LOST CLASSICS: Bob Marley & the Wailers

GUITARIST JUNIOR MARVIN TAKES US INSIDE THE MAKING OF MARLEY'S PERPETUALLY UNDER-THE-RADAR 1979 ALBUM, SURVIVAL

- By Andrew Daly

AFTER A SESSION career that included credits with Keef Hartley, Toots & the Maytals and Steve Winwood (along with an appearance in the Beatles’ Help! movie as a child actor), by the late Seventies, Junior Marvin established himself as a noteworthy go-to player with a distinct Jimi Hendrix-meets-reggae edge.

That served him well, as after hooking up with Bob Marley in early 1977 as a replacement for Al Anderson, Marvin immediately played lead guitar across Marley’s iconic 1977 album, Exodus. That record and its follow-up, 1978's uber-chill Kaya, are widely regarded as two of the greatest reggae albums of all time, but Marley’s next album — 1979’s Survival — is overlooked by drive-by fans.

That's probably because Marley was reeling after an attempt on his life in 1976 and because critics labeled his music “too laidback” post-Exodus. So Survival was an aptly titled, outwardly militant and hyper-politically charged record that alienated fans who had previously cozied up to the supposed peace-and-love vibes of Kaya.

Survival didn’t sell like Exodus and Kaya — but according to Junior Marvin, that doesn’t matter. “It'll always be there,” he says. “I think it’s one of Bob’s greatest records. With the actual guitar playing and everything, I think we were very competitive worldwide.”

Another notable change for Survival was the return of Anderson, who Marvin had replaced. Reportedly, Anderson and Marvin didn’t get along in the Seventies and don’t exactly like each other now. Marvin sidesteps this, saying, “Our sound, the engineering and our personal playing as a team was about playing in a pocket.