I'm talking Pre-Catch A Fire here. His Jamaican period up to 1972. I think I have every track Marley recorded in this era, on my iTunes, culled from about 25 different CDs, and it comes to about 200 tracks. At its best, this material is a revelation: mystical, enigmatic, powerful and beautiful. In recording quality terms and feel they remind me of Dylan's Basement Tapes. Now...what is the best route to collect this material on CD with the least amount of purchases? What are the best compilations? Which versions sound the best? Discuss!
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=bob marley jad koch&rh=i:aps,k:bob marley jad koch
I think there is already a thread on this or a similar question, anyway, for the Studio One material you need the Heartbeat issues, for the Jad and self-produced material there are the Complete Wailers sets as posted above in various configurations depending upon whether they are the Jad, Universal or Koch issues, I think there are 8 or 10 volumes of the Jad CDs, these will also get you much other material including the Lee Perry productions although you may prefer the Sanctuary/Universal Trojan issues for that. Sanctuary/Universal Trojan issues are probably best for the Leslie Kong material as well, unless I'm forgetting something I think that other than an odd Bunny Lee production that just leaves the Warners material which is available on a Warners CD.
This is also a very fine start: 'Young Mystic', a hybrid SACD of the beginning of Audio Fidelity and even mastered by our host. What more to wish? http://www.sa-cd.net/showtitle/2140
I have this and love it. To get most of the post Studio One material you can get the 3 JAD releases that Malina posted above, but they don't include whatever appeared on Songs of Freedom box. The later Universal 3CD sets; Man to Man, Fy-Ah Fy-Ah, and Grooving Kingston 12 have pretty much the same material as the JADs but also include the Songs of Freedom tracks. Even though they are older the JAD releases seem to be less expensive to pick up now.
This is the best sounding compilation out there of this material, but it's a slim slice of the music that's available. The Man to Man, Fy-Ah Fy-Ah, and Grooving Kingston 12 are the best ways to get the mother load of the material between Studio One and the Island years. The Lee Scratch Perry productions (all included on those sets) are collected in decent sound on the old Trojan collection called The Complete Upsetter Collection: Bob Marley and the Wailers. http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-The-Wailers-The-Complete-Upsetter-Collection/release/2269171 L.
The Wailers discography is a real mess. I'll try to explain via timeline. Foreword - Prior to the Island years, The Wailers put out over 100 singles and B-Sides, and three dedicated albums that weren't compilations - these being The Best Of The Wailers (Beverleys), Soul Rebels (Upsetter) and Soul Revolution Part II. Lee Scratch Perry also put out a dub version of Soul Revolution, which is often counted as a Wailers album even though they had no input in it. Any album released on Studio One is a compilation, and yes that includes The Wailing Wailers album. Any of Trojan's albums are compilations too - yes, that includes African Herbsman. 1962 - Bob Marley put out two solo singles this year for Beverleys records. The first was Judge Not / Do You Still Love Me?, released under the name Robert Marley. The second was One Cup Of Coffee, released under the name Bobby Martell, backed with a track not by Bob. The Wailers hadn't formed by this point, although Bob, Bunny and Peter were already friends. Neither single went anywhere and were quite rare for years. Judge Not and One Cup Of Coffee were included on CD on Songs Of Freedom and deliberately kept exclusive. Do You Still Love Me hasn't appeared on CD, but is widely available and there is a very high quality rip going around, suggesting it was going to be on CD at one point and then omitted. 