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Satisfy My Soul: Tribute to Bob Marley (Hybrid, 1991) Why people continue to put out tribute albums to Bob Marley is beyond me. Sure, he was a great artist, and I can understand wanting to pay homage to him, but there are 3 inherent problems with such undertakings: 1) There have already been dozens upon dozens of Marley tributes, whether an entire album or just a song, so he's been honored enough; 2) When doing a remake of a Bob Marley tune, the best you can realistically hope for is to produce a song almost as good as the original, so the cover will constantly be seen as an inferior product; and 3) Bob Marley's songs are so prevalent, some people are frankly sick of them, so no matter how good a rendition of "Get Up Stand Up" or "I Shot the Sheriff" you do, it's still an inferior version of a song we're already sick of. That said, this Japanese collection of Marley covers is even worse and more useless than most. A mixed bag of well-known and not-so-well-known (Lucan Scissors?) artists add a modern, somewhat digital dancehall-tinged touch to a fairly standard group of Marley tunes. The best tracks are the ones that don't try to do much to the originals (which is nonetheless pointless) and ones that are some of Marley's lesser-known hits, like "Work" and "So Much Trouble in the World." As for the rest, even legends like Johnny Osbourne and the Mighty Diamonds, put out horrible renditions of "Satisfy My Soul" and "Jamming." How is it possible to ruin such golden material? It just goes to show that a well-written song is only half the battle. |
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