The Good, the Bad, the Ugly.
Mary Biosic | Portland, OR | 01/07/2003
(3 out of 5 stars)
"This 4-cd boxed set had me pretty excited when I found it at a local record shop for 14 bucks, new. For 61 tracks of the earliest of the early works of Bob & company, who could resist? Well, that's what you do get. What you don't get is correct labeling of the tracks on the backs of each of the 4 jewel cases. You think you're listening to one song when in fact it's another. For those who know their stuff, I suppose it's not that big of a deal, but for someone who wants to explore the many pre-reggae songs of the Wailers, good luck. I went through and relabeled the mistakes; disc 2 being the worst offender. Ok, so now on to sound quality. Hmmm. You get what you pay for here. Many tracks are scratchy and pretty raw. You'll have to adjust your volume to have any sound consistency. It's reflective of the period in which these songs were recorded, and it is a bootleg. Keep in mind that the majority of these songs are not the popular tunes most of us associate with Bob Marley (disc 2 being an exception). They are the "unknown" songs where you may not even recognize Bob's evolving voice! For the fan who wants to explore their ska and rock steady material and hear how these dreamy tunes turned into the riddims of reggae, it's the most comprehensive collection I've seen. Finally, there are no credits to Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Rita, or anyone else. The good is the whopping number of early and rare tracks, the bad is the sound quality, and the ugly is the lack of credit to all who contributed."
Track Listings (16) - Disc #1