Album: Catch A Fire
Artist: Bob Marley & The Wailers
Born: Kingston, Jamaica
Released: April 1973
Genre: Reggae
Influenced: The Clash, Patti Smith, Fugees, Arrested Development, Finlay Quaye
Island Records had invested a lot of time and money into making Jimmy Cliff reggae's first crossover star, following the success of The Harder They Come, so the label was bitterly disappointed when Cliff decided immediately after its release to sign a more lucrative deal with rival EMI. Island founder Chris Blackwell was the brains behind making Cliff a marketable rebel outsider, so he was keen to find a quick replacement and took a gamble on the Wailers, advancing them £4,000 to go and record an album. Up to that point, reggae was predominantly a singles genre, with most albums heavily prone to filler. Catch A Fire is innovative for being one of the first reggae albums conceived as a whole, mixing fierce social commentary with an infectious one drop rhythm and brilliant playing. Two versions of the album are available (Jamaican and international), with the latter more heavily produced, giving the original version a looser, more atmospheric sound. The Wailers (Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, Bunny Livingston and the Barrett brothers) had already made some good records, like Soul Rebels (produced by Lee "Scratch" Perry), but nothing this musically powerful or lyrically militant.
Concrete Jungle is a towering intro and probably Marley's finest songwriting effort on the album, an impassioned plea for love and humanity in the midst of oppressive shanty town living ("no chains around my feet, but I'm not free / I know I am bound here in captivity"). This album's success would be his passport out of that reality. Slave Driver is even more political, voicing the desire to revenge years of slavery ("the table is turned / catch a fire you're gonna get burned"). Peter Tosh also shows his talents, contributing two of the five tracks on side 1: 400 Years (a call for revolution after four centuries in chains) and Stop That Train (highlighting urban poverty). In this context, side 2 starts on a much more light-hearted note with Stir It Up, a love song that Marley wrote to his wife in 1967, but given the full Wailers treatment here of stunning harmonies, chattering guitar and skanking. Kinky Reggae also has an easygoing feel, but more serious themes return on No More Trouble, a plea for social unity, and Midnight Ravers, which has an apocalyptic feel. This is music that really did kickstart a revolution.
Island Records had invested a lot of time and money into making Jimmy Cliff reggae's first crossover star, following the success of The Harder They Come, so the label was bitterly disappointed when Cliff decided immediately after its release to sign a more lucrative deal with rival EMI. Island founder Chris Blackwell was the brains behind making Cliff a marketable rebel outsider, so he was keen to find a quick replacement and took a gamble on the Wailers, advancing them £4,000 to go and record an album. Up to that point, reggae was predominantly a singles genre, with most albums heavily prone to filler. Catch A Fire is innovative for being one of the first reggae albums conceived as a whole, mixing fierce social commentary with an infectious one drop rhythm and brilliant playing. Two versions of the album are available (Jamaican and international), with the latter more heavily produced, giving the original version a looser, more atmospheric sound. The Wailers (Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, Bunny Livingston and the Barrett brothers) had already made some good records, like Soul Rebels (produced by Lee "Scratch" Perry), but nothing this musically powerful or lyrically militant.
Concrete Jungle is a towering intro and probably Marley's finest songwriting effort on the album, an impassioned plea for love and humanity in the midst of oppressive shanty town living ("no chains around my feet, but I'm not free / I know I am bound here in captivity"). This album's success would be his passport out of that reality. Slave Driver is even more political, voicing the desire to revenge years of slavery ("the table is turned / catch a fire you're gonna get burned"). Peter Tosh also shows his talents, contributing two of the five tracks on side 1: 400 Years (a call for revolution after four centuries in chains) and Stop That Train (highlighting urban poverty). In this context, side 2 starts on a much more light-hearted note with Stir It Up, a love song that Marley wrote to his wife in 1967, but given the full Wailers treatment here of stunning harmonies, chattering guitar and skanking. Kinky Reggae also has an easygoing feel, but more serious themes return on No More Trouble, a plea for social unity, and Midnight Ravers, which has an apocalyptic feel. This is music that really did kickstart a revolution.
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