Ziggy Marley And The Melody Makers - The Best Of 1988-1993 (1997) FLAC EAC Rip | 17 Tracks | FLAC - Log - Cue | Scans | Release: 1997 | 480 MB
Genre: Reggae | Label: Virgin
The Best of Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers (1988-1993) is an excellent 17-track compilation of Ziggy Marley's most popular work, featuring all of his best and best-known songs from the peak of his career. During the late '80s, Ziggy was among the most pop-oriented of all reggae artists, and as his career progressed, he toughened his music up by exploring worldbeat to a fuller extent. Although this Best Of is not arranged chronologically, it's possible to hear this progression, and it therefore makes a strong introduction to his work. More importantly for casual fans, it's an infectious listen, containing all of the songs that you need. AMG Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
The Honourable Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM (6 February 1945 11 May 1981) was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers (19631981). Marley remains the most widely known and revered performer of reggae music, and is credited with helping spread both Jamaican music and the Rastafari movement to a worldwide audience.
Marley's music was heavily influenced by the social issues of his homeland, and he is considered to have given voice to the specific political and cultural nexus of Jamaica. His best-known hits include "I Shot the Sheriff", "No Woman, No Cry", "Could You Be Loved", "Stir It Up", "Jamming", "Redemption Song", "One Love" and, together with The Wailers, "Three Little Birds", as well as the posthumous releases "Buffalo Soldier" and "Iron Lion Zion". The compilation album Legend (1984), released three years after his death, is reggae's best-selling album, going ten times Platinum (Diamond) in the U.S., and selling 25 million copies worldwide.
Bob Marley - Trech Town Rock (4CD Boxset) (2001) Release: 2004 | Track: 95 (4CD) | Format: MP3 CBR 320 Kbps | Size: 678 MB Genre: Reggae | Label: SNAPPER
This a four-disc box set, with 95 tracks, is largely made up of material Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Livingston did with producer Lee "Scratch" Perry in the late '60s and early '70s, sessions that many consider the best the group ever did. This is wonderful music, solid and funky, very Jamaican, and not watered down or sweetened for American ears the way the later Island recordings were. The Perry sessions are available on countless budget editions, and this one stands up as one of the better ones, mostly because of its length.
Bob Marley - Songs of Freedom (4CD Boxset) (1999) Release: 1999 | Track: 78 (4CD) | Format: MP3 CBR 320 Kbps | Size: 685 MB Genre: Reggae | Label: Island Records
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 slipcased CDs. It's still a remarkable gem.