1963 - 1966 - The Wailers began their career at Studio One - Many singles were recorded for Coxsone. Despite a few compilations in the 60s and 70s, The Wailers never made any albums. The original five piece Wailers had Junior Braithwaite and Beverley Kelso as backing vocalists and taking lead on some songs, they later left. In 1966 Bob Marley left to work in the US for a few months, and was replaced by Constantine "Vision" Walker, who never sung anything. This was the point where Peter and Bunny wrote and performed their own songs. Bob came back a few months later. Heartbeat Records have done a good job of collecting up the copious amounts of Studio One material across several volumes. There are a few alternates not included amongst their sets (notably the single version of I'm Still Waiting which is on Songs Of Freedom, plus the single versions of Playboy and Hooligan), and some tracks only used overdubbed versions (such as Hoot Nanny Hoot) because the master tapes couldn't be found. 1967- Early 1968 - Wail N Soul M' Material - In late 1966 The Wailers recorded the first Wail N Soul M single, Bend Down Low / Freedom Time, which was in the new rock steady style. This was recorded for Coxsone, but due to a disagreement with him over pay, they set up their own label, Wail N Soul M and released it on that. Rita Marley was considered a main member of the band at this point. The records were produced and sold at the record store which the Wailers owned. Joe Higgs helped the band record more singles, also released on the label, and they kept the master tapes, meaning that they reissued some of them on Tuff Gong. The best collection of this stuff is Wail N Soul M' Singles Selecta, which is virtually complete, sounds good, and is like an album in its own right. Late 1968 - There were demos for an unreleased JAD album, which were recorded by Johnny Nash in 1968, who wanted to break the band into the pop-reggae market. The lack of Bunny Wailer (who was in prison), was likely the reason this album wasn't released, though it's also because wasn't really in their style. The master tapes for this are seen in one of the Universal sets, titled "Morely". The tracks were mostly not really overdubbed at the time, but some were later remixed in the 80s. Most of the tracks have been released and basically make up the Rock To The Rock collection or one of the Fy-Ah Fy-Ah discs, plus a few other tracks. The tracks that were not on Rock To The Rock were omitted because the original mixes couldn't be found - the Complete Wailers set, Universal sets use the 80s remixes of those. One of the tracks, Rhapsody has only been released once, in a remixed version on the Complete Wailers volume Freedom Time. Selassie Is The Chapel and A Little Prayer were also recorded this year with Mortimer Planno, and pressed on blank. This single was considered to be the holy grail for a while, but no longer is (that holy grail is a track called Lick It Back). Incidentally, it is a nyahbinghi cover of Crying In The Chapel by Elvis Presley. Selassie Is The Chapel can be found on the Complete Wailers 2: Selassie Is The Chapel disc or one of the Universal Box Sets. 1969- mid 1970 - Earlier in the year, there were a number of self-released blank singles which are considered Wail N Soul M' singles (these include Feel Alright, Trouble On The Road Again, Rhythm, Hammer, Comma Comma and Tread Oh (aka Tread Along) ) Some of these are erroneously given as being done in 1970 or 1971. Later The Wailers cut various singles (such as Sugar Sugar, Mr Chatterbox, Hold Onto This Feeling, Give Me A Ticket, Black Progress, What Goes Around Comes Around and others) for labels such as Randy's, and did a four track session for Ted Pouder which resulted in the single Adam And Eve/Wisdom, plus two session outtakes This Train and Thank You Lord. All of these appeared on Selassie Is The Chapel. On the Universal box, the compilers used the 1967 version of This Train by accident. Conversely, my copy of the Complete Wailers set doesn't have the Peter Tosh sung Give Me A Ticket, it includes the Rita sung version twice in error. In 1970, the band recorded their album The Best Of The Wailers on Beverleys. I am positive that Pour Down The Sunshine was recorded around the same time using the same musicians. The album has been released on CD by Jet Set, Trojan (as part of the Soul Revolutionaries set) and JAD (who added a couple of bonus tracks). The tracks can be found amongst various other compilations too. Late 1970-1971 In late 1970, the band started working with Lee Scratch Perry and put out various singles (such as Duppy Conqueror, Man To Man, Dreamland, Brand New Second Hand, All In One, and others), as well as the album Soul Rebel. Soul Rebel was the first of Bob's albums to be released by Trojan in the UK, thus CDs can be found on that label too. For a standalone version of the album, the Trojan reissue with bonus