There are or have been - at least - two bands named The Wailers:

- … Read Full Bio ↴There are or have been - at least - two bands named The Wailers:

- The legendary Jamaican reggae band (founded as a ska group 1963, and became a Rastafarian reggae band in 1968), renamed Bob Marley & The Wailers in 1974, which are still active led by bassist Aston Barrett after Marley's death in 1981.

- The Fabulous Wailers, a rock and roll and garage band from the USA, active 1958-1969, first led by John Greek, replaced in 1960 by Rockin' Robin Roberts.

1) Bob Marley & The Wailers have together sold in excess of 255 million albums worldwide. Since they are extraordinary popular also in poor countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America with big markets for pirate copies the total amounts of albums sold has been estimated to over 1 billion. In England alone, they've notched up over 20 chart hits, including seven Top 10 entries. In USA on the other hand, Bob Marley & The Wailers reached superstar status only after Marley's death, with the album Legend , focusing on the person Bob Marley but not on the band. Outside of their groundbreaking work with Marley, the Wailers have also played or performed with international acts like Sting, the Fugees, Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana, and Alpha Blondy, as well as reggae legends such as Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, and Burning Spear. As the greatest living exponents of Jamaica's reggae tradition, the Wailers have completed innumerable other tours, playing to an estimated 24 million people across the globe. They have also been the first reggae band to tour new territories on many occasions, including Africa and the Far East.

Their nucleus formed in 1969, when the vocalist group "The Wailers" (formed 1963 by Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, and Peter Tosh) requited the talented Barrett brothers: bassist Aston "Family Man" and drummer Carlton (writer of well-known Marley songs like "War" and "Talking Blues", 'sound-maker' of more Marley songs, developer of the one drop style in reggae music) played on hits such as Lively Up Yourself, Trenchtown Rock, Duppy Conqueror, and many more besides. Inspired by Rastafari and their ambitions of reaching an international audience, this is the line-up that pioneered roots rock reggae, and signed to Island Records in 1971. Bunny and Peter left two years later. It was at this point that the in-demand Barrett brothers - whose rhythms also underpinned innumerable seventies' reggae hits by other acts - assumed the title of Wailers, and backed Marley on the group's international breakthrough album, Natty Dread. Under Family Man's musical leadership, they then partnered Bob Marley on the succession of hit singles and albums that made him a global icon, winner of several Lifetime Achievement awards, and Jamaica's best-loved musical superstar.
Drummer Carlton "Carlie" Barrett was murdered 1987, leaving his brother as the main beneficiary of the Wailers' mantle. Subsequent line-ups have revolved around Family Man, who is widely regarded as one of the world's greatest bass players. Modest and unassuming, he was present on all of those unforgettable performances by Bob Marley & The Wailers from the seventies. Family Man continues to be the main axis of the current Wailers - a group that's one of the last, great reggae institutions, yet which refuses to live off past glories. That's because Family Man represents tried and trusted roots authenticity and, along with the Wailers, injects fresh excitement into a show that continues to attract enthusiastic audiences from around the world.

2) The Fabulous Wailers were an American rock band from Tacoma, Washington. Formed around 1958, they are often considered the first garage rock group. They performed a hybrid of saxophone-driven rhythm and blues and Chuck Berry rock and roll.

Five 45s (four released in 1959, including Tall Cool One, and one in 1960) and an LP release, The Fabulous Wailers (released December 1959 on Golden Crest Records), put the Wailers on the national scene. Their 1961 cover of Louie Louie, which they recorded as a backing band for singer Rockin' Roberts, was the first to use the trademark 1-2-3, 1-2, 1-2-3 riff. Their version inspired other groups from the Seattle area, most notably the The Kingsmen of Portland, Oregon, to record the same song. The Fabulous Wailers' influence established the Pacific Northwest area as a center for musical innovation and the home of a long string of regional favorites playing a kind of raunchy, amateur, yet passionate, form of rock and roll, such as The Sonics, with whom they exchanged various band members and who recorded on The Wailers own Etiquette Records label.

They became popular around the United States Pacific Northwest around the late 1950s and the start of the 1960s, performing saxophone-driven R&B and Chuck Berry rock and roll. Their biggest hit was "Tall Cool One", first released in 1959, and they have been credited as being "one of the very first, if not the first, of the American garage bands."

