Confrontation

The album Confrontation hit the shelves in May 1983, two years after Bob Marley stopped recording. It wasn’t a new album: they compiled loose tracks Marley had left in demos or as singles during his final years in the studio. Some, like Jump Nyabinghi, started as dubplates in 1979 and ended up with backing vocals from the I-Threes to give them a more cohesive feel. The album’s sound reeks of an idea workshop: demos stretched out, arrangements tweaked on the fly, and recordings mixed without time to polish details. They recorded it in Kingston, at Tuff Gong Studios, between 1977 and 1980, with an extra session in April-May 1982. It lasted just over half an hour, but every minute sounds like pure Marley, unfiltered by post-production.

Year: 1983
Songs: 10
Duration: 37 min 52 seg

10 song|s

Song list

# Title Available ⏱

Chant Down Babylon

Buffalo Soldier

Jump Nyabinghi

Mix Up, Mix Up

Give Thanks and Praises

Blackman Redemption

Trench Town

Stiff Necked Fools

I Know

Rastaman Live Up!

Genres

Dub jamaican ska Reggae rocksteady roots reggae

Details

Year: 1983
Songs: 10
Duration: 37 min 52 seg

About the album

Confrontation, according to DoReSol

The cover isn’t random: Marley appears as Saint George, slaying the dragon that symbolizes Babylon. The drawing on the inner sleeve, however, depicts the Battle of Adowa (1896), when Ethiopia defeated Italy. Among the ten tracks, Buffalo Soldier stole the spotlight and became one of his most recognized hits. The I-Threes harmonies in Blackman Redemption and Rastaman Live Up give it a different color from their original singles, where the Meditations sang them. The label Island Records released it alongside Tuff Gong, its own imprint, and though they weren’t aiming for a flawless album, the result was a handful of songs that already sounded like anthems.