tracks is good and sounds good, though you can get all the tracks on the boxes. Also this year, the band renamed Wail N Soul 'M to Tuff Gong. The first song released on the label was Sun Is Shining backed with Run For Cover. Lee Perry put out Sun Is Shining on the next year's Soul Revolution Part II, just to confuse matters (there isn't a part 1) Soul Revolution Part II was released in 1971, some of the tracks were Soul Rebel outtakes, some were previously unreleased singles, and there were a number of tracks which hadn't been released before either. The version of Duppy Conqueror was one of Perry's dub mixes where he cut out half the vocals - so you need to get the single version elsewhere. The JAD CD presents the tracks in their original form. There was a dub version of this album which has been released as Upsetter Revolution Rhythm. There was a split stereo version of the album put out by Trojan back in the 80s. The album was rushed out by Lee Perry for drug money, and thus the picture used was a dated one of the band in 1969. The album was issued originally on Upsetter and later licensed to Maroon. Trojan declined to put out Soul Revolution Part II originally but after The Wailers hit it big with Catch A Fire and Burnin', they put out a compilation of the tracks, plus a few single tracks, and some Tuff Gong singles, and called it African Herbsman. In the 80s they released the original Soul Revolution, but added a couple of tracks to it Late 1971-1972 Bob fell out with Lee Perry after putting out the albums without his permission. He saw Soul Rebels in a store when vacationing in London - he hadn't authorised the release and didn't like the cover (which features a scantily clad woman with a gun in a forest). The Wailers quickly started recording stuff again by themselves, using their band based around Aston and Carlton Barrett to back the recordings. The band put out many Tuff Gong singles in 1971, such as Trenchtown Rock, Lively Up Yourself, Screwface, Craven Choke Puppy, Lick Samba, Guava Jelly, Redder Than Red, Satisfy My Soul Jah Jah, you get the idea. In my opinion these were the peak of the band's entire career, being well written, but still rootsy and feelgood, and harmonically impressive. Many of these are on Songs Of Freedom and others are on Complete Wailers. All are on the Universal Boxes, but like I've mentioned before, the Complete Wailers and Songs Of Freedom sound better. In late 1971 and early 1972 Bob recorded a few solo tracks with Johnny Nash. These were Reggae On Broadway, Oh Lord Got To Get There, Dance Do The Reggae and I'm Hurting Inside. The first two were put out as a CBS single, and the latter two stayed in the vaults for a few years. They were unearthed, along with the 1968 demoes Stay With Me and Gonna Get You, newly overdubbed, and remixed in 1981 for the blatant cash-in album Chances Are (which was a huge seller). The orignal mixes were released later and can be found on Complete Wailers and Songs Of Freedom. Bob also did his Acoustic Medley that is on Songs Of Freedom around this time. Note: - Keep On Skanking and Turn Me Loose are 1974 vocals that Bob did when he made amends with Lee Perry. Keep On Skanking uses a modified version of Perry's production Doctor Demand by Leo Graham as it's backing. Turn Me Loose uses the Perry version of The Wailers' Kaya, with some percussion overdubs. - Natural Mystic and Rainbow Country are from 1975, but Bob only did the track to drum machine. The music was overdubbed by Perry later. Both were thought of as demos, as is evidenced by him reusing some of the Rainbow Country lyrics in Roots Rock Reggae, and rerecording Natural Mystic for Exodus. - High Tide Or Low Tide is on the Universal Box but is still the same Catch A Fire outtake. It was included because it was copied over from Songs Of Freedom, you can tell because it's the same edited version. - Mellow Skank on the Universal box is not The Wailers, it's an instrumental version of Talk Of The Town by Glen Adams, but it does feature several members of their backing band. Talk Of The Town can be easily found on the Trojan Bob Marley And Friends box but doesn't to my knowledge feature Bob, Peter or Bunny, which is somewhat confusing. - The Complete Wailers sets sound much better than the Universal ones, since the Universal ones are often bright and compressed. The Trojan releases of certain material are perfectly good but they didn't put out everything. The