''Catch a Fire'' is the fifth studio album by the

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

band The Wailers (aka Bob Marley and the Wailers), released in April 1973. It was their first album released by

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

. After finishing a UK tour with

Johnny Nash John Lester Nash Jr. (August 19, 1940October 6, 2020) was an American singer and songwriter, best known in the United States for his 1972 hit " I Can See Clearly Now". Primarily a reggae and pop singer, he was one of the first non-Jamaican art ...

, they had started laying down tracks for

JAD Records Formed in 1967 JAD Records was a record label that was co-owned by Johnny Nash, producer Arthur Jenkins, and businessman Danny Sims, whose initials formed its logo. JAD Records was the label which signed Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer and R ...

when a disputed CBS contract with Danny Sims created tensions. The band did not have enough money to return to Jamaica, so their road manager Brent Clarke approached producer

Chris Blackwell Christopher Percy Gordon Blackwell OJ (born 22 June 1937) is a Jamaican-British former record producer and the founder of Island Records, which has been called "one of Britain's great independent labels". According to the Rock and Roll Hall ...

, who agreed to advance The Wailers money for an album. They used this money to pay their fares back home, where they completed the recordings that constitute ''Catch a Fire''. The album has nine songs, two of which were written and composed by

Peter Tosh Winston Hubert McIntosh (19 October 1944 – 11 September 1987), professionally known as Peter Tosh, was a Jamaican reggae musician. Along with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer, he was one of the core members of the band Bob Marley and the Wa ...

; the remaining seven were by

Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981) was a Jamaican singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, he fused elements of reggae, ska and rocksteady and was renowned for his distinctive voca ...

. While

Bunny Wailer Neville O'Riley Livingston (10 April 1947 – 2 March 2021), known professionally as Bunny Wailer, was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and percussionist. He was an original member of reggae group The Wailers along with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. ...

is not credited as a writer, the group's writing style was a collective process. For the immediate follow-up album, '' Burnin''', also released in 1973, he contributed four songs. After Marley returned with the tapes to London, Blackwell reworked the tracks at Island Studios, with contributions by

Muscle Shoals Muscle Shoals is the largest city in Colbert County, Alabama, United States. It is located on the left bank of the Tennessee River in the northern part of the state and, as of the 2010 census, its population was 13,146. The estimated popula ...

session musician Wayne Perkins, who played guitar on three overdubbed tracks. The album had a limited original release under the name The Wailers in a sleeve depicting a

Zippo A Zippo lighter is a reusable metal lighter produced by Zippo Manufacturing Company of Bradford, Pennsylvania, Bradford, Pennsylvania, United States. Thousands of different styles and designs have been made since their introduction in 1933, incl ...

lighter, designed by graphic artists Rod Dyer and Bob Weiner; subsequent releases had an alternative cover designed by John Bonis, featuring an Esther Anderson portrait of Marley smoking a " spliff", and crediting the band as Bob Marley and the Wailers. The Catch a Fire Tour, which covered

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, helped generate international interest in the band. ''Catch a Fire'' peaked at number 171 on the

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Sometimes, a rec ...

and number 51 on the ''Billboard'' Black Albums charts. Critical acclaim has included the album being listed at number 126 on ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

's''

500 Greatest Albums of All Time 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. Humans, and many other animals, have 5 digits on their limbs. Mathematics 5 is a Fermat pri ...

, second only to ''

Legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the ...

'' among five Bob Marley albums on the list. It is regarded as one of the top reggae albums of all time. The group title Bob Marley and the Wailers being used on Bob Marley solo albums has created a lot of marketing and identity confusion for The Wailers' catalog. This follows the confusion generated by their company Tuff Gong Records (registered in 1973) and the similarly-named Tuff Gong International (registered by the Bob Marley Estate in 1991); this resulted in the 1999 Tuff Gong Settlement Agreement, which sought to separate the group's catalog from Bob Marley's solo catalog. The dual releases of ''Catch a Fire'' under both group names is where this marketing confusion began.

Background

Bob Marley, without Peter Tosh or Bunny Wailer, moved to Sweden to work with Johnny Nash, writing and composing songs for the soundtrack to the film '' Want So Much to Believe.'' From November to December 1971, Marley toured Great Britain with Nash. Under their CBS international arm,

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

released the Nash-produced "Reggae on Broadway" as a single, which was intended to break Marley as a solo artist; the single instead "sank like a stone". After this solo tour, Marley returned to Jamaica, reuniting with Peter and Bunny. They came back to the UK to complete the tour and continue recording with CBS as a group. The sessions were abandoned because of clashes with Johnny Nash and Danny Sims about the process, causing the band to not have the funds to return to Jamaica, nor could they earn money due to work-permit restrictions. The group's London road manager, Brent Clarke, recommended they get in contact with

from

, who had released licensed singles by The Wailers from Studio One in Great Britain. Blackwell gave the group an advance of £4000 to help them get home to

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

, and to complete the recording of their next album.

