Bob Marley & The Wailers - Walk The Proud Land (1976)

Just about every song that eventually appeared on Bob Marley & The Wailers' studio albums had a demo recording, and often also a rehearsal take, and they are all great recordings that showcase the 'bare-bones' versions of songs that we would eventually know and love when the finished versions became available on the band's albums. From 1972's 'Catch A Fire' right up to the band's final studio albums 'Uprising', and the posthumous release 'Confrontation' of 1981, the Wailers were meticulous in rehearsing their material, frequenting studios such as Harry J's, Dynamic, Joe Gibbs, The Black Ark and Bob's own Tuff Gong studios, all in Kingston Jamaica, plus Island's Basing Street Studios in London. As well as the demos and rehearsals of tracks that eventually ended up on the band's albums, there were also songs that never made the final cut, and that's what I'm concentrating on here. I've already posted a horns mix of 'Exodus', the un-dubbed version of 'Catch A Fire', and the 'Confrontation' demos, but there is so much more tucked away that I can make up another 54 minute album from just the unreleased songs from 1973 to 1976. Three of these tracks did eventually officially surface, but not in this form, as 'Punky Reggae Party' was released as a stand-alone single in 1977, and the posthumous 'Iron Lion Zion' came out in 1992, while 'Slogans' was added to yet another collection of the band's singles in 2005. However, these are the original versions taped in the early 70's, with 'Punky Reggae Party' stretching out to nearly nine minutes, and the original studio demo of what would become 'Slogans' is a very basic version, using a drum machine with live instruments, and including Marley's original third verse which was cut from the released version. There are still more gems hidden away, such as the Black Ark demos with Lee 'Scratch' Perry, and some unreleased songs from Marley's final sessions, but for now enjoy this collection of rarely heard songs from their classic mid-70's period. 

Track listing

01 You Can't Blame The Youth
02 Walk The Proud Land
03 No Sympathy
04 The Oppressed Song
05 Reincarnated Souls
06 Iron Lion Zion
07 Am A Do
08 Keep The Faith
09 Rainbow Country
10 Jungle Fever
11 Soul Shake Up Party
12 Can't Take Your Slogans No More
13 Punky Reggae Party
14 Roots

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Exodus (Horns Mix) (1977)

While Bob Marley was recording sessions for the 'Exodus' and 'Kaya' albums in 1977, he began to experiment with including a horn section on the songs, as he thought it would add another dimension to his ever-evolving musical catalog, much like the rock guitar did on the 'Natty Dread' and 'Rastaman Vibration' albums. While he used horns for his remaining studio albums, with their greatest and most persistent use on the 'Survival' album, they only survived on these recordings on the title track of the 'Exodus' album. The Wailers horn section originated with Jamaican trombone and saxophone players Vin Gordon and David Madden, who played on the 'Natty Dread' and 'Rastaman Vibration' albums, and it later included included Glen Da Costa, David Madden, and the Zap Pow horns. Madden recalls "Bob called me, 'David, we have a recording session, do you want to come?' And of course, I said yes. I didn't know Bob was going to become any kind of star. He would say, 'We have a little tour, do you want to come along?' It was a  mixture of professionalism and friendship. We don’t have that superstar air in Jamaica. I might sing the biggest tune yesterday but today I'm still walking down the street. When me and Bob talked, it was because of a session. Or Family Man will say, David, go talk to Bob because he wants to do a session". Madden and the other horn players were paid for the sessions but were not credited with writing parts. "Well, you see, when we reach the studio, the song is already done. It is all there. When you hear a song, the thing is to be able to say, you know, there is a part there that would sound better with horns. I am hearing that there is something that would sound better than if it was left alone. So for them guys, Marley and those, just for thinking to put some order in that tune, to bring it up some more, well that is genius in them. But as for what to play there, they don’t know. That is where we come in. They weren't able to tell us what to play. But because of being in the studio and working and all the practice that we do, we are hearing things. So when we come and they say, alright, roll the song, and we start to play, they say ‘Damn! Here! Yes!’ and the tune go up and it is a hit!" Madden has happy memories of his work with Marley, playing on 17 of his hit songs, including 'Natty Dread', 'So Jah Say', 'Rat Race', 'War', 'Is This Love', and 'Smile Jamaica', and The Zap Pow horns subsequently became the Wailers' horn section for studio sessions and tours. Only a few of these recordings have horns added, as Madden said, sometimes you can just tell that they are not needed, but even those without the addition of the horns are monitor mixes, and so completely different to the released versions. 

