Bob Marley’s 70th birthday year (2015) will include a variety of releases and events to commemorate the legend, his work and iconic impact. Over the course of the year, his legacy will be remembered by new releases of rare and unreleased material as well as fan favourite deluxe editions of his most memorable work. The first release will be available on February 17. Easy Skanking in Boston '78, features two historic live shows from Boston’s Music Hall, June 8, 1978. This new and unreleased performance is from the Marley family giving unprecedented access for the first time to their personal material from their private collections and their vaults...

Bob... the voice of rebellion, the voice of brotherly love, the voice of forgiveness. Or so the legend has it anyway. In truth he was no more mystic or loving than any other number of reggae musicians of his generation. What he did have, however, was a large white audience... and that meant sales, which in turn meant money. Island Records packaged him to the world in the same way as they'd package a prog rock band... nuff said.

Does it matter that much of his famous material was rerecorded for international repackaging? No. Who cares that the Black Ark versions of the songs with Lee Perry at the controls were better than those that made him famous? No one. Bob's a saint and therefore logic - along with a lot of thick blue smoke - has passed up the flu of history. Marley is the reggae master... well, in the ears of many white folk.

Sadly, Bob is to reggae what Eric Clapton is to the blues... a calorie-free version thin on nourishment but easy to sell to people who don't want their music to be challenging. And this is what you have here - versions of songs [rather than versions in a reggae style] that sound like every other Bob recording you've ever heard. Slick, clean and dare I say it... cabaret.

Reggae has a rich and exciting heritage - Clement Seymour "Sir Coxsone" Dodd, King Tubby, Scientist, Lee Perry, Sly and Robbie etc... all vibrant and exciting. In fact, during the period that Marley was active he was a force for musical conservatism - he ran against the flow of Jamaican music. He was safe.

And this collection shows just how safe. None of the songs surprise - none add to anything you've heard before with the possible exception of 'Lively Up Yourself', which features a truly nasty lead guitar... all blues and string bends. Eric - was that you?

The performances on this release are solid, professional and wholly devoid of anything exciting. It's almost as if someone had set out to make reggae acceptable to white audiences. "Don't worry about the Rasta thing and all that patois - Bob's easy to digest... this is the rebel music you can eat between meals without challenging your ears."

If you like Marley avoid this release - it sounds like everything you already have... although in fairness it's better that Babylon by Bus, which is a truly pointless waste of time. If you like a little classic reggae then also give this the swerve. There are plenty of great genre recording that deserve your attention. So don't buy this, go buy King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown [if you don't already have it] instead - your ears will thanks you.

This release is the sound of a corpse being flogged for cash. Even Bob would have objected, wouldn't he?

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Anthony Clark