Trojan release of Soul Rebels with bonus tracks is probably the best version. - The Universal boxes do have some tracks that aren't on the Complete Wailers sets, but they were either on Songs Of Freedom, previously bootlegged, or they are inessential DJ versions. The thing about the box set that is very annoying is that the albums or even chronological tracks are often placed in random order or even split amongst discs. - The Complete Wailers have a few alternates that aren't on the box sets, and include the Ted Pouder version of This Train which is more gospelly and sung by Bob, and the Rita Marley track Rhapsody (albeit in a stripped down mix) that are not on the boxes. You need Songs Of Freedom anyway if you want Judge Not, One Cup Of Coffee, and the best version of I'm Still Waiting amongst others. I'd take Wail N Soul M Singles Selecta over Freedom Time though, even though the latter has Rhapsody, simply because Wail N Soul M Singles Selecta is virtually complete. For the TL-DR version, you need: Songs Of Freedom (Judge Not, One Cup Of Coffee, and a lot of other stuff) One Love At Studio One (2006 version - on the earlier versions, there are a few tracks that have overdubs, and the track Tell Them Lord isn't included) Destiny: Rare Ska Sides For Studio One Climb The Ladder Another Dance: Rarities From Studio One Wail N Soul M Singles Selecta (purely because of how well it compiles the stuff). Complete Wailers Vol 1-11 (along with Songs Of Freedom, this covers the three albums plus tons of non-album singles and alternates. The last volume, Lonesome Feeling, is vinyl only collection of alternates, all of which can be found on the Universal sets too). Why Should I and Pass It On (both 1971) and their respective versions (though these were on the Universal boxes, they were bootleg sourced and the bootlegs are slightly less compressed) The instrumentals and DJ versions on the Universal Boxes (don't bother buying, just download them, every other Wailers fan has).
That you don't need to refinance the house to buy a copy now. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00029RTD0/?tag=sacdinfocom-20
Thanks a lot for posting this! This will be very helpful in navigating this confusing catalog. I just basically want to find all of the material from African Herbsman and Soul Rebels (and the best of the rest) with the best sound that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. The double sided Trojan discs that I have are among the worst discs in my collection. Soul Rebels has so much bass it is unlistenable and African Herbsman doesn't play on most disc players. Are the Universal sets my best bet? I'm not much interested in dub mixes and alternate versions.
I think Trojan still have a version of African Herbsman in print, though the current pressing of Soul Rebels is on JAD. You could probably pick them up both cheaply if that's all you want. However, it is definitely worth hearing Soul Revolution Part II (the source for much of African Herbsman) in its intended configuration and track order. Soul Rebels sounds best on Trojan because they have master tapes for it, so my personal preference is the 2002 Trojan CD in slipcase that has bonus tracks, though it's out of print, but available second hand (not too expensive). Not sure which version of Soul Rebels has too much bass, it has always been quite murky since Lee Perry produced it that way, but your CD could be badly mastered or sourced. If not you could go for the JAD/Universal CD, which is pretty cheap. Definitely get Wail N Soul M Singles Selecta and Best Of The Wailers (Beverleys) - also in the JAD series, two of my favorite Wailers discs ever. If you don't want to get Songs Of Freedom (although it's so widely available that it's not too expensive anymore), then 127 King Street has a lot of the best 1970-1971 Tuff Gong stuff. All the JAD CDs can be had quite cheaply since they were conceived as budget CDs in order to compete with the many cheap (crappy sounding) bootlegs of the material Yeah the main issue with the Wailers discography is that there are many great songs that were never on albums, and nobody has made a compilation of them that isn't padded out with album tracks, dub tracks and alternate versions. It was strange of Universal to split the albums across the sets like they did, to make people buy them all. It would be easily solved if they did deluxe editions of the albums, but they probably won't.
