Mention (of all three sets) on superdeluxeedition as well: Bob Marley / The Complete Island Recordings CD box, plus vinyl reissues | superdeluxeedition The page for the Tuff Gong pressing on the different Universal stores say: "Additionally, Catch A Fire, originally recorded by The Wailers in Jamaica and eventually released with overdubs and a mix overseen by Island founder Chris Blackwell at the label’s London headquarters, will be available in its original Jamaica-recorded version, with two extra tracks from the sessions and some tracks with longer fades. Produced entirely by Bob Marley & the Wailers and mixed by longtime Marley associate Errol Brown, this Jamaican version will be on vinyl for the first time." They do however, confusingly, only list the tracks for the original LP. The page I linked above also confirms that "the Tuff Gong pressing of Catch A Fire is the original Jamaica-recorded version, without the Chris Blackwell supervised overdubs. This version comes with two extra tracks from the sessions and some tracks have longer fades."
My go-to Marley is the Diament CDs and all original Island pressings of his albums. I bought the 2001 remasters mainly for bonus tracks and never listen to those. The only modern pressings I picked up was the Zippo from RSD 2018 and was really not pleased with the sound and sold it off. I am kind of interested in the half-speeds but definitely going to buy the Jamaican Version of Catch A Fire. That one is a must have! I wonder if the plant being open will open the doors to some other reissues from the Marley Brothers catalog. I would sure hope Tuff Gong is going to be pressing records at a higher standard than your average Jamaican pressing plant. Not expecting the best, but as least on par with United maybe? That is where I am setting the bar.
There are no other plants and Tuff Gong did nothing to distinguish itself from other plants in it's previous incarnation, the fact the Marley LPs were cut in the US suggests that both skills and equipment may have been lost during the interim and makes me question whether they will be functioning as before or just chasing US work by undercutting US and European plants, likewise I'm not sure how much demand for pressing there is in Jamaica, the last major programme I can think of were the Studio One singles using original metalwork and often passed off as originals.
Well there are the two MoFi LPs, but your best bet is the German box set, it really is well done and sounds superb plus with patience you can find it quite cheaply.
I’d like to have the Jamaican Catch A Fire on vinyl, but all these releases seem rather expensive at present, at least in the UK.
They are very exspensive indeed and there is not much discount when buying them in a bundle. In addition the shipping charges from the Universal shops (and I am not in the UK, not sure if that is where they are shipped from) are ridiculous, one of the bundles costs £62.49, and if you buy both shipping is £111.99, so you save £12.99 on combining, what a great deal!
I'm not really interested in Live, Babylon by Bus or Legend. Deepdiscount has a 15% sale going now and to get the 9 studio albums shipped to my US zip comes to $285 which is $32 ea shipped. Not that bad of a deal right now. However, I am concerned these are going to have muddy bass and squashed dynamics like so many Marley reissues of the past 15 years. I'll probably just start with my 1 or 2 favorites and go from there.
exactly the approach i am taking....going to try Survival half speed and the Jamaican Catch a Fire....pass on the others unless there is some kind of major upgrade going on.
I have heard good things about the box set, but I’ve also seen people say that in album specific A/Bs they preferred US and/or UK originals to the Germans. But the Germans sure are a good way to get all of his albums in a pressing with good sound. As I already have all his albums, many with multiple pressings, I never really prioritized the German box. I am on the hunt for the MoFi Catch a Fire, and have a WTB up in the classifieds. I’m not sure I like Exodus enough as an album to splurge the going rate.
Nothing wrong with the UK originals, but the German box is definitely more audiophile, in a good way, the UKs are well done standard pressings, the German box seems to have just a bit more care and the pressings are special rather than just good, you actually notice how good they sound when you play it and compared with getting genuinely perfect first presses it's an absolute bargain.
If you are talking about the MoFi my advice would be to skip it, absolutely not worth what it is going for.
I think i saw the mofi Catch a Fire at Cheapo Records minneapolis a few months ago for $100...might have been new, i don't remember. maybe they would ship to you? see Cheapo Discs The Last Authentic Music Store
Found this thread when I got email from music direct about upcoming release. For what it worth looks very pricey to me for reprints of very popular and many times pressed records, way more expensive then Tone Poet and on par with MoFi limited numbered edition records.. Did I miss something? Or that what we should expect for record pricing in a future?
And for completists, one album in the German box has some remixes not available elsewhere as far as I know.
It took me several months but I waited it out and got a pretty good deal. I think I paid something like $175. I wasnt in any hurry. Like you stated, it isnt like this music isnt available everywhere and in good sound. I have the Barry Diament cds, so I wasnt jonesing for the german set.
It used to be, for maybe 10 or 15 years they'd regularly fetch around £100 on eBay UK, you just needed a little patience, I'm old enough to remember visiting Spiller's in Cardiff in '83 or '84 and they were clearing them out for £30, as I already had a copy I was tempted, but didn't buy another then, as far as I recall the original retail was £60 or less.
Well, 15-20 years ago some $500 records (now) where in $1 dollar bins )). But my other question remains - are those prices (around $40 full retail per record) are the sign of things to come? Well, perhaps it is quite rhetorical )).
Most soundtracks are now £30+, many Jazz reissues £25+, so yeah it looks like a lot of labels are getting very greedy, funny how other records pressed in exactly the same plants and sometimes with more associated costs than reissues can still retail at £15, not having a magic money tree I just buy fewer new records, when reissue 7"s jumped up to £10 I stopped buying them entirely, I don't want to stop buying LPs, but I'm already feeling priced out of some genres.
