Bob Marley & The Wailers - Climb the Ladder (2015)

The track selection on this compilation of mid-'60s Wailers sides was most likely chosen to round out Heartbeat's series of archival Wailers releases. Thus, if you like this stuff enough to collect it, you could well already have some of the songs; half a dozen, for instance, were on Epic's The Birth of a Legend CD. On its own merits, though, this is a good anthology of material from a time when (despite the retroactive billing to Bob Marley & the Wailers) the Wailers were really a group project not just an act fronted by Bob Marley. (In fact Marley does not always sing lead here, and he doesn't even appear on every song.) Before Marley and many of his peers branched into social and religious commentary, the Wailers were a hot ska dance band and sweet balladeers. "Dancing Shoes," "I Made a Mistake," "Lonesome Track," "Sinner Man," "Love Won't Be Mine This Way," and "I Don't Need Your Love" might not be too well known to anyone except big Marley/Wailers fans, but they're excellent tunes that deserve a bigger audience. Four of the tracks were previously unavailable on CD, highlighted by an unexpected cover of the folk-pop tune "Lemon Tree" and the galvanizing up-tempo dance number "The Jerk." There are also previously unreleased original versions of "Nobody Knows" (without overdubs) and "Wings of a Dove."

Tracklist:
01. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Dancing Shoes (02:43)
02. Bob Marley & The Wailers - (I'm Gonna) Put It On (03:08)
03. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Lonesome Track (02:32)
04. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Climb the Ladder (01:56)
05. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Love Won't Be Mine (03:18)
06. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Dreamland (02:54)
07. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Lemon Tree (02:55)
08. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Nobody Knows (03:04)
09. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Wings of a Dove (03:28)
10. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Sinner Man (03:07)
11. Bob Marley & The Wailers - 10 Commandments of Love (04:06)
12. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Sunday Morning (03:00)
13. Bob Marley & The Wailers - I Made a Mistake (03:08)
14. Bob Marley & The Wailers - I Don't Need Your Love (03:09)
15. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Donna (02:35)
16. Bob Marley & The Wailers - The Jerk (02:55)
17. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Just In Time (03:01)