Maps of Music

Confrontation (1983)

Where the lyrics of Confrontation take you, and where it was really made.

The cover puts Bob Marley in the role of Saint George, and the design follows a British World War I recruitment poster.

Key places

Tuff Gong Studios, Kingston (1983)

Recording site Tuff Gong Recording Studio — The album was recorded at Tuff Gong Studios in Kingston, Jamaica. The source names this studio as the recording place but gives no exact session dates. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Thirteenth and final studio album by Bob Marley & the Wailers
• The only album released posthumously, in May 1983, two years after Marley's death
• Compiled from unreleased material and singles recorded during Marley's lifetime
• Many tracks were built up from demos
• "Jump Nyabinghi" received I-Threes vocals later, which were not on the 1979 dubplate
• The most famous track on the album is "Buffalo Soldier"

Background

• Half the songs were recorded between the Wailers' return from Zimbabwe in April 1980 and the start of the Uprising Tour on 30 May 1980 in Zurich
• The songs were meant for an album that would have completed the trilogy begun by Survival and Uprising, which Marley never finished
• Marley had already chosen the title of that third album
• Older tracks filled out the record: "I Know" from September 1975, "Rastaman Live Up" and "Blackman Redemption" from January 1979, "Mix Up, Mix Up" from June 1979, and "Give Thanks and Praises" from January 1980
• The harmony vocals on "Blackman Redemption" and "Rastaman Live Up" are sung by the I-Threes for a consistent sound, while the original single versions used the Meditations

Cover

• The cover shows Marley as the military Saint George slaying the dragon that symbolizes Babylon
• The same motif appeared on the reverse of Haile Selassie's imperial standard, but the direct model for the art is a British World War I recruitment poster
• Inside the sleeve is an artist's depiction of the Battle of Adowa, in which Ethiopian forces defeated Italy in 1896

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in 1963 in Jamaica around Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer and Bob Marley, initially as the Teenagers before becoming the Wailers.
• The band had a ska and rocksteady origin and their 1964 hit "Simmer Down" recorded at Studio One shifted Jamaican music toward its own voice.

Members

• Founding members were Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer; Tosh and Wailer left in 1974.
• Marley continued with a new lineup including Aston and Carlton Barrett and the female backing trio the I-Threes.

Career

• Signed to Island Records in 1972; albums Catch a Fire and Burnin' followed in 1973.
• Released Exodus (1977) and Uprising (1980), and Marley died of cancer in 1981, after which the group disbanded.
• Legend (1984) became the biggest-selling reggae album ever.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• French Wikipedia says the album was little appreciated by fans and critics at release, who found it weak
• Even so, it sold well, mainly thanks to the single "Buffalo Soldier" taken from it
• French Wikipedia puts sales in France alone at 330,000 copies

Reappraisal

• English Wikipedia names "Buffalo Soldier" as the most famous track on the album
• Spanish Wikipedia notes that the album includes unreleased material the artist recorded in the last years of his life
• Because the album was compiled from songs recorded across several periods, its sound and themes come from different eras

Records

• France: 330,000 copies sold
• Released May 1983, two years after Marley's death, as the only album released posthumously
• It is the thirteenth and final studio album by Bob Marley & the Wailers

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Marley asked Aston Barrett to turn "I Know", recorded in September 1975, into a single on his deathbed; Family Man remixed it and released it soon after his death.
• The cover art is based on a British World War I recruitment poster, although the Saint George motif also appears on the reverse of Haile Selassie's imperial standard.
• Inside the sleeve is a painting of the Battle of Adowa in 1896, when Ethiopian forces beat Italy.
• "Burn Down Babylon" was renamed "Chant Down Babylon" on the sleeve, a less frightening title.
• "Babylon Feel This One" and "She Used To Call Me Dada", recorded in 1979 or 1980 with musicians of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, were left off the album.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

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