Nearly 40 years after his passing, Bob Marley’s music, image and message continue to fascinate audiences the world over. The end of this year has seen some considerable activity around his classic ’70s and ’80s catalogue for Tuff Gong/Island Records, including a new career-spanning box set and some vinyl reissues – and another box set, a new version of an old collection, is due early next year.

Five years from its original vinyl release in 2015, a CD edition of The Complete Island Recordings is now available. True to its name, this 11CD box set features every studio and live album released during the band’s active tenure on the label, from 1973’s Catch a Fire to 1983’s posthumous Confrontation. The concert albums Live! and Babylon by Bus (the latter originally a double album) are also included. Each disc is packaged in an individual wallet mimicking the original album sleeve designs and housed in a brushed silver clamshell box.

Each of these albums plus the immortal Legend compilation (still the world’s bestselling reggae album) are also getting pairs of vinyl reissues. Half-speed masters are currently available of all 12 titles, mastered by Miles Showell at London’s Abbey Road Studios. On January 22, those same albums will be repressed as limited, numbered, stamped editions at Tuff Gong’s refurbished vinyl plant in Kingston, Jamaica, using remasters overseen by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters in Los Angeles. It’s worth noting that both pressings use a different edition of Catch a Fire, which makes its debut on the format; it offers the intended Jamaican pressing of the 1973 album, featuring the extra tracks “High Tide or Low Tide” and “All Day All Night” plus different and extended mixes of several tracks. (This version was released on a deluxe edition of the album in 2001.)

And on January 29, a new edition of the 1992 Marley box set Songs of Freedom will be released on CD and vinyl. While that original collection spanned Marley’s entire recording career, including a decade’s worth of pre-Island material, this set eschews those licensed tracks; Songs of Freedom: The Island Years drops from four CDs to three, but offers the same assortment of hits, album cuts, rare single sides and remixes as the original box did. (A 6LP edition will also be available, in both standard black and Jamaican flag colored vinyl, with two red, yellow and green discs apiece. It marks the set’s first vinyl release outside of Jamaica.)

Amazon links for The Complete Island Recordings, the half-speed vinyl masters and the revised Songs of Freedom are all below. The Tuff Gong pressings can be purchased through Marley’s official store or the uDiscover Music store (including a “super bundle” of each album at once.)

The Complete Island Recordings (Tuff Gong/Island/Universal Music Group International, 2020) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1: Catch a Fire (Tuff Gong/Island ILPS 9241, 1973)
CD 2: Burnin’ (Tuff Gong/Island ILPS 9256, 1973) (Half-Speed LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
CD 3: Natty Dread (Tuff Gong/Island ILPS 9281, 1974) (Half-Speed LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
CD 4: Live! (Tuff Gong/Island ILPS 9376, 1975) (Half-Speed LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
CD 5: Rastaman Vibration (Tuff Gong/Island ILPS 9383, 1976) (Half-Speed LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
CD 6: Exodus (Tuff Gong/Island ILPS 9498, 1977) (Half-Speed LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
CD 7: Kaya (Tuff Gong/Island ILPS 9517, 1978) (Half-Speed LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
CD 8: Babylon by Bus (Tuff Gong/Island ISLD 11, 1978) (Half-Speed 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
CD 9: Survival (Tuff Gong/Island ILPS 9542, 1979) (Half-Speed LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
CD 10: Uprising (Tuff Gong/Island ILPS 9596, 1980) (Half-Speed LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
CD 11: Confrontation (Tuff Gong/Island ILPS 9760, 1983) (Half-Speed LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Catch a Fire (Half-Speed LP) (released as Disc 1 of Tuff Gong/Island 314 548 635-2, 2001 – reissued Tuff Gong/Island, 2020) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

* not on original release

1. Concrete Jungle
2. Stir It Up
3. High Tide or Low Tide *
4. Stop That Train
5. 400 Years
6. Baby We’ve Got a Date (Rock It Baby)
7. Midnight Ravers
8. All Day All Night *
9. Slave Driver
10. Kinky Reggae
11. No More Trouble

Legend: The Best of Bob Marley and The Wailers (Half-Speed LP) (released as Tuff Gong/Island BMW 1, 1984 – reissued Tuff Gong/Island, 2020) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

