MIXED MEDIA : *** 1/2 “THE BOB MARLEY STORY: CARIBBEAN NIGHTS” Bob Marley and the Wailers <i> Island Visual Arts Video ($19.95)</i> : Items in this survey of pop-related videos, books and laser discs are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to five (a classic).

This 100-minute documentary of the late reggae kingpin is a fairly standard blend of interviews--with Marley himself, the late Peter Tosh, Island label chief Chris Blackwell and others--behind-the-scenes clips and some brilliant performance footage from a 1973 British television show featuring the original Wailers line-up. But the tape really excels in tying together the strands of Jamaican social and cultural life that became embodied in Marley’s music. The perspective adamantly, and rightly, remains on Marley the home-grown product of Jamaican culture, not the international crossover phenomenon. And if the Jamaican patois is occasionally indecipherable, just hit the rewind button and try again.