The group was formed – originally as The Nitecaps – in 1958, by five high school friends:

John Greek (27 October 1940 – 6 October 2006) – rhythm guitar, trumpet
Richard Dangel (1 December 1942 – 2 December 2002) – lead guitar
Kent Morrill (2 April 1941 – 15 April 2011) – keyboards, vocals
Mark Marush (15 August 1940 – 9 August 2007) – tenor sax
Mike Burk (b. 1942) – drums
In late 1958, the group recorded a demo of an instrumental written by Dangel, Morrill and Greek, which found its way to Clark Galehouse of New York based Golden Crest Records. He liked the track and had it re-recorded by the band in Lakewood in February 1959; its title "Tall Cool One" was apparently suggested by Morrill's mother. Released as a single, it reached # 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 and # 24 on the R&B chart. The band made the cross-country trip to New York to record an LP, The Fabulous Wailers, which was released in December 1959 and featured two vocals by Morrill as well as instrumentals. They also appeared on Dick Clark's nationally televised American Bandstand, and toured the east coast. A second instrumental from their first recording session, "Mau-Mau", made # 68 on the Billboard pop chart, but their third single, "Wailin'", failed to make the chart.

The band decided to return to the Northwest, rather than staying in New York as their record label wished, and they were dropped from their contract. Around the same time, they added lead vocalist "Rockin' Robin" Roberts (Lawrence Fewell Roberts II), a charismatic frontman who had previously been the singer with rival Tacoma band the Bluenotes. John Greek left the group in acrimonious circumstances, and was replaced by bassist John "Buck" Ormsby (Seattle, October 29, 1941 - October 29, 2016). Ormsby, Morrill and Roberts then formed Etiquette Records and, in 1961, the label released its first single, a cover version of Richard Berry's "Louie Louie". For contractual reasons the single was credited to Roberts, but was performed by the whole band. Their recording became a local hit and was distributed nationally by Imperial Records, but did not make the national chart. However, its style, with its trademark 1-2-3, 1-2, 1-2-3 riff, inspired other groups from the Seattle area, most notably the Kingsmen of Portland, Oregon, to record the same song.

The Wailers continued to perform locally and, according to Morrill, one of their biggest fans was the young Jimi Hendrix, then starting to perform guitar. The band performed both with and without Roberts, who studied at the University of Washington, the University of Puget Sound, and Oregon State University, eventually achieving a masters degree in biochemistry. They also occasionally featured teenage girl singer Gail Harris, notably on the live album The Fabulous Wailers at the Castle, recorded in 1961, which has been described as "undoubtedly one of the most influential albums in Seattle rock & roll history." In all, the band recorded and released four albums on their own Etiquette label between 1962 and 1966, as well as a succession of singles. They also helped instigate the recording career of The Sonics, whose first two albums were issued by the label, and helped begin Jini Dellaccio's career as a rock'n'roll photographer when they hired her to shoot cover photos for their album Wailers, Wailers, Everywhere.

Mark Marush left The Wailers in 1962 and was replaced by Ron Gardner, who also handled lead vocals; Dangel and Burk left in 1964 and were replaced by guitarist Neil Andersson and drummer Dave Roland respectively. Continuing to perform live as well as recording, the band added a trio of girl backing singers, known as the Marshans. Also in 1964, "Tall Cool One" was re-promoted by the Golden Crest label, and again made the Billboard pop chart, this time peaking at # 38. In 1965 Roberts made his final recordings with the group, and, in 1967, guitarist Neil Andersson was replaced by Denny Weaver. Roberts was killed, aged 27, in a car crash in late 1967.

The band split up in 1969, by which time Kent Morrill was the only remaining original member. Morrill, Dangel and Ormsby, with other musicians, reunited as The Wailers for occasional concerts from the 1970s onwards. In 1979, they joined with Burk, Gardner, and Gail Harris to play a reunion show.

Later activities
Ormsby re-established the Etiquette label in the mid-1980s, and issued a Wailers compilation, The Boys from Tacoma, in 1993. The Wailers' song, "Out of Our Tree", was featured in the 1998 CD version of the Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From the First Psychedelic Era collection. Several of the Wailers' tunes were also covered by The Ventures, and the two bands released an album together, Two Car Garage, in 2009 to celebrate their 50 years in existence.

Ron Gardner died in 1992. Richard Dangel died of an aneurysm in 2002. John Greek died in 2006, Mark Marush in 2007, and Kent Morrill died of cancer on 15 April 2011. Buck Ormsby died in 2016.

