Island Records celebrate the 30th anniversary of Bob Marley’s ‘Exodus’ masterpiece this summer by releasing the album on the groundbreaking new formats of USB Memory Stick and Micro SD Memory Card.
‘Exodus’ will be the very first artist-specific album to be released on these formats, both of which will be in stores on Monday 4th June 2007.
Island will also reissue ‘Exodus’ – described by America’s Time magazine as “the best music album of the 20th century” - on three further formats. Fans can thus choose from:
· USB MEMORY STICK. A 4000 limited edition, produced in the Rastafarian colours of red, green and gold. The Memory Stick contains not only the 10 original songs on ‘Exodus’ but also three video tracks recorded at London’s Rainbow Theatre in June 1977
· MICRO SD MEMORY CARD. This collectors’ item is limited to just 2000 copies. The Micro SD is a small, removable flash memory card – the size of a fingernail – that can be used in mobile phones, portable audio players and PCs. This ‘Exodus’ format features the same contents as the USB Memory Stick
· STANDARD CD. The classic album, featuring the 10 tracks on the original release and now reissued as a special 30th Anniversary Edition packaged - for the first time - in a quality ‘hardback’ case
· DELUXE CD. Limited to just 5000 copies, this version features not only the album but also a separate DVD with 12 tracks from Marley’s historic Rainbow concerts in the summer of 1977
· LP. The return of the original and legendary10-track vinyl album, as first released in June 1977
In addition, a specially-packaged 30th Anniversary DVD of ‘Exodus Live at the Rainbow’ will be in stores on Monday 18th June while a new 144-page hardback book - which includes the full CD - is published on Thursday 7th June.
The ‘Exodus’ book, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson at £25.00, has been edited by the esteemed music commentator and critic Richard Williams and includes contributions from such writers as Lloyd Bradley – author of the acclaimed ‘Bass Culture’ history of reggae – Vivien Goldman, Robert Christgau, Neil Spencer and the celebrated poet Linton Kwesi Johnson. The book, which features over 200 images, is introduced by Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records.
Marley recorded the ‘Exodus’ album in exile in the UK. Having escaped an assassination attempt in Jamaica, he arrived in London during the first week of 1977 and set to work recording his fifth studio album.
Released on Friday 3rd June, 1977, ‘Exodus’ became the transforming album in Marley’s career, a recording of extraordinary creative maturity which resonated with audiences around the world. ‘Exodus’ – which stayed on the UK chart for 56 consecutive weeks and included three hit singles - established Marley as the Third World’s first superstar, a legacy that survives thirty years after the album’s release.
The album’s anniversary is also celebrated with a 90-minute television film, ‘Arena: Bob Marley’s Exodus 77’, to be screened on BBC2 at the start of June. The film, by the award-winning English director Anthony Wall, will be publicly previewed at London’s National Film Theatre on Friday 27th April.
The BBC film is a visual account of the world in 1977 and Marley’s response to that world through his most significant album. It is a film about the relationship between an artist and his environment; about the impact of the world on Bob Marley and of Bob Marley on the world.
