Album Review of Survival by Bob Marley and the Wailers
By David Moskowitz

Released in 1979, the Survival album was part of the output of the union of Chris Blackwell’s Island Records and Bob Marley’s Tuff Gong Records. It was recorded at the Tuff Gong Studios at 56 Hope Road in Kingston, Jamaica just two years before Marley’s tragic death from cancer. The cover art is a mixture of the forty-nine flags of the African nations at that time overlaid with a hand drawing of a plan for slave stowage for the dreaded ship crossing of the Atlantic. The general character of the songs on the album is subdued and serious with a noticeable lack of love songs.

The standard Wailers core (Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer) is not present on this release, Peter and Bunny had left the band to pursue solo careers several years earlier). However, Marley is in top form both as a singer and a songwriter. The band is comprised of several longtime Wailers members including the three-part rhythm section of Aston Barrett (bass), Carlton Barrett (drums), and Earl Lindo (keyboards). Alvin Patterson, playing Rastafarian hand drums, adds additional percussion and Junior Marvin rounds out the group on lead guitar. Marley supplies the lead vocals and backing him up is the female vocal trio called the I-Threes (Rita Marley, Judy Mowatt, and Marcia Griffiths).

The album begins with the song “So Much Trouble in the World,” which is “a soulful throw back to the Soul Rebels era” (an early Wailers album).[1] The swirling guitar chops meld with the busy and heavy bass line to produce Marley’s characteristic reggae sound. The middle of the song contains an eight-measure funk bridge that is clearly influenced by James Brown and the Temptations. Marley’s voice sounds sincere as he intones the words of the song’s title. The texture is relatively thin with sparse use of the keyboard and little lead guitar flash. Lyrically, Marley makes several statements that can be interpreted as having more than one meaning. In the first verse he states the lyric “Blast off on their space ship, million miles from reality, no care for you, no care for me” in which the trip can be interpreted as either a veiled drug reference or a statement about one on an ego trip (both meanings were probably intentional).

“Zimbabwe” is the second track and was written as a call to independence set to a steady reggae beat. Here, the one-drop drumming style is employed by Carlton Barrett, in which he purposely accents the third beat of each measure giving a plodding feel to the song. The words talk of independence and the right to decide one’s own destiny. “Zimbabwe” is followed by “Top Rankin,” which is Jamaican slang for a person who is of the upper class or a high “ranking” member of society. The texture of the song is made thicker through the use of a small horn section that adds rhythmic punches at the end of certain vocal statements and plays a brief introduction to start the song. The mixture of horns, wah-wah guitar, and percussion rim shots creates a unique sound that is anchored by the standard reggae stomp of the rhythm section. The use of horns and guitar distortion gives this track a distinctly ska undertone.

“Babylon System” is a direct attack on what Marley viewed as the corrupt and unjust political system in Jamaica. The opening lyric, “we refuse to be what you wanted us to be,” begins the rebellious sentiment of the song immediately. Barrett alters his drumming style on this track by giving equal accent to each beat which when mixed with Marley’s lyrics creates a modern chant. The use of acoustic piano and the folk quality of the lyrics are both references to mento, the indigenous Jamaican folk music that the majority of the band members grew up listening to. The title track comes next and is riddled with biblical quotations and talk of needing to choose the right path quickly. This urgency comes from both the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Marley in 1976 and his belief that someone else was liable to try again. Musically, the song sounds militant through the use of the horn section; the constantly moving bass line, and the rock steady beat of the drum set.

“Africa Unite” is a direct admonition by the Wailers for all Africa people to unite set to a medium tempo reggae beat. An interesting addition to the texture is the use of flute riffs that were most likely played on synthesizer. The horn section is omitted here, but Patterson makes use of a guiro (an African percussion instrument that produces an odd rippling sound) that enhances the texture at certain phrase endings. Track seven is called “One Drop,” which is an open reference to Barrett’s drumming style mentioned above. In this song, Barrett lands heavily on the third beat of each measure and the song is propelled by the offbeat chops of the rhythm guitar (usually played by Marley). This track contains greater use of the I-Threes than the others and they begin to sound like a large female chorus backing Marley’s tenor vocals.

The final track, “Wake Up and Live,” was co-written by Anthony Davis who was the former lead sing of the Jamaican vocal group The Gatherers and a fixture at Tuff Gong Studios. The song begins with Marley counting the band in and the horn section returns to begin the track with a few staccato chords. The bass line is very prevalent on this track because Aston Barrett frequently jumps up into the instrument’s high range for a few notes at the end of certain phrases as punctuation. All the songs on this album are in verse/chorus form, but each varies in length and number of chorus repeats. The tracks that comprise Survival are each of the highest caliber and exhibit Marley and the Wailers at the peak of their song writing and performing powers.