Stand Up Jamrock
The Wailers Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights
Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights
Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights
Get up, stand up, don't give up the fight

Preacher man, don't tell me
Heaven is under the earth
I know you don't know

What life is really worth
It's not all that glitters is gold
'Alf the story has never been told
So now you see the light, eh
Stand up for your rights come on

Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights
Get up, stand up, don't give up the fight
Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights
Get up, stand up, don't give up the fight

Most people think
Great god will come from the skies
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high
But if you know what life is worth
You will look for yours on earth
And now you see the light
You stand up for your rights, Jah

Get up, stand up (Jah, Jah)
Stand up for your rights (oh-hoo)
Get up, stand up (get up, stand up)
Don't give up the fight (life is your right)
Get up, stand up (so we can't give up the fight)
Stand up for your rights (Lord, Lord)
Get up, stand up (keep on struggling on)
Don't give up the fight (yeah)

We sick an' tired of-a your ism-skism game
Dyin' 'n' goin' to Heaven inna Jesus' name, Lord
We know when we understand
Almighty god is a living man
You can fool some people sometimes
But you can't fool all the people all the time
So now we see the light (what you gonna do?)
We gonna stand up for our rights (yeah, yeah, yeah)

So you better
Get up, stand up (in the morning git it up)
Stand up for your rights (stand up for our rights)
Get up, stand up
Don't give up the fight (don't give it up, don't give it up)
Get up, stand up (get up, stand up)
Stand up for your rights (get up, stand up)
Get up, stand up
Don't give up the fight (get up, stand up)
Get up, stand up
Stand up for your rights

Get up, stand up
Don't give up the fight

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of "Get up, Stand up" by The Wailers open with a call to action for people to rise up and fight for their rights. The use of repetition in the chorus emphasizes the importance of standing up for oneself and not giving up the fight. The next verse seems to be directed at religious figures who talk about the afterlife while ignoring the struggles that people face in this life. The line "It's not all that glitters is gold" means that not everything that appears valuable or desirable is actually worth pursuing in life. The verse highlights the idea that people should take control of their own lives and fight for what they believe in, rather than relying on the promise of heavenly reward.

The song then goes on to criticize people who believe that God will solve their problems and make everything better. It suggests that people should focus on improving their own lives on Earth and standing up for their rights, rather than waiting for divine intervention. The repeated line "Jah" refers to the Rastafarian god Jah, who represents unity and strength to the Rastafari movement. The final verse challenges those who use religion as a means of control and manipulation, encouraging people to open their eyes and see the truth for themselves.

Overall, "Get up, Stand up" is a song that calls for social and political action, urging people to fight for their rights and not be content with the status quo. It celebrates individual empowerment and freedom, challenging oppressive systems and ideologies.

Line by Line Meaning

Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights
Don't be passive, take a stand and fight for your rights

Get up, stand up, don't give up the fight
Keep fighting, don't give up before you achieve what you want

Preacher man, don't tell me Heaven is under the earth
Don't try to deceive me or give me false hope about the afterlife

I know you don't know what life is really worth
You do not have the knowledge or wisdom to understand the true value of human life

It's not all that glitters is gold
Do not be fooled by appearances, not everything that looks good is of value

'Alf the story has never been told
Only part of the story has been revealed or made known

So now you see the light, eh
You now understand the truth or see things clearly

Stand up for your rights come on
Take action to fight for your rights

Most people think Great god will come from the skies
Many people believe that a divine being will come from the heavens and solve their problems

Take away everything and make everybody feel high
The belief that a divine intervention will remove all problems and make everyone happy

But if you know what life is worth
If you understand the true value of life

You will look for yours on earth
You will focus on taking ownership of your life on the physical world

You stand up for your rights, Jah
You take a stand and fight for your rights with the help of Jah (God)

We sick an' tired of-a your ism-skism game
We are fed up with the political or ideological games that are used to manipulate us

Dyin' 'n' goin' to Heaven inna Jesus' name, Lord
The belief that dying and going to Heaven in the name of Jesus will solve everything

We know when we understand Almighty god is a living man
We understand that God is not an abstract concept, but a living person with agency

You can fool some people sometimes, but you can't fool all the people all the time
You can deceive some people for a short time, but you cannot deceive everyone all the time

So now we see the light (what you gonna do?)
We understand the truth, so what are we going to do about it?

We gonna stand up for our rights (yeah, yeah, yeah)
We are going to take action to fight for our rights

So you better get up, stand up
You should take action and fight for your rights

Don't give up the fight (don't give it up, don't give it up)
Keep fighting and never give up on trying to achieve what you want.

Stand up for your rights (get up, stand up)
Take ownership of your rights and fight for them

Stand up for your rights
Don't let anyone take away your rights, defend them at all costs

Don't give up the fight (get up, stand up)
Don't give up and keep fighting for your rights no matter what

Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Bob Marley, Peter Tosh

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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