Robert Nesta Marley, OM (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981) was a Jamaican singer-songwriter who became an international musical and cultural icon, blending mostly reggae, ska, and rocksteady in his compositions. He started in 1963 with the group the Wailers and forged a distinctive songwriting and vocal style that became popular with audiences worldwide. The Wailers released some of the earliest reggae records with producer Lee "Scratch" Perry.
The Wailers disbanded in 1974, and Marley pursued a solo career upon his relocation to England which culminated in the release of the album Exodus in 1977, which established his worldwide reputation and elevated his status as one of the world's best-selling artists of all time, with sales of more than 75 million records. Exodus stayed on the British album charts for 56 consecutive weeks and included the UK hit singles "Exodus", "Waiting in Vain", "Jamming", and "One Love". In 1978, he released the album Kaya, which included the hit singles "Is This Love" and "Satisfy My Soul". The greatest hits album Legend was released in 1984, three years after Marley's death from melanoma on May 11, 1981, at age 36. It subsequently became the best-selling reggae album of all time.
Marley was a committed Rastafari who infused his music with a sense of spirituality. He is credited with popularising reggae music around the world and served as a symbol of Jamaican culture and identity. He has become a global symbol and has inspired a significant merchandise industry.
Bob Marley - Songs Of Freedom (1999)
When Songs of Freedom was released originally in 1992, it was a perfect complement to either a greatest hits collection like Legend or the entire collection of the reggae master's albums. Songs boasts enough of the recognizable from Marley's canon to address the hit seeker, but the set also reaches way, way back to include Marley's first single, the youthful "Judge Not" from 1962, and then closes more than four hours later with a 1980 live take of "Redemption Song" from his last concert. In between are live takes, studio remixes, and, of course, standard looks at Marley standards, playing together as a perfect balance between the familiar and the new. The flow of famous takes increases into CDs 3 and 4, where "No Woman, No Cry" appears from a 1976 set at the Roxy and where "Jammin'" and "Exodus" come in mixes that were new to fans in 1992. Of course these four CDs show in wide-angle view exactly how fantastic and commercially improbable Marley was. He was able to popularize tunes about both the repression of African nations and their liberation while also bringing to rock audiences an undeniably Jamaican music, breaking the U.S. and British geographic strongholds on the 1970s pop and rock marketplace. Never mind that he made Island Records' first fortune, he also created a body of work so lasting that a four-CD set heavy on alternate versions can stand out in any contemporary music collection. For the 1999 reissue of the original 1992 box set, no new music has been added. The format has changed, though, from a long-box presentation to a cube containing individual slip-cased CDs. It's still a remarkable gem. (Amazon)
SONGS OF FREEDOM is an outstanding box set and collection of songs that gives the listener a wonderful overview of not only the growth of this band but of Reggae as a whole.
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