In assembling
Bob Marley & the Wailers' British chart singles for the 1984 compilation
Legend, Island Records created what turned out to be a perennial seller, but also an album that misrepresented the range of
Marley's work, downplaying its political aspect in favor of danceability and romantic sentiments. Of course, what made
Marley such a powerful figure internationally was his message about the uprising of the oppressed, but you wouldn't know that from
Legend. Two years later, Island sought to redress the balance with its second major
Marley compilation,
Rebel Music. Here, in tracks drawn from such albums as
Natty Dread,
Rastaman Vibration, and
Survival,
Marley the political activist could be heard in all his glory, decrying "So Much Trouble in the World." In "War," presented in the medley with "No More Trouble" that had appeared originally on the 1978 concert album
Babylon by Bus, he quoted Ethiopian ruler Haile Selassie about the dire consequences of denying rights to people of color. At the end, in a version taken from the 1975
Live! album, he implored his listeners to "Get Up, Stand Up." (Of course, he was not unaware that that exhortation also allowed them to dance in the aisles.) There were other political songs in
Marley's repertoire, of course, and
Rebel Music shared with
Legend an unfortunate tendency to slight
the Wailers' early albums, which contained plenty of appropriate material. (Only one track was drawn from
Catch a Fire and none at all from
Burnin'.) But for the millions who bought
Legend,
Rebel Music provided a necessary corrective revealing
Marley's impassioned political stance. (Note that this compilation marked the first release on an album of "Roots," the non-LP B-side to the 1977 single "Waiting in Vain.") ~ William Ruhlmann