BOB MARLEY – THE ALBUMS FROM WORST TO BEST!

Bob Marley‘s legend was sealed before his death from skin cancer in May 1981 at age 36. Look no further than our list of Bob Marley Albums Ranked Worst to Best for proof.

Like a select few artists before him – Robert Johnson, Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams, Elvis Presley and the Beatles, particularly – Marley both transcended and set a musical template that influenced his generation as well as those to come. His earliest records with the Wailers (the trio he formed in the early ’60’s with fellow future genre legends Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer) toyed with the familiar ska sounds found in their hometown of Kingston, Jamaica.––

But by the end of the decade, they had sharpened their style with original songs, the best of them penned by Marley, that would evolve into an even purer form of reggae in the ’70s and find audiences outside of their island country.

For most of the ’70’s, Marley and the Wailers made records that fed into and supported their growing popularity. They occasionally got remixed to tune into more Western ears, and they occasionally struggled with their newfound fame (Tosh and Wailer were gone by mid decade, as Marley’s name and face headlined album covers).

Marley made spiritual records. He made political records. He made records about getting high. And he made records that embraced life, which made his death such a significant loss at the dawn of the ’80’s.

Our list of Bob Marley Albums Ranked Worst to Best includes all of the studio projects released by the group, including a couple of early efforts before they found their groove and one posthumous record, plus one career-boosting live LP that captures Marley on the cusp of his legend.

14. ‘Confrontation’ (1983)

Released two years after Marley died in 1981 from cancer, ‘Confrontation’ gathers a bunch of leftover tracks, many of them unfinished at the time of his death, from sessions recorded in 1979 and 1980 between his last two albums. Marley’s widow was involved in this posthumous collection, so there’s some value, particularly “Buffalo Soldier,” his final classic song.

13. ‘The Wailing Wailers’ (1965)

The Wailers’ first album collects a dozen recordings the trio made in 1964 and 1965. There’s not much focus here (which isn’t too surprising since the songs weren’t originally made for an LP) and some of the song choices are odd (like Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “What’s New Pussycat?”). But there are signs of things to come – most directly on the early version of Marley’s “One Love,” which he’d later rework on 1977’s ‘Exodus’ into one of his best songs. The tracks here are more period ska than pure reggae, but the best of them – like “Rude Boy” and “Simmer Down” – paved the way for his legacy.

12. ‘The Best of the Wailers’ (1971)

Not a greatest-hits album. Instead this 1971 LP collects recordings the Wailers made in 1969 and 1970 before they hooked up with Lee “Scratch” Perry later in 1970. It was released to capitalize on the band’s growing popularity following the two Perry-produced records. The basics are in place, but there’s still some early misfires that would be better shaped over the next few years. Next up: the career-making ‘Catch a Fire.’

11. ‘Soul Rebels’ (1970)

The Wailers’ first collaboration with producer Lee “Scratch” Perry bears hallmarks by both artists, with Perry’s sparse, spooky production colliding and coupling with the trio’s increasingly sharpening performances. They were still a year and an album away from their first great LP – ‘Soul Revolution,’ also produced by Perry – but ‘Soul Rebels’ comes close to nailing the sound and style that would rocket Marley and the Wailers to fame in just a few years.

10. ‘Survival’ (1979)

Following the previous year’s ‘Kaya’ – which sidelined much of Marley’s political fire in favor of songs about weed and love – Marley returned with his most politically strident LP. Songs like “So Much Trouble in the World,” “Africa Unite” and “Ambush in the Night” barely hid their spite at times. Exiled to London for the previous two albums after an assassination attempt on his life, Marley returned to Jamaica for the recording of ‘Survival,’ and that sense of homecoming courses through the grooves.

9. ‘Rastaman Vibration’ (1976)

‘Natty Dread”s studio follow-up added keyboards and a more mainstream rock sound to the mix. The result was Marley’s only Top 10 album and his only charting single. (“Roots, Rock, Reggae” peaked at No. 51.) Like its immediate predecessors and successors, ‘Rastaman Vibration’ includes a combination of political and spiritual offerings. In a way, it’s the least typical of Marley’s classic-era albums – short on the world anthems that drive many of the other LPs. But its quiet strengths bolster the legend all the same.

8. ‘Kaya’ (1978)

Recorded at the same 1977 sessions that produced the superior ‘Exodus,’ ‘Kaya’ followed nine months later and takes a different approach. Where the previous LP mixed political and love songs (partly inspired by an assassination attempt on Marley’s life in 1976), ‘Kaya’ toned down the tougher sounds and songs and replaced them with more laid-back cuts about smoking weed, making love and smoking weed. The album sticks to its theme, which works in its favor. The great “Is It Love” is here too.

7. ‘Uprising’ (1980)

Marley’s last studio album arrived a year before his death from cancer at age 36. Unlike its revolutionary-spirited predecessor, 1979’s ‘Survival,’ ‘Uprising’ is Marley’s most spiritual record, a celebration of all things Rastafari. The smoothly funky “Could You Be Loved” is a standout. It all ends with the sublime “Redemption Song,” a powerful and beautiful summation of a legendary career cut way too short.

6. ‘Soul Revolution’ (1971)

Marley’s first great album plants the seeds for what was to come. The legendary Lee “Scratch” Perry produced the album, easing the Wailers into more recognizable reggae territory. The music is rougher and more raw than the commercial-leaning recordings that would signal their arrival in a couple of years, but Marley’s songwriting begins to flourish here, especially on “Kaya,” “Lively Up Yourself” and “Trench Town Rock” – the last two which showed up on the more readily available repackaged LP ‘African Herbsman.’

5. ‘Burnin” (1973)

Released six months after ‘Catch a Fire’ made them, and reggae, a viable new voice to Western ears, the Wailers followed up with the last album to include Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer. The next record, ‘Natty Dread,’ would be credited to Bob Marley & the Wailers. No surprise. He’s responsible for the LP’s best tracks – “Get Up, Stand Up” and “I Shot the Sheriff,” especially – and he’s pretty much settled into the role of reggae’s king with comfort and ease at this point.

4. ‘Live!’ (1975)

Recorded in London during Bob Marley and the Wailers’ 1975 tour, ‘Live!’ – like a handful of other concert recordings over the years – is a career-defining album that came near to transcending the band’s recent exemplary studio work. The entire set showcases Marley’s magnetic stage appeal, but it’s the final three songs (including a truly revelatory take of “No Woman, No Cry”) that make this one of the era’s all-time greatest live LPs.

3. ‘Exodus’ (1977)

In December 1976, Marley was shot in a failed assassination attempt and left Jamaica for London, where he recorded ‘Exodus.’ The album reflects all this – from its political themes to the more mainstream sound. It’s also the most representative of Marley’s albums: Some of his best and most well-known songs are here, including “Jamming,” “Waiting in Vain,” “Three Little Birds” and “One Love.” The album isn’t all serious; the second side is almost exclusively songs about peace and love. A milestone record in a milestone career.

2. ‘Natty Dread’ (1974)

Marley’s first album without Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer (and the first with the I Threes) heads into deeper political territory, as his songwriting sharpens and finds more purpose. The 1971 good-time party single “Lively Up Yourself” is reworked here, but most of the songs are along the lines of “Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)” and “Rebel Music.” The great “No Woman, No Cry” is here too, but that song would get its definitive treatment a year later on Marley’s first live album.

1. ‘Catch a Fire’ (1973)

The album that started it all for Bob Marley and the Wailers. After the songs were recorded by the band, label head and producer Chris Blackwell overdubbed instruments by outsiders (most notably, Muscle Shoals session player Wayne Perkins, who added guitar) to make them more palatable to Western ears. The result was the group’s breakthrough LP and one of the most significant works of the ’70s. Other Marley albums contain better and more popular songs, but ‘Catch a Fire’ ignited an entire genre outside of its homeland. Reggae’s crowning achievement.