Redemption Songs

On paper, Dave Robinson doesn’t seem like the type of guy who’d be devoted to something as decidedly un–rock ’n’ roll as market research. In the 1960s, the Irish-born music lover photographed the Beatles at the Cavern Club and tour-managed the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In the 1970s, he cofounded Stiff Records, the independent British label behind early releases from Elvis Costello, the Damned, and Nick Lowe. In the early days of music videos, he directed clips for Madness and a pre-sketch-comedy star Tracey Ullman. Then in 1983, Chris Blackwell convinced him to become the president of Island Records. Robinson says that what Blackwell didn’t tell him was how bad of a financial predicament Island was actually in. He almost left the job straight away when he found out, but as a big fan of Bob Marley, one of the label’s defining acts, he was excited about getting to put together a greatest hits collection for the recently deceased singer. Blackwell gave Robinson a running order of the songs that he thought should be on it and a picture of Marley with his dreadlocks flying around his head that he thought should be the album cover.