RELEASED ON 3LP & 3LP LIMITED EDITION COLORED VINYL ON NOVEMBER 13, 2020  

By Harvey Kubernik C 2020 

Album cover courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment

edition coloured vinyl 3LP. 

   Eagle Rock Entertainment is the largest producer and distributor of music programming for DVD, Blu-Ray, TV and Digital Media in the world.   

   The Uprising Tour ran in Europe from May to July 1980 with five further dates in the USA in September. It was Bob Marley’s final tour before his tragic death from cancer in May 1981 at the age of just 36. 

    A few days after the release of the Uprising album, Marley played this now legendary live concert from Dortmund’s Westfalenhalle on June 13th – showcasing Marley in superb form and delivering a set of hit singles and classic album tracks, including “Could You Be Loved”, “Redemption Song”, and “No Woman No Cry”, to fans’ roars of appreciation.

    His musical messages of encouragement, hope and comfort remain as relevant now as the day they were written. This special 3LP edition is released to celebrate what would have been Bob Marley’s 75th year. 

    On Uprising Live!, Bob Marley is in superb form and delivers a set full of energy and charisma, including the icon songs “No Woman, No Cry,” “Exodus,” “I Shot The Sheriff,” “Redemption Song,” “Is This Love,” “Jamming,” “Get Up, Stand Up,” “Could You Be Loved” and many more.  

   The show opens with a short set by the I Threes – Marley’s backing vocalists – who traditionally would perform a few songs before Marley took the stage. 

Side C 
1) War / No More Trouble 
2) Zimbabwe 
3) Jamming 
4) No Woman, No Cry

Side D 
1) Zion Train 
2) Exodus 
3) Redemption Song 
4) Could You Be Loved

Side E 
1) Work 
2) Natty Dread 
3) Is This Love 
4) Get Up, Stand Up

Side F 
1) Coming In From The Cold 
2) Lively Up Yourself 

   “A crucial record of Bob Marley live at a stage when, knowing his time on earth was tight, he focused even more intently on communicating his message of love and revolution through music,” offered Vivien Goldman to me in a 2014 interview.  She is the author of The Book of Exodus: the Making & Meaning of Bob Marley & the Wailers’ Album of the Century (Three Rivers Press/Random House.)   Goldman is also an Adjunct Professor of Bob Marley, Reggae and Punk at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, Tisch School of the Arts.  

   “And what a treat to have a set from the I Three’s Bob’s original Three Little Birds’! The spirit of Uprising represented in this show, which surveys his long career, is that we must never give up, just as Marley got more and more militant,” she reinforced.  

     “This music teaches us how to burn down Babylon — in the sense of fighting for change and a more just society, wherever you are, with the best use of your skills as your weapon. Rockpalast was one of Europe’s legacy music shows, and captured great artists, with consistency and class.”  

“Uprising is Bob’s farewell,” reggae music scholar Roger Steffens stressed to me in a 2014 interview. 

   Steffens is the author of So Many Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley, published in an illustrated hardcover by W. W. Norton & Company in 2017, now in paperback editions.     

   “He knew he was dying, in fact he prophesied his death at 36 when he was only 24 years old. The titles tell the story: ‘Zion Train’ (is coming my way); ‘Coming in from the Cold,’ the heartbreaking ‘Redemption Song;’ and most of all ‘Work.’ The song was originally conceived by his longtime friend and percussionist, Seeco Patterson, who brought Bob to his first audition for Coxson Dodd’s Studio One label in 1964. On his way into town for a rehearsal, Seeco was singing and counting off the miles. When he arrived he sang a bit of the song to Bob and Bob said he’d like to record it, but told Seeco to change the miles into days. And thus, on his final album, Bob is counting off the remaining days of his life. 

    “It was also half of a medley with ‘Get Up Stand Up,’ that was the final song Bob sang live at his last concert in Pittsburgh on September 23, 1980.”  

     In February 2020  the Bob Marley’s 75th birthday celebrations began with the announcement of Bob Marley: Legacy; a 12-part mini-documentary series, featuring a collection of intimate conversations and interviews with his family, friends and fans, woven together with his original music, remixes and covers. 

    This unique YouTube series provides fans a refreshing and cinematic journey through the life, legacy and relevance Bob Marley still holds in this present day. The first episode, Marley 75 debuted in February on Bob Marley’s official YouTube page.

   In January 2020, the Marley family, UMe and Island Records initially rolled out their year-long MARLEY75 commemorative plans in celebration of the legendary cultural icon.  

    The Marley family and Universal Bob Marley YouTube channel exhibits excerpts from live shows, and a soundtrack that promises unreleased music from deep in the vaults. The series is definitely a must-see for all Bob Marley fans.

   Bob Marley: Legacy 75 Years A Legend is an ongoing documentary series through the life, legacy, and relevance that Bob Marley still holds in this present day.  Special live events, exclusive digital content, recordings, exhibitions, plus rare and unearthed treasures will also be revealed throughout the year. 

     In conjunction with Tuff Gong and UMe, a division of the Universal Music Group, the Marley family will continue to ensure the highest quality, integrity and care is taken to honor Bob’s legacy and to celebrate one of the 20th century’s most important and influential figures.

    In the digital era, Marley has the second-highest social media following of any posthumous celebrity, with the official Bob Marley Facebook page drawing more than 70 million fans, ranking it among the Top 20 of all Facebook pages and Top 10 among celebrity pages. Marley’s music catalog has sold millions of albums worldwide. 

    Bob’s iconic collection, LEGEND, holds the distinction of being the longest-charting album in the history of Billboard magazine’s Catalog Albums chart and remains the world’s best-selling reggae album. Marley’s accolades include inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1994) and ASCAP Songwriters Hall of Fame (2010), a GRAMMY® Lifetime Achievement Award (2001), multiple entries in the GRAMMY® Hall Of Fame, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (2001). 

    For more information visit: bobmarley.com and facebook.com/bobmarley.

   (Harvey Kubernik witnessed Bob Marley & the Wailers on eight occasions during 1975-1980 in the Southern California region. He interviewed the band members at the Island Records offices in Hollywood for Melody Maker in 1977. 

    Kubernik is still recovering from one monumental Bob Marley & the Wailers Kaya tour set on July 22, 1978 at the Starlight Bowl venue in Burbank, Ca. The night Peter Tosh joined a grinning Marley for the encore of “Get Up Stand Up” as Harvey watched from the ganja smoke filled stage wings with Mick Jagger and his daughter Jade, along with a couple of fellow music journalists.    

   Kubernik is the author of 19 books, including Canyon Of Dreams: The Magic And The Music Of Laurel Canyon and Turn Up The Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll In Los Angeles 1956-1972.   Sterling/Barnes and Noble in 2018 published Harvey and Kenneth Kubernik’s The Story Of The Band: From Big Pink To The Last Waltz. For 2021 they are writing a multi-narrative book on Jimi Hendrix for the same publisher.  

   Otherworld Cottage Industries in July 2020 published Harvey’s 508-page book, Docs That Rock, Music That Matters, featuring Kubernik interviews with D.A. Pennebaker, Albert Maysles, Murray Lerner, Morgan Neville, Sandra Warren, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Andrew Loog Oldham, Ray Manzarek, John Ridley, Curtis Hanson, Dick Clark, Travis Pike, Allan Arkush, and David Leaf, among others.      

   Harvey  Kubernik penned a back cover book endorsement for author Michael Posner’s  book on Leonard Cohen that Simon & Schuster, Canada published in October 2020, Leonard Cohen, Untold Stories: The Early Years).