Bob Marley and The Wailers – Natty Dread (Ultra Tape)

Kingston finds a different vocal balance

When Natty Dread appeared in 1974, the familiar Wailers vocal trio had broken apart. Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer were no longer in the group, and Bob Marley stood at the centre of a reorganised band. Yet this was not a solo career starting from nothing. Aston “Family Man” Barrett and his brother Carlton remained the bass-and-drums partnership, while earlier songs such as “Lively Up Yourself” and “Bend Down Low” connected the new formation with its Jamaican beginnings. The record documents change without erasing the music that preceded it.

Rita Marley, Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt brought a particularly important new colour. As the I Threes, their backing vocals changed the relationship between Marley's lead and the voices answering him. Bernard “Touter” Harvey played keyboards, Al Anderson supplied lead guitar, and other contributors added their own details. Recording work took place in Kingston and London, with mixing at Basing Street. The album's international production history belongs alongside its deep Jamaican roots.

A harmonica among the keyboards and guitars

Lee Jaffe's harmonica appears on “Rebel Music” and “Talkin' Blues”. It offers a useful thread to follow through the arrangements: listen for the space around its phrases and the way a small instrumental gesture can sit beside the lead voice. Jean Roussel contributed Hammond organ and the arrangement of the studio “No Woman, No Cry”. Returning to this version can be particularly revealing if the later concert recording has become your default memory of the song.

Anderson recalled in an interview that Paul Kossoff sent him to Island Studios. His first attempts were too close to jazz rock, and he had to find another approach before contributing solos to “No Woman, No Cry”, “Them Belly Full” and “Rebel Music”. The story concerns fitting into an existing musical structure as much as displaying guitar technique. His contribution needed its own identity while respecting the rhythmic language already established by the band. That makes the spaces between the guitar phrases worth following, too.

Nine songs of memory and resistance

The printed writing credit for “No Woman, No Cry” names Vincent Ford, who ran a soup kitchen in Trenchtown. Questions about Marley's underlying authorship belong to a complicated publishing history; the original credits should not simply be replaced by a tidier modern list. The song itself draws on shared everyday experience and memory. Its later fame through the 1975 Lyceum performance provides another reason to revisit the earlier studio arrangement on its own terms.

Across the album, “Lively Up Yourself” leads towards songs concerned with hunger, roadblocks and revolution. The second half includes “So Jah Seh”, the title track, “Bend Down Low” and “Talkin' Blues” before “Revolution” closes the programme. Familiar melodies, political observations and Rastafarian references coexist within nine songs. Following the I Threes through those changes offers another way into the record: their responses help distinguish the new Wailers sound from the male vocal partnership that came before it.

The Ultra Tape edition

Analogue Productions' RRAP 0043 presents the album on quarter-inch, 15 ips, two-track stereo tape. Reel one follows the four tracks of the original first LP side; reel two carries the remaining five. The publisher specifies an ATR-modified Ampex machine with Flux Magnetics heads and a custom slipcase. Playback requires a suitable half-track machine, with IEC/CCIR equalisation identified in the series information and edition documentation. The reel division preserves the original album programme rather than adding later bonus material.

The source wording needs care. The product page refers to original master tapes, whereas the general Ultra Tape description explicitly identifies a copy of the original analogue master as its starting point. The precise copying generation for this title is consequently unresolved. No individual mastering engineer is specified for the tape. Abbey Road credits, vinyl weights and pressing-plant details attached to parallel record editions should not be transferred to this release: the tape has its own production history and playback requirements.

You order from Michael 45 in Germany. We arrange the US import and dispatch from Hilden. Editions not currently in stock are dispatched after the goods arrive.

In the magazine: Bob Marley: Burnin’ and Natty Dread on UHQR

Also on 33 RPM vinyl: Natty Dread

More by Bob Marley and The Wailers: Rastaman Vibration · Burnin’

Artist page: All titles by Bob Marley & The Wailers

Customer question: Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe

Musicians

Documented participants. Some personnel details or individual track assignments remain unresolved.

Track references indicate documented appearances, not an exhaustive list. A horn section remains unidentified.