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It has become almost impossible over the twenty years since his untimely death to view his work with real objectivity and to unravel it from the myths and legends that have grown up around the 'King Of reggae'. To most people Bob Marley & The Wailers are reggae music, but few look further than their Island albums as the quintessential reggae experience, rarely venturing as far back as their superlative work with the Upsetter, Lee Perry and hardly ever investigating their earliest work with Coxsone Dodd at Studio One. A compilation that collects together the work of their associates represents something of a breakthrough and should be regarded as an attempt to fit their work into its proper Jamaican context. The majority of the artists featured were accomplished session musicians and singers and would play or sing whatever a particular record producer paid them to do. It is a rarely acknowledged fact that the nature of the Jamaican recording industry without long-term contracts or advances ensured that an artist had to work to survive and so the artists recorded for whoever wanted them and would sing or play whatever was required. Occasionally the quality control department would not always be working overtime and many of these records would only ever have been released in very small quantities, but for completists it gives a tantalising glimpse into the staggering amount of records that were actually made by Bob Marley & The Wailers' circle. Apart from record collecting obsessives this work has never really been looked at again. This collection gathers together a selection (and only a small selection) of some of those who helped Bob Marley & The Wailers along the way. They knew their craft and, in consequence, their approach was always professional and accomplished. There was no hiding place in Kingston's musical rat race and if you were not up to the job there was always someone breathing down your neck., desperate to step into your shoes and to take your place. Of course the rat race did not end in the studios and sometimes work would be rushed out that was unfinished or not satisfactorily completed in an attempt to keep ahead of the ever present competition. It is important to remember that all of the artists here existed before and after the Bob Marley & The Wailers experience and that they all worked and continued to work outside of their work with Bob Marley. It would be easy to be dismissive about the cover versions of pop songs but they show an understanding and awareness of what constitutes a good record and a sensibility coupled with an ability to work in any idiom, and also as examples of the fact that it was hard work that got them where they would eventually reach and not contemplative introspection. Many of the tracks capture Bob Marley & The Wailers in previously unrecognised or not so widely acknowledged roles - as back up harmony singers for the great Dave Barker for instance or the excellent Carl Dawkins or even with Bob Marley as producer for the Soulettes (who sound like the prototype I Threes), featuring Rita Marley. Joe Higgs, the man credited with teaching the Wailers harmonies in the early days in the government yards in Trench Town, was repaid in part by being taken on a tour of the USA in 1973 as a temporary replacement for Bunny Livingstone and his role in their development is now recognised as being pivotal. Here he stands alone as one of Jamaica's most gifted yet under rated singer/songwriters. Members of the Upsetters, including the enigmatic Upsetter himself, Lee Perry as a solo artist, show off their individual talents and many would later actually become members of the Wailers. There is very little apocalyptical chanting down of Babylon either as most of these records were made before Bob Marley & The Wailers were to make Roots reggae a viable commercial prospect. Even though Bob Marley is the common link that holds the records on this collection together he had very little to do with the making of the majority of these tracks but all of the artists had lots to do with him and his work. He would certainly have been aware of the strength of their voices and their keen musicianship and this was doubtless what decided him to eventually take so many of them into the Wailers family. This set is evidence of the ways in which the history of the Wailers is inextricably linked with the history of Jamaican music and how their development constantly echoed the development of Reggae. It has been previously stated that there are two distinct schools of thought about the music of Bob Marley & The Wailers and that both seek to set it apart for two entirely different reasons. The first is that it is too clever and complex to be seen as 'real' reggae music and the other that their work is somehow not part of the authentic reggae experience, precisely because of its cleverness and complexity. Both points of view miss the point completely. Ironically enough, you do not even have to touch upon Bob Marley's work to disprove both theories, as one listen to this collection should be more than sufficient to demonstrate that these arguments are fallacious. The music of Bob Marley & The Wailers that the world knows and loves did not spring fully formed onto the vinyl of 'Catch A Fire' but was the result of years of hard work immersed deep in the seething cauldron of music making in Kingston and this set is an apposite indication of that fact. The friends on this set are not only friends but also artists in their own right, who not only helped Bob Marley & The Wailers on their way to the top, but, in many cases, accompanied them there as well. Harry Hawke |
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DISC 1 |
DISC 2 |
DISC 3 |
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(You're) My Desire |
Never Had A Dream Come True |
Mellow Mood |
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Time - 50:37 |
Time - 49:32 |
Time - 48:45 |
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All material © Copyright Trojan Records |
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