Curtis
Mayfield and the Impressions have always been a reference for the Wailers,
and are certainly the ones who influenced them the most. Bob Marley
even mentionned this in his last (phone) interview in 1980. The Wailers
covered their songs to a great extent during the 60's and the 70's (their
harmonies owed much to the Impressions). Bob Marley's "One love",
recently named "song of the century", even features Curtis
Mayfield penned lyrics. The Impressions' "Keep on pushing"
and "People get ready" albums include several songs that the
Wailers covered.
"Long
long winter" was recorded around 1970/1971 before Bob could
know he would soon spend some time in winter in Sweden, working with
Johnny Nash and Danny Sims on the soundtrack of a movie. Superb Wailers
harmonies.
Peter
Tosh sings lead on the ska rendition of "Amen"
from 1964, a gospel song which was popularized by Curtis Mayfield and
the Impressions (although they didn't write it). The Wailers based their
own version on the Impressions cut.
"I
made a mistake" is another song written by Curtis Mayfield
that was also recorded by the Wailers in 1965 during the time they spent
at Studio One.
"Little
boy blue" by Bunny Livingstone - aka Bunny Wailer - seems to a
be a Curtis Mayfield cover, but this song recorded at Studio One has
never been collected anywhere unfortunately.
"Diamond
Baby" from 1965 was written by Bob Marley but is based on Curtis
Mayfield's song "Talking about my baby". Both are quite similar.
"Another
dance" is again a Studio One rendition from 1965 that the Wailers
turned into ska. The original Impressions version is entitled "Just
another dance".
The last ska rendition from Studio One is a Marley classic, "One
love", which he later recorded again for the 1977 Exodus album.
Recorded in 1965, this song is half a rendition as it uses a verse (the
"hopeless sinner" verse) from Curtis Mayfield's "People
get ready", but the rest of the song is an original Bob Marley
composition.
And finally, the Wailers also covered "Keep
on moving". Actually, at least 3 versions exist. The first
2 are two alternate takes (one featuring alternate lyrics) recorded
with Lee Perry in 1970 for the "Soul revolution" album ("Rebel's
hop" from the Soul Rebel sessions also quotes "Keep on moving").
The third one is the version Bob recorded in 1977 (again produced by
Lee Perry) in London during the Exodus/Kaya sessions, after his exile
to England, and was a message to his children in Jamaica. The only known
live version was played at the "Smile Jamaica" concert, right
before Bob had to leave Jamaica after the attempt on his life in December
1976, and was a message to the jamaican people to explain why he had
to leave. A few other versions exist, such as the DJ Wong Chu reworking
of the 1970 recording, the remix of the 1977 recording that became a
posthumous hit in 1995, followed soon after by a jamaican digital remix
of the 1970 recording. And the song "Rude boy" from Studio
One also quotes it, the very first track that used lyrics from "Keep
on moving".
Thanks to Paul Johnson for his help with the Curtis
Mayfield/Impressions original tracks.