Bob Marley & The Wailers - Survival

Survival is the eleventh studio album by Jamaican reggae musician / band Bob Marley & The Wailers, originally released in October 1979 by Island and Tuff Gong Records.

Containing what is considered Marley's most defiant and politically charged statement, Survival concerns itself with the expressed solidarity of not only Africa, but of humanity at large. The album was controversial right down to the jacket, which contains a crude schematic of the stowage compartment of a typical transatlantic slave ship. Survival is intended as a wake-up call for everyman to resist and fight oppression in all of its insidious forms.

From Tyrone Downie's opening synthesizer strains on So Much Trouble In The World to the keyboard accents emerging throughout Zimbabwe, the sounds of Survival are notably modern. The overwhelming influence of contemporary African music is also cited with the incorporation of brass. While Top Rankin', Ride Natty Ride, and Wake Up And Live are the most obvious to benefit from this influence, there are other and often more subtle inspirations scattered throughout.

Survival could rightly be considered a concept album. Marley had rarely been so pointed and persistent in his content. The days of the musical parable are more or less replaced by direct and confrontational lyrics. From the subversive Zimbabwe, which affirms the calls for the revolution and ultimate liberation of the South African country, to the somewhat more introspective and optimistic Africa Unite, the message of this album is clearly a call to arms for those wanting to abolish the subjugation and tyranny of not only Africans, but all humankind. Likewise, Survival reinforces the image of Marley as a folk hero to those suffering from oppression.

Check out these tracks: Survival; Wake Up And Live; So Much Trouble In The World; Africa Unite; and Zimbabwe.

This 2015 remaster on 180 gram heavyweight vinyl includes a download of the album and is pressed in Europe by Island Records.