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When Rastaman Vibration was first released in America in 1976 it did what some in the music industry considered nearly impossible at the time. It took Bob Marley into the Top Ten alongside disco records and corporate rock, points out Rolling Stone, which rates the album 4 stars.Despite the good cheer of the title track and the upbeat 'Roots, Rock, Reggae,' Rastaman Vibration contains some of Marley's most intense images of oppression, paranoia and despair. Tracks such as 'Who the Cap Fit, Crazy Baldhead' and 'War' are offered by the Wailers with dire urgency as Marley's brutal visions are echoed by his own church choir, the I-Threes. More than four decades later, neither Marley's music nor his message has lost it's sting.Now, Analogue Productions presents perfection - Rastaman Vibration cut at 45 RPM in UHQR on 180-gram 2LP Clarity Vinyl. This Ultra High Quality Record will be limited to 4,500 copies, with gold foil individually numbered jackets.For Bob Marley, 1975 was a triumphant year. The singer's Natty Dread album featured one of his strongest batches of original material (the first compiled after the departure of Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer) and delivered Top 40 hit 'No Woman No Cry.' The follow-up Live set, a document of Marley's appearance at London's Lyceum, found the singer conquering England as well. Upon completing the tour, Marley and his band returned to Jamaica, laying down the tracks for Rastaman Vibration (1976) at legendary studios run by Harry Johnson and Joe Gibbs. At the mixing board for the sessions were Sylvan Morris and Errol Thompson, Jamaican engineers of the highest caliber.Of the material on Rastaman Vibration, 'War,' for one, remains one of the most stunning statements of the singer's career. Though it is essentially a straight reading of one of Haile Selassie's speeches, Marley phrases the text exquisitely to fit a musical setting, a
