Bob Marley & the Wailers
Live Forever (The Stanley Theatre, Pittsburgh PA, 23/09/80)
Release Date: Feb 1, 2011
Genre(s): Reggae, Roots Reggae
Record label: Tuff Gong
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Album Review: Live Forever (The Stanley Theatre, Pittsburgh PA, 23/09/80) by Bob Marley & the Wailers
Very Good, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating B+
Recorded at a September 1980 concert in Pittsburgh and never previously released, two-CD set Live Forever proves that Marley was still at the top of his live game just months before his death. Most people have heard his hits enough by now to render these faithful renditions a bit superfluous, but the band sounds tight and Marley is his inimitable self. B+ Download these:An incendiary take on Them Belly Full at AmazonCould You Be Loved as a seven-minute jam at Amazon .
Based on rating 7/10
The final concert of Bob Marley’s career, this oft-bootlegged show has never sounded better than on this official 2011 release from the Marley estate. With plenty of hiss and maxed levels, Live Forever is hardly perfect when it comes to sound quality, and the laid-back show doesn’t stand up against Marley’s live masterpiece Babylon by Bus, but fans who want their reggae party a little less “punky” will find this a great, chilled alternative. Seeing as they were on tour in support of the album, plenty of material from Uprising appears, including lesser-known numbers such as “Zion Train” and “Work.
Based on rating 6/10
Bob Marley was in fine voice for the last concert of his life. From all accounts he was in some serious pain, too—the cancer in his toe was spreading, he’d collapsed during two recent jogs, and nobody was certain whether the concert at Pittsburgh’s Stanley Theatre would actually happen. But it happened, and you don’t hear any of that pain on Live Forever, the recent double-disc release of Marley and the Wailers’ final show on September 23, 1980.
Opinion: Fairly Good
Marley’s final live performance is a strangely saddening listen. David Katz 2011 Serving as the final document of Bob Marley’s exceptional career, Live Forever can only be described as a strange beast. This double-CD set has the entire 90-minute concert given to a capacity audience at Pittsburgh’s Stanley Theatre in September 1980, which would prove to be the reggae icon’s last-ever performance.
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