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Classic Albums - Bob Marley and the Wailers: Catch a Fire

Classic Albums - Bob Marley and the Wailers: Catch a Fire

List Price: $9.99
Your Price: $9.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Amazing DVD
Review: As a fan of music, but knowing little about its technical aspects and production, this documentary/concert dvd was a godsend. Interviews with people who made the album. The rastas who knew bob tell stories and history. Home videos of bob with his family are priceless. I think the music is amazing and I learned something about creating an album, and about bob marley and the wailers. If you like Bob, get this.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bob Marley and the Wailers
Review: Customer reviews were misleading. There is not a single complete Marley song in this documentary. It is a series of disjointed, inane and largely irrelevant interviews with anyone who had any contact with Bob Marley, the Wailers or the "Catch a Fire" album. I am trying to return it to Amazon for credit. No music. Just clips and chatter.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bob Marley and the Wailers
Review: Customer reviews were misleading. There is not a single complete Marley song in this documentary. It is a series of disjointed, inane and largely irrelevant interviews with anyone who had any contact with Bob Marley, the Wailers or the "Catch a Fire" album. I am trying to return it to Amazon for credit. No music. Just clips and chatter.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An Amazing Documentary!
Review: Having already seen the "The Grateful Dead:From Anthem to Beauty" episode of the "Classic Albums" series I knew what to expect from this DVD. This series is about retracing history, and documenting the process of creating the classic albums of the past 30 years before the creators pass from the earth and their words are lost forever. Short on "features" that we've been spoiled with on other DVDs , on the surface this is a straight forward 60 min. doc on the making of the "Catch A Fire" album by The Wailers. The strength of this production, and in fact the whole series, is that the producers went to Jamaica and London to interview the people who wrote, recorded, engineered, produced and played on this seminal album. Recent interviews with Bunny Wailer, Rita Marley, Chris Blackwell, and surviving members of the Wailers live and studio bands are very insightful. Add to that the fact that the DVD features archival interviews with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. These further deepen the viewer's understanding of their musical and social philosophies and how it was expressed in their music. Through all of these people you get a very complete picture of the commercial, religious, social, and economic pressures on the band to bring the message of Reggae Music from the Third world to the First. Finally, the highlight of the disc has to be the rare and some never-seen-before footage of the original Wailers live in England in the early '70's. You finally see Bob, Bunny and Peter sing those amazing harmonies live which,IMHO, has more impact now because NOBODY sings their own harmonies live anymore without some sort of pre-recorded assistance. This is a tribute to the "old-skool", where the musical worlds of Kingston, Motown, Memphis, and London blended together over a 16 track mix in such a simple yet expressive way to create a deeply spiritual and mystic sound. If you really love music, especially Reggae music, then you should pick this one up. Amazon's price. . . is very reasonable, considering I paid $19.99USD at a bricks and mortar video chain for this DVD. Enjoy!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An Amazing Documentary!
Review: Having already seen the "The Grateful Dead:From Anthem to Beauty" episode of the "Classic Albums" series I knew what to expect from this DVD. This series is about retracing history, and documenting the process of creating the classic albums of the past 30 years before the creators pass from the earth and their words are lost forever. Short on "features" that we've been spoiled with on other DVDs , on the surface this is a straight forward 60 min. doc on the making of the "Catch A Fire" album by The Wailers. The strength of this production, and in fact the whole series, is that the producers went to Jamaica and London to interview the people who wrote, recorded, engineered, produced and played on this seminal album. Recent interviews with Bunny Wailer, Rita Marley, Chris Blackwell, and surviving members of the Wailers live and studio bands are very insightful. Add to that the fact that the DVD features archival interviews with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. These further deepen the viewer's understanding of their musical and social philosophies and how it was expressed in their music. Through all of these people you get a very complete picture of the commercial, religious, social, and economic pressures on the band to bring the message of Reggae Music from the Third world to the First. Finally, the highlight of the disc has to be the rare and some never-seen-before footage of the original Wailers live in England in the early '70's. You finally see Bob, Bunny and Peter sing those amazing harmonies live which,IMHO, has more impact now because NOBODY sings their own harmonies live anymore without some sort of pre-recorded assistance. This is a tribute to the "old-skool", where the musical worlds of Kingston, Motown, Memphis, and London blended together over a 16 track mix in such a simple yet expressive way to create a deeply spiritual and mystic sound. If you really love music, especially Reggae music, then you should pick this one up. Amazon's price. . . is very reasonable, considering I paid $19.99USD at a bricks and mortar video chain for this DVD. Enjoy!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Too Lousy
Review: I was thinking about a live concert no a loudsy sound engineer saying who he mix the songs and those stuped terminology, I want Bob Live not that kind of stuff.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Copyright infringement
Review: My lawyers will be contacting you immediately to stop the sale of this illegal product. Isis Productions, the company that produced it, has used my photograph of Bob Marley on the cover of the DVD, and in the documentary, without my permission, knowing that I own its copyright. The same unlawful act regards the B/W footage I shot in 1973, for which I have not consented to its use. This is a very serious infringement of my copyright and my estate, and will be contacting customs & excise in the USA to stop any further sales. If you continue to sell this product regardless, you should be aware that you're liable for prosecution.

