Which Bob Marley CDs were mastered by Barry Diament?

I can spot them by the thicker black band next to the catalog number and the TUFF GONG lettering on the spine. http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=1304513

The newer, re-re-masters are easy to spot via the bonus tracks. Older versions thinner black bands and ISLAND on the spine. I bought Uprising last week for a five spot at Long In The Tooth. I need to go back for Barry Diaments version of Live!

Happy Hunting, Michael

 

I have both Barry's remasters and the latest ones. I'll take Barry's over the newer batch every single time. Barry's work makes the albums sound as good, if not marginally better than they did on vinyl. The thing I loathed about early reggae CDs was that they all sounded so damn tinny. Reggae is based and built on riddim, but the early CDs couldn't seem to get the bass right. Barry did though. Superb work.

 

Superb work is right. I've got all those old Diament-mastered Marley CD's, and they've always sounded so good, I've never even considered "upgrading."

But, is the 2 disc Catch A Fire worth getting?

 

Finally got "Survival" today, which was the last of the Diament mastered series I was lacking. The disc I got turns out to be an Argentine pressed CD,which I've never seen before. The CD itself looks more like a modern CD than the others I have. But it sounds very nice. Maybe Barry's CD's stayed in print longer in South America?

 

In a word.... yes. The second disc, much like Marvin Gaye's Whats Goin On, contains the original recording that the Wailers turned in to Island. It SOUNDS like a highly produced Jamaican record. Blackwell had Marley redo a couple of vocals, and famously added a keyboard and second guitar to make it palatable for European audiences.
from wiki
On completion, the multitrack tapes were taken to the UK for remixing, and Chris Blackwell enlisted the help of two US musicians - making an "English" version of the album. Wayne Perkins re-did some of the rhythm/ lead guitar, whilst John "Rabbit" Bundrick added some organ, electric piano, clavinet and synthesizer.

This is as it was before the added recording. Better in most cases.

 

I just wanted to add some additional information to this discussion. The Diament masterings were also used in the first batch of Marley Mini LP discs issued in Japan in 1998. The catalog numbers are as follows:

PHCR-94701 Catch A Fire
PHCR-94702 Burnin'
PHCR-94703 Natty Dread
PHCR-94704 Live!
PHCR-94705 Rastaman Vibration
PHCR-94706 Exodus
PHCR-94707 Babylon By Bus
PHCR-94708 Kaya
PHCR-94709 Survival
PHCR-94710 Uprising
PHCR-94711 Confrontation
PHCR-94712 Rebel Music

I was luck enough to pick up 8 of these titles at the time. They seem to be a very limited release because of the fact that they were some of the first Mini LP CDs available. In 2001 the Marley titles were again released in Mini LP format, but they were "Mastered from the original two track analog master tapes by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound, New York, 2001." The second set of CDs are:

UICY-3171 Catch A Fire
UICY-3172 Burnin'
UICY-3173 Natty Dread
UICY-3174 Live!
UICY-3175 Rastaman Vibration
UICY-3176 Kaya
UICY-3177 Babylon By Bus
UICY-3178 Uprising
UICY-3179 Survival
UICY-3180 Confrontation
UICY-3220 Exodus

Hope this helps.

 

Good to know. Thanks

 

They sure lasted well into the 'record club' era.. I've had both BMG and CRC copies of some of them.
I don't know if they were all issued at once, but many of the earliest copies I have are obviously PDO USA and have no clear hub area.

 

Wow....that sounds very intriguing. Thanks for the info.

 

2 first releases on cd : one is Japanese Sanyo pressing for Europe & another W.Germany pressing,both started with 610-xxx numbers is without BD kredits and with another mastering.Which is different but not bad too.

 

Pity the best Marley albums (at least: I think) are not mastered by Diament. These are the early albums he did with the fantastic producer Lee Perry:eg. Soul Rebels, More Axe and Keep on Skaninking.
I stil have them at other formats, but want to get them also at CD. Does someone know which CD issues are the best, talking about sound?

 

If you don't have it, you should track down a Steve Hoffman mastered Marley/Perry compilation called Young Mystic on Audio Fidelity. It's a great overview of Marley's formative years and has the arguably superior versions of songs which would be re-recorded for some of the Island albums. SH also mastered the Reggae Classics compilation, which sounds amazing. Real shame that's not available any more, because it's a great introduction to reggae for people who think the genre begins and ends with Bob Marley.

There's also a DCC/Garland Marley compilation called Reggae Roots, which sounds almost as good.

I quite like the remastered version of African Herbsman too, with the extra tracks.

 

Steve's Young Mystic and Reggae Classics may be found at Better Records. They have a number of DCC cutouts.

 

Thanks Frank010, after reading your tip I just ordered 'Young Mystic'...

 

Hmmm. I went there, but couldn't find it. Link?

Thanks.

 

I found that CD at Amazon.com after googling 'Marley' and 'Young Mystic'. Is that what you meant?

 

I was referring to

Thanks,

David

 

I picked up a BMG copy of Uprising yesterday. Slowly but surely, I am completing my collection of Diament Marley CDs. We are lucky that they aren't too rare.

 

Survival and Confrontation are harder to find in my experience, but all the others should be no problem, mon

 

Amazon.com stocks them - and all the Diament CDs - brand new/second hand (yup, Peter Tosh reference/pun intentional).

Survival - now there's an underrated album. It tends to get overlooked because it had no big hits on it, unlike its predecessors (Exodus and Kaya) and immediate successor (Uprising). But boy, is it a killer album - dark, brooding, angry (or as angry as Bob ever got on record).

Bob Marley never made a bad album, or even one that was less than very good. Survival is a masterpiece, in my opinion. Out of willful perversity, I tracked down the censored South African pressing. I got it cheap (about £2.00 in the late 80s). "Censoring" an album in the apartheid era meant razorblading 'offensive' songs on the vinyl and censoring the lyrics. Thus, 'Africa Unite' was 'cut' and 'blacked out'.

The Diament remaster does this blistering gem of a record ample justice.

I bought the Diament CDs when they were first released. I didn't get rid of them when the new versions came out because they sounded so damn good, I didn't they could be improved on. (And I was right)

 

Already own Kaya, but I picked this title up for £2 on a day trip to Glasgow the other day. Sounds brilliant, which is no surprise with Barry's work. Whatever that guy does at the desk, it's pretty my blueprint for how I like music to sound.

 

There is a lot of good information on this thread, thank you. I am definately going to track down some of these titles.

 

Get all the remaining Island albums. I'd rank them in this order:

Natty Dread
Uprising
Kaya
Survival
Talkin Blues (not mastered by Diament)
Babylon By Bus (Live)
Confrontation

I'd also get the three albums Marley cut with Lee Scratch Perry - Soul Rebels, Soul Revolution, Soul Revolution 2 (a dub version of the former). All great.