I think we as a group here at Once Upon a Time in The ’70s should consider a change of direction. I propose that we have regular discussions based around the scriptures of the Old Testament and look at what their relevance is in today’s society. I’d like to start with……………………Only kidding. No seriously it was a joke. Come back !

No, this is about my own personal journey from progressive rock to more roots based music.

As a newly fledged teenager in the seventies I jumped on to the progressive rock bandwagon. Twenty minutes tunes, odd time signatures, Moogs, Mellotrons and obscure lyrics. What’s not to like.

I managed to amass pocket money/birthday/Xmas funds to buy my first album, Foxtrot by Genesis and went to my debut concert a year later to see them live at the Glasgow Apollo. Familiar music performed by a man with a foxes head and red dress became de riguer. This pattern continued over the ensuing years adding LPs by Yes, Gentle Giant, Jethro Tull and others plus regular visits to see them live.

I think it was a few years later while listening to Peter Gabriel singing about lawn mowers and wondering what the hell Tales Of The Topographic Ocean was all about that I thought this is not really doing it for me.

I dug out my brother’s Stevie Wonder albums, took a chance on the Average White Band based on an instrumental, along with a bunch of London session players called Kokomo and re-discovered my mojo.

Reggae had not really been on my radar. There were the occasional pop tunes like My Boy Lollipop or the Israelites in the background. My first awareness of  Bob Marley & The Wailers was through Eric Clapton and I Shot The Sheriff. When I heard Jamming something clicked. Whether it was the off beat chops of the guitar and organ, the bass drum on three or the sonorous dub bass I was hooked. Similar to funk, it’s not what you play it’s what you leave out.

I thought it might be interesting to compare the two acts.

The genesis of Genesis (sorry) was Charterhouse School. A £48,000 per term school for Britain’s upper crust. Phil Collins jokes about his audition for the band. Having arrived early after driving down from London to the leafy suburbs of Hampshire, he was invited to take a dip in Peter Gabriel’s parent’s pool before trying out as their new drummer. The band was managed by another Old Carthusian Jonathon King, songwriter, producer, TV personality and convicted paedophile. That’s public school for you !

Bob Marley’s upbringing was not quite as privileged. Born in government housing in Trenchtown, inner city Kingston, Jamaica with an absent white father, schooled to fourteen and practically homeless at seventeen. Marley formed The Wailers with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer.

Jamaica in the seventies was pretty lawless run by gangsters or ‘Dons’ loosely affiliated to the the two major political parties, the ruling Cuba friendly Peoples National Party and the supposedly CIA backed Jamaica Labour Party. Marley didn’t associate with either party relying more on his Rastafarian faith for guidance.

There was an assassination attempt on him at his home in December 1976. A bullet grazed his shoulder and arm, his wife Rita was wounded in the head and his manager took the brunt of the attack but miraculously survived. Both the PNP and JLP blamed each other.

Marley fled to London and put all his energies into the Exodus album at Chris Blackwell’s Island Records. Blackwell, seeing Marley a natural leader of The Wailers and like a Rock rebel, changed the name of the band a few years earlier to have Bob’s name prominent. Exodus has been described as ‘Reggae with Blues, Soul and British Rock’ being more accessible to the ‘Western’ ear.

The re-telling of the Book of Revelations in Genesis’ ‘Supper’s Ready‘ to the optimistic innocence of  Bob Marley & The Wailers ‘Three Little Birds‘ is quite a leap but as Bob says.

Don’t worry about a thing

Every little thing is gonna be alright

(Post by John Allan, from Bridgetown, Western Australia – March 2026.)