CATCH A FIRE (1971)
In 1971, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer released the first international Reggae album Catch A Fire. It was the start of a long climb to international fame and recognition for the Wailers. The seeds of Bob's apocalyptic vision already sown, some songs from the album (including '400 Years', 'Stop That Train', and 'Stir It Up') were remakes of previous versions. After enjoying stardom in the Caribbean for nearly a decade, Bob Marley and The Wailers had finally reached an international audience. The Wailers recorded Catch A Fire in 1971 at Dynamic Sound Studios, Harry J's, and Randy's Studio in Kingston. Marley brought the tapes for the final mix and mastering at Island Studios in London.

BURNIN' (1973)
In 1973, the Wailers released Burnin', an LP that included newer versions of some of the band's older songs with new tracks "Get Up Stand Up" and "I Shot the Sheriff". The latter was a massive hit for Eric Clapton the following year, reaching number one on the US singles chart. Burnin' was the first completely unique musical offering to arrive in record stores since the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Beatles' album had generated considerable outrage in the straight world because of its apparent endorsement of LSD ("Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"). But that was a mild snit compared to the underground furor set off by the release of Burnin'. On the back cover of the Burnin' LP was a photo of Bob, dreadlocks ta raas, drawing on a spliff as big as an ice cream cone.

NATTY DREAD (1974)
After Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh left to pursue their own solo careers, the band was renamed Bob Marley and The Wailers. To fill the harmonic void, the I-Three's, consisting of Bob's wife Rita, and singers Marcia Griffith and Judy Mowatt, were recruited. At the time of its release in 1974, Natty Dread was the Wailers' best production, making the album a must-have for reggae fans. Lyrically, Marley passionately communicates radical ideas without compromise, shaped by his increasing conviction in Rastafari. A wide range of themes cross this album: the resilience of the human spirit in 'Lively Up Yourself', the testament of brotherhood and love in 'No Woman No Cry', and the need for social change in 'Them Belly Full', 'Talkin' Blues' and 'Revolution.'

LIVE! (1975)
Recorded in July 1975 at the Lyceum Ballroom in London, Live! captures a period in Bob's career when his music and message were beginning to reach a broader audience. In an era when live performance determined the status of a music group, it was no small feat that Bob Marley and The Wailers were able to express the energy from their live shows on an album. The set list from that night at the Lyceum was: 'Trench Town Rock', 'Slave Driver', 'Burnin' and Lootin', 'Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)', 'Three O'Clock Roadblock', 'No Woman, No Cry', 'Kinky Reggae', 'Natty Dread', 'Stir It Up', 'Lively Up Yourself', 'I Shot the Sheriff' and 'Get Up, Stand Up'.

RASTAMAN VIBRATION (1976)
Rastaman Vibration, the follow-up album in 1976, cracked the American charts. It was, for many, the clearest expression yet of Marley's music and beliefs, including most significantly "War", the lyrics of which were taken from a speech by H.I.M. Haile Selassie I. "It's not music right now, we're dealing with a message. Right now the music not important, we're dealing with a message. Rastaman Vibration is more like a dub kinda album and it's come without tampering y'know. Like 'War' or 'Rat Race', the music don't take you away, it's more to listen to." - Bob Marley in 1976.

EXODUS (1977)
Following the assassination attempt in December 1976, Bob and Neville Garrick left Jamaica for Compass Point in the Bahamas, then onto England. Bob was on a creative high, as though the shooting had only strengthened his resolve; Bob was also now working closely with Tyrone Downie who was becoming more prominent as the group arranger than Family Man had been. By the end of February Bob was ready to lay the tracks down and the group moved to Basing Street to record. Songs had flown out of these sessions, many of them inspired by events around the shooting. The new album was to be called Exodus, decreed Bob, even though that was one of the only songs he hadn't yet written.

