WANTAGH, N.Y., June 18— Everyone loves Bob Marley, which may be why so many singers claim him as an inspiration: they're hoping some of that love will rub off on them. Tonight two of his biggest fans, Ben Harper and Jack Johnson, came to Jones Beach Theater here, emulating their hero with mixed results.
The headliner was Mr. Harper, a great rock star who isn't. He looks good onstage, lithe and lively in a denim-and-denim outfit, his dance moves as smooth as his Afro. And he looks good on paper: he has a great voice, he is a virtuosic guitarist and he writes idiosyncratic rock songs that draw from reggae and the blues.
Yet somehow -- infuriatingly -- it doesn't work. Songs meant to be mellow sounded listless instead, and the screaming guitar solos sounded merely self-indulgent.
There were a few bright moments, most notably a hushed version of ''Forever,'' from Mr. Harper's 1994 debut album, ''Welcome to the Cruel World.''
But a marijuana anthem, ''Burn One Down,'' could almost have been a Marley parody: ''Before you knock it, try it first/Oh, you'll see it's a blessing and not a curse.'' And ''With My Own Two Hands,'' from his new album, ''Diamonds on the Inside'' (Virgin), suggests what might have happened if Marley had written children's music: ''I'm gonna make it a safer place/I'm gonna help the human race/With my own, with my own two hands.'' It was a relief when, inevitably, the song faded into a cover of Marley's ''War.''
Many of Mr. Johnson's songs were just as slight, but the presentation was much more appealing: Mr. Johnson accompanied himself with some gentle strumming on an acoustic guitar, and his two-piece backing band played grooves so light they almost drifted away.
Mr. Johnson's new album is ''On and On'' (Moonshine Conspiracy/Universal), and its songs act like well-behaved party guests: they don't make a big noise when they arrive, and then they slip away just as you're getting to know them.
Like Mr. Harper, Mr. Johnson has a tendency toward preachiness, but he has a much lighter touch. On ''Gone'' he balanced the finger-pointing verses with a repetitive chorus that sounded more playful than indignant, murmuring, ''Gone, going/Gone, everything/Gone, give a damn/Gone be the birds if they don't want to sing/Gone people, all awkward with their things/Gone.''
Even Mr. Johnson's cover of Marley's ''Trenchtown Rock'' had a certain shrugging charm; when he sang ''Brutalize me with music,'' it seemed like an admission of his intent to do precisely the opposite.
The audience consisted of virtually nothing but high-spirited fans, collegiate in mindset if not in fact. They whooped and cheered mercilessly, sometimes drowning out the ballads. By Mr. Harper's second encore, things had quieted down a bit because many people had already headed for the parking lot. And then the screams erupted again as Mr. Harper brought out Mr. Johnson for -- what else? -- another Marley cover, ''High Tide or Low Tide.''
Photo: Jack Johnson kept his performance light and gentle for a high-spirited audience at the Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, N.Y. (Kevin P. Coughlin/Photostation Images, for The New York Times)
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