Maps of Music

Natty Dread (1974)

Where the lyrics of Natty Dread take you, and where it was really made.

Natty Dread was the first Bob Marley record made without Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, the Wailers members he had recorded with before.

Key places

Basing Street Studios, recording location candidate (1974)

Recording site Sarm West Studios — Basing Street Studios is listed as a recording location for this album. The album credits include engineers Sylvan Morris and Phil Ault. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Trenchtown, the setting of "No Woman, No Cry" (1974)

In the lyrics Trenchtown — The album's best known track recalls growing up in the impoverished streets of Trenchtown in Kingston, Jamaica. The point marks the neighborhood, not a single building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

Album story

Overview

• Seventh album by Bob Marley and the Wailers
• Released 25 October 1974 by Island and Tuff Gong
• First record Marley made without Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, with whom he had recorded as the Wailers
• A spiritually charged political and social statement
• Opens with "Lively Up Yourself", a blues-influenced celebration of skanking, reggae and sex
• "No Woman, No Cry" is probably the best known recording on the album

Background

• Marley's growing devotion to Rastafari is heard in religious-themed songs such as "So Jah Seh" and the title track
• "No Woman, No Cry" recalls growing up in the impoverished streets of Trenchtown, Kingston
• The song's original version was in gospel style, with Peter Tosh and unknown female backing vocals, and was cut for Island in 1973
• "Rebel Music (3 O'Clock Roadblock)" reflects on the potential impact of reggae on Jamaican society
• The song was written after Marley had been stopped by a night-time police carcheck

Recording

• Producers credited: Chris Blackwell and The Wailers
• Engineers credited: Sylvan Morris and Phil Ault; mixer: Sid Bucknor
• Jean Roussel is credited as arranger on "No Woman No Cry", "Natty Dread" and "Lively Up Yourself"

Cover

• Cover art credited to Tony Wright

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in 1963 in Jamaica around Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer and Bob Marley, initially as the Teenagers before becoming the Wailers.
• The band had a ska and rocksteady origin and their 1964 hit "Simmer Down" recorded at Studio One shifted Jamaican music toward its own voice.

Members

• Founding members were Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer; Tosh and Wailer left in 1974.
• Marley continued with a new lineup including Aston and Carlton Barrett and the female backing trio the I-Threes.

Career

• Signed to Island Records in 1972; albums Catch a Fire and Burnin' followed in 1973.
• Released Exodus (1977) and Uprising (1980), and Marley died of cancer in 1981, after which the group disbanded.
• Legend (1984) became the biggest-selling reggae album ever.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Billboard (US, released May 1975): reached No. 92 on the Billboard 200
• UK: peaked at No. 43 and sold in excess of 100,000 copies, making it a gold album

Reappraisal

• Rolling Stone: ranked No. 181 on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list in 2003, maintained in a 2012 revised list
• Rolling Stone: in 2025 ranked "Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)" at number 12 on its list of protest songs
• Over time the album gained popularity in other parts of the world

Records

• UK: peak No. 43, gold certification
• US Billboard 200: No. 92
• Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: No. 181 (2003)
• Included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The original and still unreleased demo of the Island version of "Lively Up Yourself" was recorded in 1973.
• Songwriting credit for "No Woman, No Cry" went to V. Ford, a childhood friend of Marley in Trenchtown.
• In 1975, the album was mentioned in a few audio magazines as ready for release on Quadraphonic 8-track tape, but this never happened.
• Quadraphonic mixes of "Lively Up Yourself" and "No Woman No Cry" have been bootlegged from the master tapes.
• Marley claimed he would have starved to death on several occasions as a child if not for the aid of Tartar.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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