25 years of ‘Confrontation’
June 4, 2008
Posthumous epic marks silver anniversary
By Ben Apatoff / BobMarley.com
When a great artist dies, it’s common for the deceased’s unreleased music to be compiled in a posthumous album. Usually such releases are hodgepodges of outtakes and unfinished tracks that are not up to par with the artist’s best material, but Bob Marley’s 1983 release Confrontation is a rare exception. Produced by Rita Marley and featuring some of Bob’s best-known songs, Confrontation is a complete, thoughtfully put-together album that adds to the greatest legacy in reggae history.
Shortly before his death, Bob Marley had finished the first two albums of a planned trilogy that recounted the Third World’s struggles against its oppressors in “Babylon.” After releasing Survival in 1979 and Uprising in 1980, Marley’s illness prevented him from completing the last installment in the series. When he died in Miami on May 11, 1981, he left behind several unreleased songs that would serve as the basis of his final album. The result, which reflected Marley’s physical and inner struggles at the time of it’s recording, is the appropriately titled Confrontation.
