Bob Marley | Bronx Jam Session Tape (1968)

BOB MARLEY ‘BRONX JAM’ AUDIO CASSETTE TAPE OF NEVER-BEFORE-HEARD RECORDINGS
1968

Today I share with you a tape that was auctioned at Christie’s on December 20, 2002 for $26,290.  This is as raw as it gets.  Marley, a guitar, and a tape recorder.  This tape was rare even among collectors until a few years ago.  Still, you will find it on very few sites today.

A 1960s-era audio cassette tape which features never-before-heard versions of eight songs that a young Bob Marley recorded in New York when he had aspirations to become an American-style rhythm and blues singer. Joined by Jimmy Norman (a songwriter and later a member of the R&B group, The Coasters) and others, this recording was made in 1968 using a simple home tape recorder. Norman’s handwritten notation of Bob Marley Live is penned in blue ballpoint ink on the cassette while his later addition of 7-1-83 appears in a different-colored ink. (Not considering the value of the Marley material, Norman casually added Coasters songs to this same cassette years later, but thankfully did not record over the original 1968 content at the beginning of the tape.) This original master has about twenty-four minutes of Marley material and is in fragile, but playable, condition. It also includes Norman’s later 1983 additions of music by The Coasters. The eight Marley songs on the tape are:

1) Wings of a Dove (I Need Your Love So Much) – Bob Marley
2) Stranger on the Shore – Bob Marley
3) One Love, True Love – Bob Marley
4) Splish for My Splash – Bob Marley
5) I’m Hurting Inside – Bob Marley (missing from source)
6) Falling In and Out of Love – Jimmy Norman and Al Pyfrom
7) Stay With Me – Jimmy Norman and Al Pyfrom
8) You Think I Have No Feelings – Jimmy Norman and Al Pyfrom