Bunny Wailer – Protest (1977) (16/44 Vinyl Rip)

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Bunny Wailer – Protest (1977) (16/44 Vinyl Rip)

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Review from Allmusic:
Protest may have been overshadowed by the former Wailer's classic solo debut, Blackheart Man, but shouldn't be overlooked. It's an equally compelling work for the same reasons, including creative arranging, assured production, and some of Wailer's sweetest-ever vocal performances. In some ways, his style is arguably the most distinctive, being dreamier and more meditative than the impassioned agit-prop of his old bandmates Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. The obvious drawing card for non-initiates is "Get Up, Stand Up"; it's the only Wailers song to boast three separate covers by its former vocalists. Wailer's version slows the tempo to a reggae-funk crawl, which helps to build the song's impatience with Rasta skeptics, sealed by an impassioned vocal and snappy horn charts. (Tosh himself is among the small pool of "usual suspect" musicians contributing to the album.) Every track, in fact, is a standout; "Moses Children" revisits the Biblical scenario of Egyptian slavery to hint at hope for the future, while "Scheme of Things" confronts listeners with a pointed query: "What are your works toward your brother beings?" "Follow Fashion Monkey" is another roots classic that slaps hard at the "black Yankees" who forsake their culture for Western norms and mores. The album grows increasingly contemplative and personal as it progresses. "&Wanted Children" pleads for people to take responsibility for the lives they create ("As the freedom of a raging storm/Let the little children born"), while "Who Feels It Knows It" is a heartfelt ballad urging the underdog to get back off the mat. Wailer pulls off one of his finest vocals, where he unleashes a massed army of overdubbed backing choruses and harmonies to underscore his message. "Johnny Too Bad" rounds off the album with a compelling slice-of-life portrait of a hardened young offender who gets even with the society that spurns him, only to be overwhelmed by superior police power. Wailer's voice is the glue that holds it all together, being well-suited to plead, please, or attack as the mood requires. By any measure, this album's a landmark – not only for reggae itself, but also its earnestly low-profile featured artist.

Biography from Wikipedia:
Bunny Wailer, also known as Bunny Livingston (born Neville O'Riley Livingston, April 10, 1947, Jamaica), is a singer songwriter and percussionist and was an original member of reggae group The Wailers along with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. He is widely regarded as a musical legend and is considered one of the longtime standard bearers of reggae music. He has been named by Newsweek as one of the three most important musicians in world music.
Bunny Wailer and Bob Marley were raised in the same household as stepbrothers. Bunny's father Thaddeus "Toddy" Livingston lived with Bob Marley's mother Cedella Booker and had a daughter with her named Pearl Livingston.
As he was by some way the least forceful of the trio, he tended to sing lead vocals less often than Marley and Tosh in the early years, but when Bob Marley left Jamaica in 1966 for Delaware, to be replaced by Constantine "Vision" Walker, he began to record and sing lead on some of his own compositions, such as "Who Feels It Knows It", "I Stand Predominant" and "Sunday Morning". His music was very influenced by gospel and the soul of Curtis Mayfield. In 1967, he recorded "This Train", based on a gospel standard for the first time at Studio One.
As the Wailers moved from producer to producer in the late 1960s he continued to be underused as a writer and lead vocalist, although he sang lead on "Riding High", and on one verse of the Wailers' Impressions-like "Keep On Moving", both produced by Lee Perry. By 1973, each of the three founding Wailers operated their own label, Marley with Tuff Gong, Tosh with H.I.M. Intel Diplo, and Bunny Wailer with Solomonic. He sang lead vocals on "Reincarnated Souls", the B-side of the Wailers first Island single of the new era, and on two tracks on the Wailers last trio LP, "Burnin'" , "Pass it On" (which had been cut as a sound-system only dub plate five years earlier) and "Hallelujah Time". By now he was recording singles in his own right, cutting "Bide Up", "Arab Oil Weapon" and "Life Line" for his own label.
Bunny Wailer toured with the Wailers in England and the United States, but soon became reluctant to leave Jamaica. He and Tosh became more marginalized in the group as the Wailers became an international success, and attention was increasingly focused on Marley. Bunny subsequently left the Wailers to pursue a solo career, which continues in the present.
After leaving the Wailers, Bunny became more focused on his spiritual faith. He identified with the Rastafari movement, as did the other Wailers. He has also written much of his own material as well as re-recording a number of cuts from the Wailers catalogue. Bunny Wailer has recorded primarily in the roots style, in keeping with his often political and spiritual messages. The album Blackheart Man is a good example of his roots reggae style, while "Sings the Wailers" successfully reworks many of The Wailers songs with the backing of top Jamaican musicians, Sly and Robbie. He experimented with disco on his album 'Hook Line & Sinker'. He has also had success recording in the typically apolitical, more pop dancehall style. He has outlived his contemporaries in a culture where death by violence is commonplace.
Bunny Wailer was both the quietest and most spiritually creative of the Wailers. However, he also had a dancehall/Rockers edge that was best exemplified by the album "Bunny Wailer Sings the Wailers" in which he re-interprets some of the Wailers material as a solo Roots singer backed by a solid Sly & Robbie based Roots reggae grouping. The album was produced Bunny Wailer, recorded at Harry J studies. Some of these tracks are re-worked classic Wailers tracks (e.g. Dreamland - first recorded in 1970 with Lee 'Scratch" Perry and released as a 7" in 1971 with a U-Roy version on the B -Side). Another classic is Dancing Shoes, first recorded in the early 1960s as a driving Ska/Soul classic with Bunny Wailer as lead vocal.
Bunny Wailer has won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album in 1990, 1994 and 1996.
Today, Bunny resides in Kingston and on a farm located in the interior of Jamaica (Saint Thomas), according to Bob Marley's official website. Bunny Wailer and Beverley Kelso are the only surviving members of the original Wailers. In recent years, Bunny has attracted controversy for his outspoken views on women and homosexuality. Whilst such views are common in Jamaica, they have, combined with his attempts at a modern sound, caused him to lose a sizeable proportion of his fanbase.