A Tale of Two Trench Towns

“Trench Town Rock” was recorded in July 1971 on a four-track at West Indies Studios, more commonly known as WIRL (West Indies Records Limited) or Dynamic Sounds Studios. It is the same studio where the Rolling Stones recorded the Goats Head Soup album in 1973.

This version of “Trench Town Rock”, which was released on the G&C imprint in the US, contains an extra verse at the end, making it longer than the more popular version. It is also noteworthy that this recording features the Wailing Souls on harmony. Players on this original version included:

Bob Marley – vocal, guitar
Bunny Wailer – harmony, bass
Peter Tosh – harmony, piano, organ
Winston “Pipe” Matthews (Wailing Souls) – harmony vocals
Lloyd “Bread” McDonald (Wailing Souls) – harmony vocals
George “Buddy” Haye – harmony vocals
Norman “Fats” Davis – harmony vocals
Carlton Barrett – drums
Wally Williams – guitar
Alvin “Seeco” Patterson – percussion
Carlton Lee & Andy Capp – engineers

“Trench Town Rock” was also issued on this Tuff Gong 7″. However, for this release the final verse is excised leaving us with the more popular version of the tune that most are familiar with as it is the version that got significant radio airplay.