Anyone check out the "Early Years" CD of Bob Marley & the Wailers?

There's also a two-CD set that's more complete. Collects the early recordings Bob Marley & the Wailers recorded before they signed with Island. These are mastered by Simon Heyworth of Chop 'Em Out, the same guys who did the Kinks remasters. Big endorsers of NoNoise and CEDAR, I'm a little wary of what these sound like. Are they any good, and if not, is there a better alternative?

 

Avoid all the pre-Island releases except those on the Heartbeat label (1963-1966 Studio One recordings) and the JAD label (1967-1972 post Studio One/Lee Perry recordings).

The JAD releases (The Complete Bob Marley & The Wailers Volume One - 3 discs, Volume Two - 3 discs, Volume Three - 2 discs and Volumes Four & Five - both singles/import only) are essential and present the complete recordings of the Wailers from 1967-1972. The few tracks that are missing are due to licensing issues, but can be found on the Songs of Freedom box set.

The U.K. based Trojan label does have a nice six disc box set collecting all of the Lee Perry produced tracks, but I still prefer the JAD releases because of their superior sequencing and extensive liner notes (absolutely no notes in the Trojan box relating to the individual songs).

 

I just picked up "The Best of the Early Years" from BMG. The sound quality is pretty bad. Will sell it back to a used CD shop soon.

 

The JAD vol 1 set (the only one I have) is no noised like you wouldn't believe - they went for absolutely no hiss, so you get a pretty severe noise gate effect. But it's still probably the best sounding release available of this material (unfortunately). I would recommend it highly for the material.

 

My brother owns the Trojan box set "The Early Years 1969-1973". This is widely available in the UK but I don't how how you'd get it in the US (maybe on import???) I don't know what it sounds like, I've never heard it, but the one customer review on Amazon.co.uk looks promising. I'll see if I can borrow the box set off my brother at some point and give it a listen

 

Man, this is real unfortunate. Thanks for the advice, everyone. I'll have to mull over which one to get (probably the JAD set).