KAYA (1978)
Kaya, a collection of love songs and an homage to the powers of ganja, was released to coincide with Bob Marley and The Wailers' first world tour as well as the 1978 One Love Peace concert. Kaya was lending itself a more commercial, less driven sound than found on previous releases, to pave the way for future albums like Survival. As Bob put it, "Kaya means herb. It's a password some of the brethren use in JA. So Kaya is really dealing with togetherness and humanity and peace, (because) the thing of peace travel through the earth now. Yes, Rastaman Vibrations and Exodus were 'arder. This time we dealing with something softer."

BABYLON BY BUS (1978)
Babylon By Bus celebrated the Wailers' amazing talent for performing live. The Wailers also broke new ground playing in Australia, Japan, and New Zealand. In 1978, the increasing global popularity of Marley's music was reflected by Bob Marley and The Wailers' first World Tour. With the positive reception of Live! among rock fans, it was felt that another live album would open up an even bigger audience. Capturing the magic of a Bob Marley and The Wailers live performance, Babylon By Bus features The Wailers' June 1978 show at the Pavilion in Paris and other performances across Europe.

SURVIVAL (1979)
The album was at first entitled Black Survival, to underscore the urgency of African unity, but shortened to avoid misperceptions of the LP's theme. Marley originally planned to release Survival as the first part of a trilogy, followed by Uprising in 1980, and closing with the posthomous Confrontation (he had named the LP in October 1980). Survival was to be a laying out of the agenda for the apocalyptic battle between his brethren and Babylon, and it had all the incendiary might of a don't-look-back manifesto. Whether exhorting the faithful to "Rise yeh mighty people!" in "Wake Up and Live," or supporting revolutionary Third World struggles in "Zimbabwe," or asserting that "The preaching and talking is done!" in the title track, Survival was a fierce call to arms.

UPRISING (1980)
Uprising was released in May 1980. It was an instant hit, which was followed by a major European tour that included the biggest shows in the band's history. Uprising was the last album released during Bob's lifetime. The closing track, "Redemption Song", was a fitting final statement in a career: a summation of all the themes and thughts that had created it. Uprising was an inspirational work, intended to offer support to the assembled multitudes as they hastened to set their spiritual houses in order. The song titles said it all: "Coming In from the Cold," "We and Dem," "Real Situation," "Work," "Zion Train" and "Redemption Song," each a solemn acknowledgment that the campaign will be a long and grief-laden one.

CONFRONTATION (1983)
Confrontation was produced by Chris Blackwell and the Wailers. Songs like "Chant Down Babylon," and "Blackman Redemption" restate the Gong's faith in music and the power of peace. These songs owe their magnetism to the honesty of the self-doubt revealed: Bob confronting the presence of good & evil inside his own soul. Like many of Bob's records of the 1970s, Confrontation contained songs that had reached maturity in an utterly casual creative atmosphere. The serenity of so many of selections on Confrontation came as something of a surprise to many close to Bob. The quiet passion so apparent in the studio proved even stronger on record as its deeper purpose was revealed: songs like "I Know" owe their magnetism to the honesty of the self-doubt revealed.

LEGEND (1984)
Legend, the most popular Marley release, features 14 essential and timeless compositions from his Island years and serves as a warm introduction to his musical legacy. Bringing together timeless and universal Marley classics such as No Woman No Cry, Get Up Stand Up, I Shot the Sheriff, and Redemption Song, Legend is a fine introduction to the music of Bob Marley. A testament to his enduring legacy and international stardom, Legend has spent an unsurpassed 64 weeks and counting cumulative weeks atop Billboard's Top Pop Catalogue Albums chart. Remastered from the original tapes by Barry Diament, Barry Diament Audio, NYC and Rob Fraboni.