Track listing

01 Natural Mystic
02 So Much Things To Say
03 Guiltiness
04 The Heathen
05 Exodus
06 Jammin'
07 Waiting In Vain
08 Turn Your Lights Down Low
09 Three Little Birds
10 One Love

The Wailers - Catch A Fire (1973)

In 1971 Bob Marley moved to Sweden to work with Johnny Nash, writing and composing songs for the soundtrack to the film 'Want So Much To Believe'. At the end of the year Marley and the Wailers toured Great Britain with Nash, but when the tour was over Marley and the band didn't have funds to return to Jamaica, nor could they earn money due to work-permit restrictions. The band asked promoter Brent Clarke to help them, and he contacted Chris Blackwell from Island Records, who had released singles by the Wailers in the UK. Blackwell promised Clarke an advance of £8,000.00 for their next album, so Clarke lent the Wailers some money to return to Jamaica. Once back in Jamaica sessions for the album started, with recording taking place at three different studios in Kingston, Jamaica: Dynamic Sound, Harry J's and Randy's. In the winter of 1972 Marley flew back to London to present the master tapes, but the deal with Island led to a dispute with CBS, to whom the band were already contracted, and a court case soon followed. Island Records won the case, receiving $9,000.00 and two percent of royalties from the band's first six albums, and so the stage was set for the first UK release of a Bob Marley And The Wailers album. However, when Blackwell heard the tapes he insisted that more work was needed on the songs, and took over as producer, adding overdubbed guitar from Wayne Perkins. Blackwell also tweaked arrangements and adjusted mixes, rolling back some of the heavier bass-end parts and generally moulding the sound into a shape that remained true to the band’s roots, but which would also sit comfortably in the mainstream rock marketplace of the day. It seemed to work, and the album took off in the UK, introducing reggae to a massive new audience, and it remains one of the greatest reggae albums of all time. It was given a deluxe re-issue in 2001, and as a bonus we were treated to our first hearing of the un-edited takes of the songs, as recorded in Jamaica, and with no overdubs. So for anyone who missed that re-issue, or never even knew that the album that they love has an rough-edged cousin, then here is the original Jamaican version of it, including two songs which were dropped from the UK issue. 

Track listing

01 Concrete Jungle
02 Stir It Up
03 High Tide Or Low Tide
04 Stop That Train
05 400 Years
06 Baby We've Got A Date (Rock It Baby)
07 Midnight Ravers
08 All Day All Night
09 Slave Driver
10 Kinky Reggae
11 No More Trouble

The Wailers - Dub Marley (1975)

During breaks in the sessions for the 'Rastaman Vibration' album, the Wailers (without Bob Marley) recorded ten of Marley's songs, which were then 'dubbed up', and gained a very limited release in Jamaica in 1976.  The dub cuts aren't bad, although far from adventurous in Sylvan Morris' mixing - it's more drop-in and drop-out rather than the journey to outer space that the best dub can be, but that said, the introduction to 'Concrete Jungle' has a wonderfully spooky edge, and the majesty of 'No Woman' is even more accented in its sparseness. The album was treated to a recent Record Store Day re-issue, but it's still very hard to track down, so for fans of reggae in general, or Marley in particular, this is a nice alternate look at some of his music. I've had to  make a couple of slight changes to the original release, as I found that the supposed dub of 'Soul Rebel' was in fact just the original instrumental version, so I've removed that and replaced it with dub versions of 'Roots, Rock, Reggae', 'Want More' and 'War' from the same 1975 sessions, with the last two being from original Tuff Gong dub-plates.

Track listing  

01 Get Up, Stand Up Dub
02 Natty Dread Dub
03 So Jah Seh Dub
04 Lively Up Yourself Dub
05 No Woman, No Cry Dub
06 Guava Jelly Dub
07 3 O'Clock Roadblock Dub
08 I Shot The Sheriff Dub
09 Concrete Jungle Dub
10 Want More Dub
11 Roots, Rock, Reggae Dub
12 War Dub

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Confrontation Demos (1981)

The death of Bob Marley in 1981 robbed the world of a giant of reggae music. In the two years before his death he recorded the first two albums of a proposed trilogy, with 'Survival' coming out in 1979, followed by 'Uprising' in 1980, and 'Confrontation' would have followed a year or so later. Marley had recorded more songs than were needed for 'Survival' and 'Uprising', and so by adding in a few single releases Island Records had enough material to complete Marley's trilogy, and spent the next two years overdubbing and adding to the raw tracks. A few years ago I saw a comment on another blog suggesting a re-imagined version of the album using the raw demos, and recalling how much better the Jamaican mix of 'Catch A Fire' sounded before the rock overdubs were added, I've sought out those original demos and singles to hear the album in it's raw state, had it come out in 1981. 

Track listing

01 Burn Down Babylon
02 Buffalo Soldier
03 Jump Nyabinghi
04 Mix Up Mix Up
05 Give Thanks And Praises
06 Blackman Redemption
07 Trench Town
08 Stiff Necked Fools
09 I Know
10 Rastaman Live Up (Don't Give Up)

Bonus tracks

11 Burn Down Babylon (Slow Version)
12 Give Thanks And Praises (Slow Version)

Not all the recordings are top quality, but there's enough raw energy in them to make up for that.