For your information: I have only given permission to use my B/W footage to the makers of Rebel Music, the Bob Marley Story.

The Artist Esther Anderson Photographer and filmmaker of Bob Marley and the Wailers Winner of Image Award in "A Warm december" opposite Sidney Poitier

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Bob Marley and the wailers-catch a fire
Review: No need to say much.This is wonderfull.Brings back memories of Bob at his best.Worth every cent.I have watched it over 30 times already.Put it on,pour a rum,and enjoy

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: wonderful DOCUMENTARY
Review: One in the continuing series by Rhino called "Classic Albums," this documentary of the Wailers' classic lp "Catch a Fire" will serve as a perfect compliment to the recently issued 2 cd set of "Catch a Fire" which contains the original Jamaican version of the lp.

For me personally, the reason to get the dvd is not Marley himself- there are many documentaries and concerts of Marley on the market that can be had- but the interviews with Bunny Wailer and the late, great Peter Tosh, as well as the vintage footage of the 3 original (and only, in my book) Wailers in concert. As one frustrated reviewer pointed out, there are not whole performances by the Wailers on this dvd- snipets abound within the context of the documentary. While to fans of Tosh, in particular, this is a shame, the dvd IS a documentary, and not live performances, so the lack of complete footage needs to be taken in stride.

What the dvd DOES offer, however, are wonderful anecdotes from Bunny Wailer, (including a solo rendition of "Slave Driver" that is riviting) Alston "Family Man" Barrett, Rita Marley, Chris Blackwell, guitarist wayne Perkins, and keyboardist Rabbit Bundrick, on the making of the lp. Archival interviews with Tosh and Marley add the perspectives of the lp's 2 main catalysts. As with all the Rhino dvds, the work given to this dvd is top rate, with the interviews backed by examples, live performances by many of the key players on the lp, and scenes of Chris Blackwell rolling the master acetates in his recording studio to break down what was happening on certain tracks.

While the lack of complete songs does take away somewhat from the overall effect of the video, the archival footage of the Wailers on TV (complete with the Barrett brothers and Bunny in their rastafarian-laden outfits, their matching sweaters with the traditional red gold and green) and the Edmonton, London performance of "Get Up Stand Up," alone is worth the price of the video. For me, seeing Peter Tosh on stage and singing lead on his "Stop That Train" is priceless.

Fans of Tosh and the early Wailers will find many pearls from which to choose from on this video. It was skillfully done, and is well worth having in one's personal collection. A wonderful DOCUMENTARY of the band.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great companion to "rebel music"
Review: this is a great companion to the official marley documentary "rebel music." many of the performances, interviews and home videos are culled from the same tapes, but amazingly, there is not a lot of overlap. one thing i did notice, even though this is strictly about recording "catch a fire," they hardly use any of the studio cuts from the album. they dissect a couple songs, track by track, but mostly, the songs are live, demos, or acoustic. but this is indeed a documentary, not a concert video. i, too, would love to hear complete songs, and get some concert footage on dvd, but that's another story... bunny fans are in for a treat as he acoustically interprets a few classics. this dvd also features some songs not on "catch a fire", like "get up, stand up", but i'm not complaining...just hoping that they document the rest of his "island" recordings.


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