Uprising<\/em> cover featured an illustration of a brawny Marley, arms extended to the sky, and the pulsating \u201cCould You Be Loved\u201d was making headway in American dance clubs (a rarity for Marley) as well as in Europe. For his first performance in Italy, Marley was booked into a stadium that held over 100,000. And to introduce his music to a larger Black audience in the States, Marley and the Wailers would be co-headlining two nights at New York\u2019s Madison Square Garden with the Commodores, who still counted Lionel Richie among their members.<\/p>\n\n\tThe Wailers themselves were primed, starting with a lineup of some of its mightiest players, including guitarists Al Anderson and Junior Marvin, keyboardists Tyrone Downie and Earl \u201cWya\u201d Lindo, bassist Aston \u201cFamily Man\u201d Barrett, and drummer (and Family Man brother) Carlton Barrett, along with the I-Threes, the female trio (Rita Marley, Marcia Griffiths, and Judy Mowatt) who bathed Marley\u2019s songs in hypnotic harmonies. As always, Marley was prepping physically. \u201cHe was always training and had a lot of apparatus, like weights,\u201d Anderson recalls to Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cWe would train before tours and run and get our cardio up to speed, because we were moving like every single day somewhere. When he got on stage, he never stopped moving.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tBut what was intended as a confirmation of Marley\u2019s stature would prove to be his swan song: The Uprising<\/em> trek would be his final set of concerts. \u201cHe worked so hard to keep it all together,\u201d Anderson says. \u201cHe was responsible for everything, financially and spiritually, and he put his heart into that tour. The band was firing on all cylinders. Everything was working fine, up until a point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tOnce the tour launched, in Zurich, Switzerland, in late May, before moving through Europe until late July, Marley\u2019s impact was continually clear to any who bought a ticket. The show in Italy would end up pulling in more than 120,000 people, with some in the crowd holding a \u201cThank You, Bob Marley\u201d banner aloft. When the tour moved to the States in mid-September, the first show, in Boston, was delayed over an hour, the result of an overflow crowd and security concerns. As Marley would sometimes tell the crowds, \u201cTake it easy \u2014 take it good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n\n