Some excellent information in this thread! For those that want to really study this there is no better place than: http://soulrebels.org The "complete research" part is insane (and has some comments on sounds as well). As Dubmart mentioned there has been (at least) one thread going into detail on this, so I though I'd just copy/paste some of what I wrote in a previous thread. Most of this has been detailed above, but here are some links as well to the relevant CD's: - (1963-1966): 1. For the early ska period at Studio One it is rather straight forward since that era has been covered by Hearbeat: Heartbeat There are these double and single CD compilations on Heartbeat: http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-The-Wailers-One-Love-At-Studio-One-1964-1966/release/1033445 http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-And-The-Wailers-Greatest-Hits-At-Studio-One/release/2378095 If you want to dig in deep there are these additional titles on Heartbeat: http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-Destiny-Rare-Ska-Sides-From-Studio-One/release/1000210 http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-The-Wailers-Wailers-And-Friends/release/2378100 http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-The-Wailers-Climb-The-Ladder/release/3187605 http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-The-Wailers-Another-Dance-Rarities-From-Studio-One/release/2977392 http://www.discogs.com/Peter-Tosh-The-Toughest/release/1759157 - (1967-1972): 2a. For the period between Studio One and Island there were two attempts at complete collections, first by JAD, and then when Universal got the rights they did their version, they both cover basically the same ground: JAD (box sets or single discs) The first on JAD are missing some essential tracks ”for legal reasons”, what this means is that these are all tracks that were on the recent ”Songs of Freedom” box set and could not be used because of this. It is mostly in cronolocigal order and some CD’s are based around original albums. Three box sets, totaling 8 CD’s: http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-The-Wailers-The-Complete-Wailers-1967-1972-Part-1/release/2388980 http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-T...-Wailers-1967-To-1972-Part-II/release/1245563 http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-T...Wailers-1967-To-1972-Part-III/release/4369955 Or as 10 single CD’s, the last two are not in the boxes: http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-The-Wailers-The-Complete-Wailers-1967-1972-Part-1/release/1601831 http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-T...-Volume-2-Selassie-Is-The-Cha/release/2216878 http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-The-Wailers-Best-Of-The-Wailers/release/2483199 http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-The-Wailers-Soul-Rebels/release/1601758 http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-The-Wailers-Soul-Revolution-Part-II/release/2216794 http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-T...s-1967-1972-Volume-6-More-Axe/release/2216904 http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-T...972-Part-III-Keep-On-Skanking/release/2947222 http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-The-Wailers-Satisfy-My-Soul-Jah-Jah/master/311216 http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-The-Wailers-Freedom-Time/master/432436 http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-The-Wailers-Soul-Adventurer/master/108334 Universal (box sets) Then there was a second attempt when Universal got the rights, on three box sets totaling 10 CD’s. The sequencing is jumping a bit back and forth, but each CD has some sort of focus. I think they are including all tracks in the above boxes plus the missing ones from "Songs of Freedom" (but has a few mistakes instead that cause some tracks to go missing and others appearing twice): http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-And-The-Wailers-Grooving-Kingston-12/release/1595150 http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-And-The-Wailers-Fy-Ah-Fy-Ah/release/4433768 http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-And-The-Wailers-Man-To-Man/release/4433870 - 2b. There is also an alternate way to get the most/best of the 1967-1972 tracks and that is to get the series of single discs that were put out by Universal , most of which are based on original albums, and those that are not are compilations to cover the periods in between: Universal (single discs) Wail’n Soul’m (selfproduced): http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-The-Wailers-Wail-n-Soulm-Singles-Selecta/release/2193586 Leslie Kong productions: http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-The-Wailers-The-Best-Of-The-Wailers/release/1035590 Lee Perry productions: http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-And-The-Wailers-Soul-Rebels/release/1608909 http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-And-The-Wailers-Soul-Revolution-Part-II/release/2717171 + dub / instrumentals http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-The-Wailers-Upsetter-Revolution-Rhythm/release/2050980 http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-And-The-Wailers-Ammunition-Dub-Collection/release/2634376 Tuff Gong (selfproduced): http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-The-Wailers-127-King-Street/release/4652398 and Peter Tosh fronted from the period: http://www.discogs.com/Peter-Tosh-Cant-Blame-The-Youth/release/2079516 There is a second volume of relevant Peter Tosh tracks on Universal called "Black Dignity" (different to the one below) and one of Rita Marley tracks called "Play Play", cannot find them on Discogs. - 2c. Before Universal got the rights Trojan had for years been putting out material from the '67-'72 era in a myriad of configurations. Towards