REBEL MUSIC (1986)
Rebel Music is an exuberant collection of Marley's most strident songs. It reconciles his revolutionary fervor ("Get Up, Stand Up") and vision of one love ("War/No More Trouble") with his Rasta roots. Bright souls often burn but briefly. So it was with Bob Marley. This compilation released in 1986 is a testament to a spirit that the world never tamed or conquered, to a man who rose from the humblest of origins to become a champion for the downpressed everywhere. Containing powerful anthems of defiance and rebellion, this collection illuminates the struggle against injustice which came to dominate Bob Marley's life and work. Never animated by hatred or revenge, this music shows an unshakeable commitment to life & its glories, which are right of all, no matter what the circumstances of their birth.

TALKIN' BLUES (1991)
Talkin' Blues captures the time, in the mid-Seventies, when Bob Marley & The Wailers took reggae into the mainstream of popular music. Most of the tracks are from a broadcast for KSAN radio in San Francisco, the only recordings from The Wailers' first American tour in 1973. Talkin' Blues also features four other rarities including "Am-A-Do", a 1974 recording which has never before been released. The music is interspersed with extracts from a rare Bob Marley Jamaican radio interview. In 1975 Bob Marley spoke extensively with Demott Hussey, the doyen of Jamaica's music commentators. The two-hour interview, broadcast on JBC radio, came barely a month after the death of Haile Selassie and Marley's recording of the achingly spiritual "Jah Live".

SONGS OF FREEDOM (1992)
The definitive Bob Marley retrospective of 75 songs--classics and rarities--on four cds. Gathered from a lifetime of timeless and universal music; a limited edition set, Songs of Freedom includes previously unreleased material and original recordings spanning three decades of Reggae history. Including tracks from the various periods of the Wailers, starting with Robert Marley's first release in 1962, this collection contains a song for every occassion. The extensive liner notes cover the career of Bob Marley and the Wailers, and offer personal impressions from those close to the group. As a continuation of Bob Marley's dreams, the Bob Marley Foundation donated part of the proceeds from this boxed set for the establishment of the Berhane Selassie School in Ethiopia.

NATURAL MYSTIC (1995)
Natural Mystic (The Legend Lives On) is a testimonial to the political and social side of Marley's musical legacy. LIke most popular artists, Bob Marley wrote about sexual love, but his palette also contained the blazing yellows of a militant spirituality; a blood-red hatred of racism, colonialism, and oppression; and a sky-blue yearning for personal, artistic, political and social freedom. These colors reflected the experiences of growing up in the poverty-stricken crown colony of Jamaica. Jamaica's unique cultural mixture of black pride and fundamentalist religions set against a background of extreme economic depravation makes the island where hope is as necessary an ingredient for survival as food, air and water.

DREAMS OF FREEDOM (1997)
The first-ever full-length dub treatment of Bob Marley and the Wailers that covers their most influential and groundbreaking work with Island. Producer Bill Laswell notes "I wanted this to sound as if someone had dreamed it (hence the title), where the music is there kind of floating beneath the surface of your consciousness. In the dream the songs themselves aren't quite fully formed, but the rhythms and melodies make the statement." This historic record represents both a nostalgic look back and a future look forward at the music of Bob Marley and the Wailers and promises to re-establish the importance of Bob Marley in an entirely new area of modern music. "This was part of my inspiration," says Laswell, "as well as to maintian respect for the overall feel and spirit of the music.

CHANT DOWN BABYLON (1999)
The new Bob Marley album featuring duets with contemporary urban artists like Lauryn Hill and Busta Rhymes. Bob's original vocals and instrumental tracks are remixed by son Stephen with fresh lyrics from guest artists bringing their different styles to the table. "It was one of his dreams to get the urban youth of America," says Stephen. Chant Down Babylon brings Bob's Rasta message to new listeners and livicated fans alike. "Chant Down Babylon" is a very special remix project lead by Stephen Marley. The album features original Bob vocal tracks with guest artists bringing their own style and flavor to the table, remixed by Stephen. Reggae riddims grooving with layers of hip-hop beats and varied textures from guest artists such as Lauryn Hill, RaKim, and Lost Boyz alongside Bob's voice.