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 - Exodus LivesThis set includes the great songs that helped Bob Marley officially cross over to mainstream, and bring reggae with him. Although reggae music is still not as prominent as it could be, this set certainly helped it along. It has some of each type of music. Jah reggae, dance and rock. If you are a reggae fan this is a stable for your library. Rating: - Definitive Bob MarleyTime Magazine's Album Of The Century. Need I say more? If you want one Bob Marley studio album that represents everything he believes in, this is it. Don't hesitate. You should own this already. Rating: - Iconic! Simply unmissable!I watched a TV documentary the other night about the making of this album and it was a spellbinding hour and a half. Apparently, Bob had to flee Jamaica for the UK after an assassination attempt and ended up living in London for a year. It was during this year that this phenomenal album was recorded. I've owned it for over 20 years now - first on cassette, then on vinyl and finally on CD - and I had no clue that this was so. The album was released in 1977. It was the year of the Queen's Silver Jubilee but Britain was in a very bad place, the seeds of Thatcherism and the heartless 80s had already been sown and Punk ruled the airwaves. I lived a very sheltered life as a teenager and so it wasn't until 1979 when I went away to boarding school, that I finally get to hear the album in its entirety. It was a true revelation. I heard it on (what was then) a new invention my peers and I called a "hi-fi system" owned by an older student and I remember hearing the percussion on "Jamming" and being transfixed. No exaggeration; I was literally hypnotised. The album is faultless with pristine production by Bob and The Wailers. From the minute the first strains of "Natural Mystic" fade in, through the accusatory "Guiltiness", on to the revolutionary title track, the slow jams "Waiting In Vain" & "Turn Your Lights Down Low", on to the optimitic "Three Little Birds" and right to the end of "One Love/People Get Ready", there is not a single note out of place. Each song, a potential hit single, (7 of the 10 songs on the original album were actually hits here in the UK) has a vibrant, totally relevant message - especially for a black teenager living in 70s UK, and Bob's primary ethos of peace & love have stayed with me ever since. That being said, this is the album that began to open my young eyes to the oppression and injustice that already surrounded me. The idea that music wasn't simply for entertainment or escapism but could inspire thought, behaviour and attitude change as well as activism, was new and very appealing. And this was also the album that turned Bob from an international reggae star into a global prophet. Setting everything about Rastafarianism (respectfully) to one side, Bob the man and the music he made, the message he spread, have always educated and enthralled me in equal measure and always will. When I think about what are for me, consummately iconic, influential and superb recordings and I think about such albums as Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, John Coltane's A Love Supreme, Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life, Michael Jackson's Off the Wall, Pink Floyd's The Wall (Deluxe Packaging Digitally Remastered) and Radiohead's OK Computer, I also, immediately, think of Bob Marley's "Exodus". My life was definitely not the same after listening to it and now that I fully understand the story behind it, I hold the album in even higher esteem. Whether this is Marley's best piece of work or not is, I guess, a matter of personal opinion and will always be open to debate. What is beyond doubt, is that it is my favourite Bob Marley album and I am proud and honoured to make this my 200th review on amazon.com. I'm a bit of a purist so I prefer the version I have which does not have the two extra tracks (though I have both on 12" single) but they are definitely worth having. As such, this is the version to get. There'll no doubt be a '30th anniversary edition' knocking around before too long as well. Rating: - Excellent album!I'm not really a reggae fan, but I love Stevie Wonder. I thus decided to give Bob Marley a chance. I must say this album can really get you hooked on this kind of music. Songs are witty, rhythmic and memorable. It is one of the best albums to jog along with. Bob Marley is definitely one of the more interesting artists of recent times. Rating: - Bob Marley on TOP!!I was living on the island of St. Thomas in 1977 when I first heard this recording. I was on a beautiful beach, drinking those powerful rum punch drinks. Someone played the first song, "Natural Mystic" and for me, it was like being transported to another time dimension. The musical cadence and beauty of the song just captured me. I was instantly hooked to Bob Marley's music. The entire album has a quality to it that has made it one of the true classics in music. Not one bad track on the entire set. Played with passion and love by one of the greats, the main "rude boy" himself, Robert "Bob" Marley.
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