Author Vivien Goldman sounds off on the importance of "Exodus" in this month's "Mojo"

For a man and musician with a body of work and a legacy as lasting and as important as that of Bob Marley, it's tough to focus on one event or recording or even a single period of his life that stands out above the rest. However, the June 4 special 30th anniversary re-release of his classic 1977 album Exodus reminds us of the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the time in which it was created.

Yes, Exodus, which was named "best album of the 20th century" by Time magazine, is once again alive and well in the 21st, this time fronting a package of "new" releases that include limited-edition USB memory stick formatted recordings available at BobMarley.com, a technological first, as well a CD/DVD package, a 144-page, hardback book chronicling the creation of Exodus, and a new vinyl record of the album based on the original 1977 packaging.

Already, this historic re-release is all over the press, and two huge packages in influential publications -- Mojo Magazine and the London newspaper The Independent -- have honored this special occasion with huge spreads.

Mojo, which is available in the United States and in the U.K., features a length piece, "The Alchemist," by journalist, former Marley confidant and Marley book author Vivien Goldman.

Goldman delves into the tumultuous times during Marley's self-imposed "exile" in London in 1977 after he and his wife, Rita, had survived a 1976 assassination attempt in their home at 56 Hope Road in the increasingly violent Jamaican capital city of Kingston. Goldman describes the upheaval in Jamaica, the rival political factions, and Marley's creative renaissance in London during the making of the album.

The piece culminates with a look behind the scenes at one of Marley's most famous moments, when he encouraged Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley and his chief political rival, Edward Seaga, to shake hands during the "One Love Peace Concert" in 1978, the first performance Bob would play on Jamaican soil since returning from the exile.

"There are many reasons why Exodus is so beloved, with the sound of Marley and his band delicately re-calibrating their groove, determined to reach new ears," Goldman writes. "With all this passing of time, however, an odd thing has happened. It's an album that included such global smash hits as 'Jamming,' 'Waiting in Vain' and 'One Love/People Get Ready' as well as the inescapable 'Three Little Birds,' yet Exodus' very ubiquity has come to make it seem safe, the predictable choice for people with a token reggae album.

"This development, a deracination really, is all the more remarkable as, more than any other Wailers record, Exodus was an album wrenchingly birthed in blood and fire, amid events as apocalyptic as any Rasta revelation, and its very existence is a positive triumph in the primal struggle between good and evil.

"Exodus is a catharsis, its balance of militancy and compassion a release from the traumatic experiences that inspired it."

Goldman's extensive narrative isn't the only good thing in Mojo. There's also a light-hearted first-person story from several participants about a soccer match in London's Battersea Park a little more than a week after the release of Exodus in which Bob's bandmates and Rasta buddies waxed a team of Island Records employees in what would become a traditional game.

There's an article by noted poet and Marley scholar Linton Kwesi Johnson, who goes song by song and analyzes the lyrical power of each song on the Exodus album. There's another first-person piece with London 1970s club scenesters -- including BobMarley.com contributor and former Big Audio Dynamite member Don Letts -- on how Bob was introduced to the punk scene at the Roxy club during his exile and would go on to write "Punky Reggae Party" and indirectly introduce reggae music to punk rock, spawning huge acts such as the Clash.

And the last piece in the huge Mojo layout is called "Family Affair," and is a first-person conversation with Marley children Cedella, Ziggy, Damian, Ky-Mani and Rohan with their takes on Bob the father, the icon, the musician and the message during the Exodus years.

The package in The Independent is similarly substantive. The lead article, entitled "The Exile: Bob Marley and the Making of his Masterpiece in London," understandably devotes a lot to the importance of the English capital city in spawning the work.

"The Exodus album could only have happened in London in 1977," the article begins, as written by Lloyd Bradley. "While it may be filed under 'reggae' in music stores, as an album it owes more to Kensington than it does to Kingston, and is so much a product of the year it was made that the Time magazine accolade of album of the century becomes even more remarkable.

"It was all a matter of luck, too. That's 'luck' as defined in an old West African saying that states: 'Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.'" In other words, you have to be good to be "lucky," and Bob was good enough to create a classic album that many consider his masterpiece while under the duress of his exile.

In addition to this extensive piece, the Independent also offers a lyrical analysis of the album by poet Linton Kwesi Johnson and a first-person mini-memoir of "How Bob Caught Fire" by Island records founder and noted Briton Chris Blackwell.