Bob Marley & The Wailers - Rarities - The Upsetter Record Shop - Part II

The second LP of the pair is a real collectors´ delight. Here´s a heap of hard-to-find and never-before released masters, dating from between 1972 and 1977 (approx). There´s some dispute as to the true provenance of the tracks: "Concrete Jungle" and "Screw Face" and "Satisfy My Soul" are not Lee Perry productions at all, but Tuff Gong productions. The recording details are also a little erroneous: Randy´s is certainly a studio where some of these tracks were cut, but "WIRL" should read Dynamic, and "Rainbow Country" was cut at neither, but at Lee Perry´s Black Ark. As for the assertion that the records were produced at the back of Perry´s record shop, from where the title of the two albums is derived, it´s totally false, although doubtless Perry hatched what few marketing plans he had for The Wailers´ tracks he had recorded somewhere within the confines of his retail premises. No matter, however, since words on record sleeves are never as important as the music on which they´re supposed to inform. In this case, the music can speak perfectly eloquently for itself.

From the original liner notes:

"After 1969 and "Soul Rebels", the best of the Wailers-Upsetters combination was yet to come. At the end of 1970, returning from a trip in the cold of Europe, Bob Marley, downcast by the start of his international career, wrote "Long Long Winter". Back in Jamaica, he found himself confronted by the local flare-up, political disputes and a social upheaval. This was the context in which the Wailers got their second wind, through a realistic commentary on the misery of Kingston. The needy population and the man in the street thus legitimised them as the island´s number one band. Non only did reggae establish itself as part of the Jamaican culture order but also, from then on, Bob Marley became the spokesman of the ghetto cause. He recorded "Trenchtown Rock" and "Concrete Jungle" after the names of two well-known deprived districts in the capital.

Once again, as in 1969, the spirit and the sound combinations created by Perry´s genius made reggae explode. Old reworked tracks like "Put It On" and "Don´t Rock My Boat" took on a Rasta feel under Perry´s spell, through a magical procession of sounds, backed up by the soul of the Burru drums.

These sessions reflect this period, these were the new paramets which would define the throbbing and significant beat of reggae in the seventies. From the on, the Wailers went from hit to hit, the Jamaican record industry was working overtime and Lee Perry re-recorded and re-pressed the old tracks of 1969 and a new series of tracks (and, even more wonderful, the instrumental tracks) which form part of these rarities and illustrade the 2nc volume of "Upsetter Record Shop".

During 1971/72, when the Wailers were at the height of their success, Lee Perry produced the first versions of "Concrete Jungle" and "Natural Mystic", as well as "Satisfy My Soul" and "Screwface", which dealt with the negative side of power and of bad company.

These recordings are quite different from the ones mad ein 1969. In between, Glen Adams had gone to the United States and had been replaced by the young and talented Tyrone Downie. The acid keyborads of "Soul Rebels" gave way to horns (probably Tommy MCCook or Vin Gordon) and percussion but the main innovatin was anchoring the music to the particular rhythmic dynamic imposed by the two Barretts and which Lee Perry increasingly refinde, arriving at the apotheosis of the dub record in 1976 whith the sublime "Blackboard Jungle". At the same time, strengthened by his new world status, Bob Marley re-recorded many of the classics originally produced by Perry on his international albums."

Tracklist

1	Concrete Jungle	3:08
2	Concrete Jungle (Version)	3:11
3	Screw Faces	2:16
4	Screw Faces (Version)	2:16
5	Love Life	3:00
6	Love Life (Version)	2:56
7	Satisfy My Soul	2:10
8	Satisfy My Soul (Version)	2:57
9	Rainbow Country	4:26
10	Rainbow Country (Version)	3:34
11	Long Long Winter	3:03
12	Long Long Winter (Version)	3:02
13	Put In On	4:06
14	Put In On (Version)	3:35
15	Don't Rock My Boat	4:15
16	Don't Rock My Boat (Version)	4:15
17	Keep On Movin'	3:07
18	Keep On Movin' (Version)	3:02

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Rarities - The Upsetter Record Shop - Part II
(256 kbps, cover art included)