BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS - LIVELY UP YOURSELF

LIVELY UP YOURSELF

BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS

SONGWRITER: BOB MARLEY

COUNTRY: JAMAICA

ALBUM: NATTY DREAD

LABEL: ISLAND RECORDS

GENRE: REGGAE

YEAR: 1974

 

        Bob Marley and the Wailers(also known as The Wailing Wailers, Bob Marley & the Wailers, and The Wailers) were a Jamaican reggae band led by Bob Marley. It developed from the ska vocal group, The Teenagers, created by Peter Tosh, Marley, and Bunny Wailer in 1963. By late 1963 singers Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso, and Cherry Smith had joined on. By the early 1970s, Marley and Bunny Wailer had learned to play some instruments, and brothers Aston "Family Man" Barrett(bass) and Carlton Barrett(drums), had joined the band. After Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh left the band in 1974, Marley began touring with new band members as Bob Marley and the Wailers. His new backing band included the Barrett brothers, Junior Marvin and Al Anderson on lead guitar, Tyrone Downie and Earl "Wya" Lindo on keyboards, and Alvin "Seeco" Patterson on percussion. The "I Threes", consisting of Judy Mowatt, Marcia Griffiths, and Marley's wife, Rita, provided backing vocals.

         Natty Dread is the seventh album by Bob Marley and the Wailers, released in 1974. Previously Marley had recorded with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer as the Wailers, and this was his first record without them.

       Natty Dread was most popularly received in the UK, where it peaked at Nº 43 and sold in excess of 100,000 copies, making it a gold album. Over time it gained popularity in other parts of the world, and in 2003 it was ranked Nº 181 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

       Natty Dread is a spiritually charged political and social statement. It opens with a blues-influenced positive celebration of skanking, reggae and sex, "Lively Up Yourself". The original and still unreleased demo of the Island version of "Lively Up Yourself" was recorded in 1973.

         "No Woman, No Cry", the second track, is probably the best known recording on the album. It is a nostalgic remembrance of growing up in the impoverished streets of Trenchtown, the ghetto of Kingston, Jamaica, and the happiness brought by the company of friends. The song has been performed by artists as diverse as Boney M.(sung by Liz Mitchell), The Fugees, Pearl Jam, Jimmy Buffett, Rancid and Gilberto Gil. Songwriting credit for "No Woman, No Cry" went to V. Ford. Vincent Ford, better known as "Tartar" to his friends and neighbors, had been a kind friend of Marley as a child in Trenchtown. Marley claimed he would have starved to death on several occasions as a child if not for the aid of Tartar. The original version of the song was in gospel style, featuring Peter Tosh and some unknown female backing vocals and was cut for Island in 1973.

You're gonna lively up yourself

And don't be no drag

You lively up yourself cause reggae is another bag

You lively up yourself and don't say no

You're gonna lively up yourself cause I said so

 

(Hear what you gonna do)

You rock so you rock so like you never did before

You dip so you dip so, dip thru my door

You come so you come so oh yeah

You skank so you skank so be alive today

 

You're gonna lively up yourself and don't say no

You lively up yourself big daddy says so

You lively up yourself and don't be no drag

You lively up yourself cause reggae is another bag

 

What you got that I don't know

I'm a trying to wonder why you act so

(Hey, do you hear what the man seh)

Lively up your woman in the morning time you'all

Keep a lively up your woman when the evening come

And take her take ya

 

You rock so you rock so you dip so you dip so

You skank so you skank so and don't be no drag

You come so you come so for reggae is another bag

 

Get what you got in that bag

What have you got in the other bag

You got hanging there

What you say you got

I don't believe you!