TOMORROW ON OUTQ: HENDRIX, MARLEY, MICHAEL AND SPECTOR

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, you can hear me (almost) every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET on the SiriusXM Channel OutQ on the show The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick. Every week I talk about music. Surprise!

The last few weeks, I've been pretty Grammy focused. Tomorrow, I'm talking about older music.  I mean, hey, if you still have those Amazon or iTunes or Barnes & Noble gift cards, you wanna use them, right?  (And if you have a Borders gift card, you really want use that one sooner rather than later!). Here's some ideas on what to use them on.

Last year, Sony Legacy released a new Jimi Hendrix box set, West Coast Seattle Boy. 4 CDs and a DVD, but it's mainly for the aficionados, I wrote a review of it here.  It's mostly hard-to-find stuff (disc 1 is all music from his days as a sideman) and alternate versions.

Bob Marley & The Wailers' Live Forever on Universal, is a recording of the man's final concert, recorded in September of 1980, just months before he died. It's pretty powerful stuff, although the sound quality starts to crap out towards the end.

Sony has also just re-released George Michael's 1987 album, Faith. Because of many reasons, people have forgotten that in 1987, he was really big - he was a peer of Madonna, Prince and Michael Jackson. This reissue reminds you why.  Disc 1 features the album, Disc 2 is B-sides and dance remixes and Disc 3 is a DVD with an interview from the era, a doc on his Faith tour and his music videos from the album. If you're a George Michael fan, you should definitely pick this up.

Finally, it seems that Sony has acquired the Phil Spector catalog, and they are releasing single CD compilations from some of his artist.  Tomorrow I'll have best of albums by The Ronettes and The Crystals.

BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS - "LIVE FOREVER"

Bob Marley is, by far, the most famous reggae musician of all time. He's one of the most influential songwriters ever. And arguably, the most universally loved musician in the world - I'm talking the whole world, not just the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia. So, it's no surprise that his estate puts out a generous amount of new titles and reissues.  But I have to say, almost every Marley title I have is worth owning. (And I think there's some rule or law saying that I should point out when I get something for free to review - and I did get a copy of this from Universal Music).

And that's true of Live Forever, recorded on September 23, 1980 at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh. It was the last concert he ever performed.  Recorded on the tour for his final album (or at least the final album released during his lifetime) Uprising, the show took place a few days after he collapsed while jogging in Central Park. You can't help wondering, while listening to the album, did he know?  Did any part of him realize that this would be his last concert?  I really wonder that during "Redemption Song," which he plays solo acoustic (backed by a percussionist).  And during the last song, the anthem "Get Up, Stand Up," which turned out to be the very last song he ever performed in public (I should mention here that, for some reason, the sound quality radically declines toward the end of the album).

If you're going to get one live Marley album, is this the one to get?  I don't know.  I would maybe go for Live! or Babylon By Bus first. But this is a great album (the sound quality towards the end notwithstanding). The songs that have been sticking out to me most, other than "Redemption Song," are "Burnin' and Lootin'" and "Them Belly Full." At this point, Bob was as far from the streets of Jamaica as he would ever be, but he never lost touch. But those songs obviously apply to what is going on today.  Now, as then, our leaders would do well to listen to the lyrics, especially of "Them Belly Full." I think if Bob was still with it, he'd still be singing these songs, and they'd be as powerful and relevant as ever.

ZIGGY REMIXES BOB MARLEY FOR KIDS

Billboard reports that Ziggy Marley is remixing some of Bob Marley 's songs with kid-friendly arrangements. It sounds like a weird idea, but there is some cool music out there - The Beatles and Marley being two examples - that are probably great for kids and for parents.  So, I think it's cool. Ziggy is also doing his own children's album, with guests including Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, Jack Johnson and Toots Hibbert. And Jamie Lee Curtis! Don't front on Jamie Lee, she rocks: her husband Christopher Guest is in Spinal Tap! Anyway, there's a pot joke here, but I'll let someone else make it. 

DEMME HELMING MARLEY AND YOUNG FILMS

A blog owned by Variety magazine called The Set List is reporting that Martin Scorsese is no longer working on the Bob Marley doc, and that Jonathan Demme is taking over. The reason given was "scheduling reasons." It's well known that he is also working on a George Harrison doc.

The article also mentions that Demme is working on his second Neil Young doc. He did the great Heart Of Gold concert film a few years back, and he shot some of Neil's shows on his Chrome Dreams II tour last year. Nice work if you can get it!

MARLEY FILM VS. MARLEY FILM?

Two films about Bob Marley are now competing with each other. One is a documentary that Martin Scorsese is working on (Marty, who recently directed the excellent Bob Dylan doc, No Direction Home, and The Rolling Stones concert/doc Shine A Light, out this week, is also working on a George Harrison doc).

The other is the latest in a long line of biopics. The Marley family is involved in both films, but it is getting messy, which is a shame. Bob Marley is probably the most universally loved musican ever - more than The Beatles, Dylan, or anyone else.

It's kind of a bummer. But to read more about it, check The Playlist - a cool blog about movies and music.