The Original Wailers

Fri 28th Jan, 2011 in Features

The Ragamuffin Festival returns in 2011 with a feast of reggae, soul and hip-hop that will perk up the ears of most music fans this January. Along with Mary J. Blige, the amazing Jimmy Cliff, Maxi Priest, Sean Paul and the Black Seeds are The Original Wailers. Although this alignment has no actual original Wailers, they do claim to be delivering the sound and the spirit of Bob, Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingstone who were there at the start.

Al Anderson, who first played with Bob Marley on The Natty Dread Sessions (as Paul Kossoff from Free could not do the gig) caught up with FL from California to discuss this upcoming visit and the politics and bad blood that still appear to hang like a cloud around anything called Wailers.

The conglomeration called The Original Wailers has a core of Junior Marvin, Al Anderson and Early “Wya”Lindo* who all played with Bob either on record, or in the case of Junior and Al, toured with him until the King of reggae died. But there is another band called The Wailers, headed by Aston (Family Man) Barrett that still tour today. There is still pain between the two groups. For example, “Family Man” was recently quoted as saying, “We are The Wailers. Anything that is Wailers, we are,” Barrett said. ”[The Original Wailers] are trying to fool the public. They are bad news. They know that if Family Man is not there, it’s not right. Don’t let them fool you,” he added.

After a few pleasantries with Al, and before I could even ask a question, he was off on a diatribe which defended his band and how he truly feels about the situation. Take it away, Al. “The reason we call ourselves The Original Wailers is because “Family Man’ is a total let down to the whole reggae world. He is so retarded in his whole world. There is nothing wrong with being retarded if that is the way you are born, but if you let success, fame and money retard you, well then you have a serious problem. That guy is someone I worked with for so many years and Bob Marley decided to pass everything over to him to represent the golden 30 years of what Marley stood for. He passed it to the wrong guy. Family Man ended up suing the Marley Family, and for the record, it was totally wrong and bullshit. They had already paid him off. He sold everyone out in The Wailer’s group for their royalties, he countersigned all these contracts so he would get all the money, and he sold us all out. So I decided to call this band The Original Wailer’s because it really is the wishes of Peter, Bob and Bunny. It is rebel music and it is a good clean group of musicians who do not have any dirt on them like those other guys do. Aston Barrett was not the guy to lead anything.”

“Family Man would not even come to the passing of Bob. Bob had invited all the band members to Germany for his blessing and to pass over to us 60% of his royalties. Bob and the Marley family retained 100% of the publishing and 40% of the royalties. That is millions of pounds for the six members of the band that were left the 60%. They killed everyone else. They killed our drummer, they killed Peter Tosh. We never had an opportunity to question Island Records about where the money went from the sale of 800 million units. Every band member is broke. We have to work for a living. Family Man was a bad representative and he said if the money was not sent to him why would he go to Germany and negotiate with Bob on his deathbed. I still find it hard to believe that Bob confided in him as a bandleader because he could not lead himself out of a Fucking paper bag.”.

“I’m not putting the guy down. I have not mentioned him in the last four years of my life. It is just that people have to understand why The Wailers went down was because after Bob there was no one that could pick up the torch or anyone that wanted to represent life for us. It was all about Bob and his family. The king has passed and either you work under the royal family under their modifications or you don’t. It was all or nothing. I was a rebel and questioned, although I never followed Family Man’s direction, but I was always in favour of Bob’s wishes. So we decided to put The Original Wailer’s together to honour Bob, Peter and Bunny. These were the three guys that did it for me and many others. Before Bob passed and made his journey, I told Bob he had to reunite with Peter and Bunny because then he would be a saint to me. If you got them together for one tour you would prove to me that you see all that is what is coming to you. But Bob refused, because it was all about him and his family.”

So we have The Original Wailer’s and they do have some new music and I asked Anderson if he could tell me a bit about what they were up to as artists today. “We decided to be a tribute to ourselves and sing Bob Marley’s music. I toured with Family Man for 15 years and lost my whole life,” Anderson explains, “We put together The Original Wailer’s which made so much sense to me and put music and merchandise together so people could see who was part of Bob’s band. We had to because we are faceless. No one really knows who we are and I am on 800 million CD’s. There were a group of people who made those three guys who they were. They deserve a little bit of light. One grain of light needs to go to our drummer [Carlton Barrett], who was assassinated before he got any royalties, by some crazy minded people. This band has been put together to represent all the struggles that we have been through. This is what happens when great things are spoiled by evil thoughts,” Al continued.

“We try to have good thoughts in our music and we have a new CD Miracle coming out and that is what I want to focus on. All the other stuff that happened 30 years ago is not important to me. The record is coming out in March and it is an 11 song CD that was recorded in upstate New York at The Clubhouse. It was one of the hardest albums that I ever recorded. It took a year to record and we worked every day and nearly went broke. That is why we called it Miracle, because it was a miracle that we finished it”.

These are a solid group of musicians as are the people who make up the other Wailer camp and people will come to see either conglomeration because it is the closest they will get to the Marley flame. After Bob passed the Marley family took a firm control of the legacy and the use of his name from clothing lines to coffee to the more recently iPod docks and headphones. Rita and her brood have never been averse to milking the family cash cow. With that in mind, there is plenty of space and love on the planet for two bands to carry on the musical legacy of Bob Marley and claim some of the riches outside the Rita Marley and family camp. One Love does not always ring true around the Marley economy and I do believe some have been left behind in the economic shuffle. Is this the legacy Bob wanted to leave?

Raggamuffin 2011 dates:
Friday 28th January – Parramatta Park, Sydney
Saturday 29th January – Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne
Sunday 30th January – Riverstage, Brisbane
Wednesday 2nd February – Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide