"In February of '97," recalled Blum, "I hired the top French layout artist from Actuel magazine, Laurent Barbarand, to design the sets, to include rare photos supplied by Collingwood and Steffens, along with others from writer/producer Chris Lane and the highly acclaimed lensman Dennis Morris, who gave us never before published shots of the Wailers in 1973. By April, Part I was ready, featuring 47 tracks, 23 of them previously unreleased outside Jamaica." These were joined by discoveries from Collingwood's forays into JAD's London vaults, where he turned up unknown tracks like "Rock to the Rock," and a Peter Tosh ballad called "Love." There are a total of 52 songs in the series that will be "new" to all but the most livicated, hardcore collectors, a veritable avalanche of provocative revelations. France was the first country of release, with Blum translating the voluminous notes into French, and supervising the English-language versions released six months later in Canada by Koch International, and then in early '98 in the States.

The immediate French reaction was more than any of us could have hoped for. The Nouvel Observateur compared the set to "restoring Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel - a Renaissance!" Encore, a monthly entertainment glossy, devoted 32 pages of raves to the box. And French National television flew Bruno to Kingston for a four minute report on the series for the evening news. As the first box is issued in America, Vibe magazine calls it "a...a veritable treasure trove of early recordings...this collection shines as a living testament to the birth of the legend." Entertainment Weekly give it an A-. And an entirely new dimension of Marley and the Wailers' genius is revealed to their hungry fans, the half that's never been told. For myself, it's a twenty-years-long dream come true, an all but vain hope finally realized. But wait! There's more! Now it's time for us to bang on Island's doors, especially with label founder Chris Blackwell out of the company now. Polygram, its new owners, should be made to realize the wealth of out-takes, alternate versions, dubs, and more that they're sitting on.

Meantime, Coxson Dodd is nearing completion of an early Wailers' spiritual collection to be released this year on Heartbeat, showing the group's initial Christian orientation. There's enough to keep all of us Marley fans going for the rest of our lives, if all this unknown material is carefully husbanded. I still want an album (or a series) of Bob's "bedroom tapes," including acoustic beauties such as "Jailbreaker," "Vexation," "Jump Them Out Of Babylon," "Can't Take Your Slogans No More," and "Pray For Me." "Bob Marley Unplugged" - just think of it! And everyone reading this can help bring that about by bugging Rita and all of Bob's children whenever you see them in person, or by writing to Tuff Gong at 56 Hope Road in Kingston and telling them you'd buy this material in an instant if it were available. Otherwise, it'll be lost to you - and history.

By Roger Steffens

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