1. Is This Love
2. No Woman No Cry (Live)
3. Could You Be Loved
4. Three Little Birds
5. Buffalo Soldier
6. Get Up, Stand Up
7. Stir It Up
8. One Love/People Get Ready
9. I Shot the Sheriff
10. Waiting in Vain
11. Redemption Song
12. Satisfy My Soul
13. Exodus
14. Jamming

Tracks 1 and 12 from Kaya (Tuff Gong/Island, 1978)
Track 2 from Live! (Tuff Gong/Island, 1975)
Tracks 3 and 11 from Uprising (Tuff Gong/Island, 1980)
Tracks 4, 8, 10 and 13-14 from Exodus (Tuff Gong/Island, 1977)
Track 5 from Confrontation (Tuff Gong/Island, 1982)
Tracks 6 and 9 from Burnin’ (Tuff Gong/Island, 1973)
Track 7 from Catch a Fire (Tuff Gong/Island, 1973)

Songs of Freedom: The Island Years (originally released as Tuff Gong/Island TGLBX/TGCBX 1, 1992 – reissued Tuff Gong/Island, 2021)

3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
6LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
6LP Color: Artist Store / uDiscover Music Store

* previously unreleased at the time of original box set release

Disc 1

1. High Tide or Low Tide *
2. Slave Driver
3. No More Trouble
4. Concrete Jungle
5. Get Up, Stand Up
6. Rastaman Chant
7. Burnin’ and Lootin’
8. Iron Lion Zion *
9. Lively Up Yourself
10. Natty Dread
11. I Shot the Sheriff (Live at The Lyceum Theatre, London, England – 7/18/1975)
12. No Woman No Cry (Live at The Roxy, West Hollywood, CA – 5/26/1976) *
13. Who the Cap Fit
14. Jah Live
15. Crazy Baldhead
16. War
17. Johnny Was
18. Rat Race

Track 1 later released on deluxe edition of Catch a Fire – Tuff Gong/Island 314 548 635-2, 2001
Tracks 2-4 from Catch a Fire
Tracks 5-7 from Burnin’
Tracks 9-10 from Natty Dread
Track 11 from Live!
Track 12 later released on Live at The Roxy – Tuff Gong/Island B0000516-02, 2003
Tracks 13 and 15-18 from Rastaman Vibration
Track 14 from Tuff Gong/Island U.K. single WIP 6265, 1975

Disc 2

1. Jammin’ (12″ Mix)
2. Waiting in Vain (Advert Mix) *
3. Exodus (12″ Mix)
4. Natural Mystic
5. Three Little Birds (Alternate Mix) *
6. Running Away
7. Keep On Moving (London Version)
8. Easy Skanking
9. Is This Love (Horns Mix) *
10. Smile Jamaica
11. Time Will Tell
12. Africa Unite
13. Survival
14. One Drop
15. One Dub

Original versions of Tracks 1-5 from Exodus

• Track 1 from Island U.K. 12″ 12 WIP 6410, 1977
• Track 3 from Island U.K. 12″ IPR 2000, 1977

Tracks 6, 8, original version of 9 and 11 from Kaya
Track 7 from “One Love/People Get Ready” U.K. 12″ – Island 12 ISX 169, 1984
Track 10 from Tuff Gong single, 1976
Tracks 12-14 from Survival
Track 15 from Tuff Gong single, 1979

Disc 3

1. Zimbabwe
2. So Much Trouble in the World
3. Ride Natty Ride (12″ Mix)
4. Babylon System
5. Coming in from the Cold (12″ Mix)
6. Real Situation
7. Bad Card
8. Could You Be Loved (12″ Mix)
9. Forever Loving Jah
10. Rastaman Live Up
11. Give Thanks and Praise
12. One Love/People Get Ready (12″ Mix)
13. Why Should I *
14. Redemption Song (Live at The Stanley Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA – 9/23/1980) *

Original versions of Tracks 1-4 from Survival

• Track 3 from Tuff Gong 12″ single, 1980

Original versions of Tracks 5-9 from Uprising

• Tracks 5 and 8 from Island U.K. 12″ 12 IS 210, 1984

Tracks 10-11 from Confrontation
Track 12 from Island U.K. 12″ 12 IS 169, 1984
Track 14 later released on Live Forever (The Stanley Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA, September 23, 1980) – Tuff Gong/Island/UMe B0014680-02, 2011