the end they did some pretty good releases, both as far as content and sound go. To be noted is also that there are tracks in the Trojan catalogue that are not found on the JAD/Universal releases. This is a good way to get a condesed overview of the post-StudioOne/pre-Island period: Trojan Best Trojan compilation of Leslie Kong & Lee Perry + includes stray tracks not included in any of the aboveabove: http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-The-Wailers-Trenchtown-Rock-Anthology-69-78/release/612539 Alternatives for the two original Lee Perry albums are these on Trojan/Sanctuary that have bonus tracks: http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-And-The-Wailers-Soul-Rebels/release/2821841 http://www.discogs.com/Bob-Marley-And-The-Wailers-African-Herbsman/release/1570705 And a Peter Tosh compilation: http://www.discogs.com/Peter-Tosh-And-Friends-Black-Dignity/release/4280538 There are of course many other Marley related releases on Trojan, like the aforementioned "Complete Upsetter Collection". - Edit: Also to be considered is the latest (and perhaps last) compilation put out on the Trojan label (while they were briefly owned by Universal), it concetrates on Lee Perry productions: www.amazon.co.uk/Small-Axe-Bob-Marley-Wailers/dp/B0040ZA1ZK
Hey, so others have already put it better, but my personal opinion is pretty simple: For the Studio 1 years, I'd suggest Another Dance which contains the original version of "One Love" (no drum machine added by Coxsone years later) and a whole bunch of other original single versions. That does it for me. As far as the '66 to '72 era, I personally suggest the JAD/Universal sets, Fy-ah, Fy-ah, Grooving Kingston 12 and Man To Man. They might not be in the order that the earlier JAD sets are, but they do have stuff that the earlier sets don't. The also have correct titles for most of the stuff. Still a few mistakes for example, listing "I Like It Like This" as "I Like It Like That" and listing "Rebel Version" as "Soul Rebel V/4", although these are minor, minor details. However if really don't wanna go the box set route, you could get the Wail'n Soul'm Singles Selecta album (which has nearly all of the Wail'n'Soul'm material), the 127 King Street album which has most (if not all) of the early "Tuff Gong" singles (though obviously not any Island period ones) and Soul Rebels which in my opinion is their strongest set of material with Lee Perry. However, Soul Revolution Part II is pretty great as well, so I suppose I'd say get that too.
For a brief period Universal owned the rights for everything except the Studio One material, why they didn't seize such a unique opportunity to do a definitive box set or reissue series is beyond me, such a missed chance and something that is never likely to happen now that the rights are once again scattered. I suspect that if they'd offered enough money they could have got Studio One onboard as well, oh well we can dream about box sets that never were.
Yes as must be noted, Coxsone infamously added overdubs over time to try to make the music seem contemporary. The Heartbeat releases deliberately went for original mixes and contacted Coxsone, who, having stored the original master tapes well, complied. I would not recommend Trenchtown Days: Birth Of A Legend or any other Sony release, since they still have the overdubs. There is a Greatest Hits At Studio One set which is mostly well chosen and has a couple of exclusive rarities - an alternate I'm Still Waiting (which is somewhat similar to the Songs Of Freedom version), an alternate mix of Sinner Man and maybe some others. As an addendum it is worth noting that Peter Tosh's three collections The Toughest, Can't Blame The Youth, Black Dignity (JAD) collect his pre-Island material, some of which is solo and some Wailers. The Toughest, which is a Heartbeat collection, is required to have all The Wailers' Studio One recordings - even if the included Hoot Nanny Hoot is the 1981 overdub because the original couldn't be found (there are vinyl rips around though). Whilst much of Can't Blame The Youth and Black Dignity (JAD) were taken directly from the previous Honorary Citizen box, there were a few things on both that hadn't appeared on it or on CD (notably Peter's versions of Here Comes The Sun and Little Green Apples for the former, and Oppressor Man for the latter). However, there are some tracks, such as You Can't Fool Me Again, which were taken from much better sources on the Trojan releases than they were on the JAD ones. There is also a Trojan collection titled Arise Black Man which mostly compiles Peter's melodica versions of other artists' tracks, but it has a few solo productions that aren't on the other sets (notably Rudie's Medley, on which he does a very convincing Desmond Dekker impression). There was a cut down version of this, called Black Dignity (not to be confused with the JAD release of that name). Peter does have some tracks floating around that were never compiled for sets - amongst these being Simpleton, Man's Greatest Adventure (Apollo 11), Weed Weed Dat, Field Marshall and the instrumental versions of most of his solo songs. Bunny's solo singles - such as Searching For Love, Life Line, Arab's Oil Weapon, pre-Burnin' Pass It On and alternate recording of Dreamland etc - have never been properly collected, though he did allow them to be reissued on 7" a few years ago by a Japanese label. Rita Marley has a collection on JAD/Universal called Play Play. Of note, Bob wrote You're My Desire, Bring It Up, Play Play and Lonely Girl for her. There are a number of Soulettes tracks on various Trojan collections, but there hasn't been a real effort to collect their work outside of fan work. Of note is that Bob sings backing on The Soulettes' La La Lover, and Peter sings call and response on their Don't Care What The People Say, neither of which have been on CD.
