Who performed there. The 2 Marley exhibits had been feverishly awaited. Phrase of mouth had unfold from his earlier excursions of the UK and whereas he had lengthy been a hero among the many Afro-Caribbean group, Marley was now a agency favourite among the many post-hippie and faculty campus crowd. The racial mixture of the viewers on the Lyceum was thus, unusually for a rock venue, break up 50-50. The police have been out in power, lined up outdoors the venue, and a spirit of revolution hung heavy within the air, together with the sweet-smelling smoke for which Kingston, Jamaica was already well-known.
The road-up of the Wailers which arrived in London comprised the longstanding rhythm part of Aston Barrett (bass) and Carlton Barrett (drums) along with Al Anderson (lead guitar), Tyrone Downie (keyboards), Alvin Patterson (percussion), and a depleted I-Threes vocal part of Rita Marley and Marcia Griffiths (Judy Mowatt missed the London exhibits).
The present was recorded on the Rolling Stones Cellular Studio, a 16-track, state-of-the-art facility which had been utilized in the identical 12 months to report Led Zeppelin’s Bodily Graffiti and Dangerous Firm’s Run With The Pack. Parked within the highway outdoors the venue throughout the live performance, the Cellular faithfully captured the fantastic spirit of the event together with all kinds of minor imperfections within the precise efficiency which weren’t tidied up or in any other case “airbrushed” retrospectively. There have been the ragged backing harmonies of “Trenchtown Rock”; the slight, however persistent dashing up of the tempo in direction of the tip of “Lively Up Yourself”; and the microphone suggestions, hovering momentarily, throughout the first verse of “No Woman, No Cry.”
However removed from impairing the listening expertise, such flaws lent an earthy realism to the recording which solely added to the irresistible majesty of the album as a complete. After the succinct phrases of introduction by the Wailers’ highway supervisor Tony Garrett, the present and album kicked off with “Trenchtown Rock,” throughout which the sound of the group rapidly grew to become a part of the material of the efficiency itself. Because the band powered via Facet 1 of the album with “Burnin’ And Lootin’,” “Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)” and “Lively Up Yourself” there was a communal, feel-good spirit that burst out from the grooves of the disc. “I Shot The Sheriff” was insanely stronger than the Wailers’ model on Burnin’, by no means thoughts Eric Clapton’s worldwide hit of the earlier 12 months. And the grand finale of “Get Up, Stand Up” discovered the viewers contributing to an expression of musical solidarity hardly ever heard in any live performance corridor, not to mention captured for posterity.
Essentially the most completely realized music of all from this album, even perhaps from all of Marley’s albums, was “No Woman, No Cry,” which opened Facet Two of the unique vinyl urgent. There was one thing uniquely soulful and evocative in regards to the reside model of this explicit music on this explicit evening. Because the prolonged organ intro bought underway, you may hear voices from the group chanting the refrain earlier than Marley had even began to sing himself. This had the curious impact of creating it sound as if the viewers have been really sitting with the band round one of many campfires within the authorities yard in Trenchtown. With the roof of the venue now open in a useless try to alleviate the sweltering warmth of the auditorium, this concept was not as fanciful because it might need appeared. The noise and bustle and affection of the group was evident all through the seven minutes that the music lasted, as Marley sang of the bonds of friendship and love that may finally ship a group from hardship. The closing line of “Everything’s gonna be all right,” was a mantra of optimism and deliverance that crossed all divides, a bit of music that celebrated the resilience of the human spirit it doesn’t matter what obstacles a merciless world would possibly throw in its approach.
The Stay! model of “No Woman, No Cry” instantly grew to become the definitive recording of the music. It additionally grew to become Marley’s first hit, reaching No.22 within the UK chart when it was launched as a single in 1975. It might later attain No.8 within the UK when it was re-released after Marley’s loss of life in 1981, and whereas it by no means charted within the US, the music would later be ranked at No.37 in Rolling Stone’s Best Songs of All Time.
Stay! was the right distillation of Marley’s core repertoire up thus far collected collectively and introduced on the excellent time. The imperfections within the efficiency solely added to the report’s enchantment – paradoxically, making it much more excellent. To at the present time, Stay! has remained, each spiritually and musically, as near nirvana as a recorded music expertise can get.
