Paul Kossoff, Al Anderson & Bob Marley...

Paul Kossoff on Bob Marley's 'Natty Dread' album... It's not as unlikely a proposition as you might think...

I know I've mentioned Koss and Bob Marley before. I first became aware they knew each other when Eddie Baird told me he once went around to the Mews, and Marley was there. Bob was around at Island, and the Basing Street Studio, so that's not a surprise they had met. Remember, Rabbit also knew Bob very well, as he'd worked with him for Johnny Nash before they all came to the UK, prior to the recording of 'KKTR'. 

I also knew that Koss had played with Junior Marvin-Hanson at Basing Street. Junior eventually replaced Al Anderson in The Wailers (in 1977). I've mentioned this before, and the unreleased song of Junior's that Koss played on, in an older issue of the FAS. Junior was actually signed to ELP's Manticore label, and released two albums with them, and he did some recording at Basing Street. I had a chat with Junior, it's in an FAS issue, and he said that Koss was often around the studio looking for something to do. That's how they met.

Al Anderson was always a bit more of a mystery. I've never spoken to him, but a little while back he did an interview, and mentioned it was Kossoff that put him forward to play with Bob Marley, as he (Al) was hanging out at Kossoff's house when Chris Blackwell rang to invite Kossoff to come to the studio and play on Bob's 'Natty Dread' (1974) album, which they were finishing up. Koss declined, but sent Al as his replacement, and the rest is history.

Anyway, there's a very good interview with Al just gone up on Youtube, on the 'Mixtape Radio Show & Podcast' channel. There's a audio clip below with the Free and Kossoff story, and the link for the full interview is below that. Check it out, it's good stuff and a great little channel too.

Check out the full Al Anderson interview here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n88x-ydsfJE 

Thanks to Angus for the heads up on this one, and Mark at the 'Mixtape Radio Show & Podcast'.