Great post. However, Greatest Hits at Studio One does actually have those overdubs on "One Love" and "Love and Affection". However taken together, both that disc and Another Dance are quite a stash of Studio One material.
Yeah indeed, they discovered more tapes after Coxsone's death, thus the reason for the 2006 version of One Love At Studio One, which has a lot of tracks in original mixes that were overdubbed on the previous issue. They couldn't find tapes for everything they wanted to include on Another Dance, but wanted to round off the series, hence why it has slightly more vinyl rips than usual. Do It Right on Climb The Ladder is sourced from a pretty beat up vinyl copy. Rocking Steady on One Love At Studio One is the same version (with cut start) that is on one of the Complete Wailers volumes. For reasons that have never been quite explained, this was released as a Studio 1 7" in the 80s despite being a JAD recording from 1968. In his usual fashion the version released back then was remixed and overdubbed, but the CD issues are the original mix (although nobody was able to find the start that was cut out, probably because it's sourced from a copy). Oh I nearly forgot to mention, avoid JAD's Soul Almighty and Black Progress albums, they are remix albums with tons of overdubs. The one good thing to come out of them was You Think I Have No Feelings from a 1968 tape, a song which is otherwise unreleased. It still isn't available in its original mix, though the tape went up for sale a few years back and some of the other tracks were put out on the JAD boxes, so there might still be hope for it. The original mixes of Stay With Me and Gonna Get You are also unreleased, though versions with fewer overdubs had appeared on Complete Wailers and the JAD boxes.
Have to post one of Marley's best and little known songs, Wisdom. This deserves to have been a massive hit. The song is beautiful and very well played in all aspects. It is more like a combination of rocksteady and northern soul than early reggae. Lyrically it's mystical and philosophical. The harmonies are fantastic as are the solos. It sounds amazing late at night. It took over a decade for it to be released, when it was unearthed by Trojan who put it on their In The Beginning compilation and put out as a single. For whatever reason, Thank You Lord was chosen as the A-Side instead of Wisdom. Both versions were later issued by JAD and Universal on their various boxes. Peter Tosh liked it enough to do a acoustic version called Fools Die on Wanted Dread And Alive in 1981, which I suspect was intended as his tribute to Bob who passed away that year. Bob seems to have been a bit inspired for I Know and Stiff Necked Fools, though neither capture the brilliance of Wisdom. Wisdom is one of the many reasons why I think The Wailers just had it on a deeper level, and why I think their pre-Island canon has something that the later stuff just doesn't have. On later stuff, Bob would get quite preachy - on this, he just lets the message flow with the music.
is someone familiair with this Trojan compilation of Bob Marley's early/mid-term years (called: 'In the Begining')? This release has not been mentionned here, so I'm curious... Bob Marley & The Wailers - 'In the Beginning' Track Listing 1. Soul Shakedown Party 2. Adam and Eve 3. Brand New Second Hand 4. Cheer Up 5. This Train 6. Jah Is Mighty 7. Caution 8. Thank You Lord 9. Keep on Skanking 10. Wisdom 11. Stop the Train 12. Mr. Chatterbox 13. Turn Me Loose http://www.ebay.nl/itm/Bob-Marley-T...?pt=UK_CDsDVDs_CDs_CDs_GL&hash=item337783bb61
