Powerful, pointed, and political, Survival was as close as Bob Marley came to producing a concept album. Released on October 2, 1979 in a sleeve bedecked with the flags of every country on the African continent, it was recorded at Basing Street Studios, London, and in Marley’s own Tuff Gong studio in Kingston. For the first and only time, Chris Blackwell was not involved in the production duties, which were shared between Marley and Alex Sadkin, a Blackwell protégé who had worked as an engineer on Rastaman Vibration.