Recording

The album was recorded in 1972 at three different studios in Kingston,

– Dynamic Sound, Harry J's, and Randy's, respectively – on eight-track tape by engineer Sylvan Morris. According to Aston Barrett, "some of the songs had been recorded before ... in different studios and with different musicians, but we gave them that strict timing and brought the feeling out of them more." "Baby We've Got a Date (Rock It Baby)" is similar to "Black Bitter", recorded in an earlier session. The musicians consisted of Marley on vocals and acoustic guitar, Peter Tosh on vocals, guitar and keyboards, Bunny Wailer on backing vocals and bongos, Aston "Family Man" Barrett on bass, and Carlton Barrett on drums. In addition, Robbie Shakespeare played the bass on "Concrete Jungle" and "Stir It Up",

Tyrone Downie Tyrone Downie (20 May 1956 – 5 November 2022) was a Jamaican keyboardist and pianist best known for his involvement as a member of Bob Marley and the Wailers.Foster, Chuck (1999) ''Roots Rock Reggae'', Billboard Books, , p. 66, 116 He studie ...

played organ on "Concrete Jungle" and "Stir It Up", Winston Wright played organ on all other tracks, and Alvin "Seeco" Patterson played akete drums on several tracks. The female backing singing was performed by

Rita Marley Alfarita Constantia "Rita" Marley OJ OD ( Anderson; born 25 July 1946) is a Jamaican reggae singer. She is the widow of reggae musician Bob Marley. Along with Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt, Rita was a member of the reggae vocal group the ...

and her friend

Marcia Griffiths Marcia Llyneth Griffiths (born 23 November 1949) is a Jamaican singer best known for the 1989 remix of her single " Electric Boogie", which serves as the music for the four-wall " Electric Slide" line dance. It is the best-selling single of ...

Tommy McCook Tommy McCook (4 March 1927 – 5 May 1998) was a Jamaican saxophonist. A founding member of The Skatalites, he also directed The Supersonics for Duke Reid, and backed many sessions for Bunny Lee or with The Revolutionaries at Channel ...

played the flute. In the winter of 1972, Marley flew back to London to present the master tapes to Chris Blackwell. CBS and Sims, with whom the band were already contracted, took Blackwell and the Island Records label to court over the recording. Island won the case, and received US$9,000 (about $68,000 in 2024) and two percent of

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset or ...

from the band's first six albums, while Sims received 5,000 and the publishing rights to the Wailers songs. Blackwell remixed the tracks at the Island Studios on Basing Street, and included

overdub Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more a ...

session guitarist Wayne Perkins, who at that time was recording a new Smith, Perkins & Smith album at the Island studio, recorded a

guitar solo A guitar solo is a melody, melodic passage, instrumental section (music), section, or entire piece of music, pre-written (or improvised) to be played on a classical guitar, classical, electric guitar, electric, or acoustic guitar. In 20th and ...

overdub for "Concrete Jungle", including the three-

octave In music, an octave (: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is an interval between two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referr ...

feedback Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause and effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handle ...

at the end,

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos that ...

on "Baby We've Got a Date (Rock It Baby)", and the wah-wah-laced lead on "Stir It Up". The songs' lyrics deal with political injustice towards blacks and poverty, as is the case in much of their musical output. ''Catch a Fire'' is about "the current state of urban poverty", and "Slave Driver" "connects the present to past injustices". However, politics are not the only theme; "Stir It Up", for example, is a love song. "Stir It Up", along with other Marley songs, was covered by Johnny Nash on the ''

I Can See Clearly Now "I Can See Clearly Now" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Johnny Nash. It was the lead single from his twelfth album, ''I Can See Clearly Now'' (1972), and achieved success in the United States and the United Kingdo ...

'' album, peaking at number 12 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in 1973.

Cover art

The original 1973 vinyl release, designed by graphic artists Rod Dyer and Bob Weiner, was enclosed in a sleeve depicting a

lighter. The sleeve functioned like a real Zippo lighter case, opening at a side hinge to reveal the record within. Only the original pressing of 20,000 had the Zippo cover; because each cover had to be hand-riveted, which was not cost-effective, subsequent pressings had an alternative cover designed by John Bonis, featuring an Esther Anderson portrait of Marley smoking a " spliff", with the album now credited to Bob Marley and the Wailers. Shortly after the album's release, Jamaican police raided Anderson's house and seized the cover photo and film, which were never returned. Copies of the record from the original pressings have since become collector's items. The original cover art was reproduced in 2001 for the deluxe

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

edition.

Release

The first release from the album sessions was the "Baby We've Got a Date" single, released in early 1973 on Island's Blue Mountain subsidiary. ''Catch a Fire'' was released on 13 April 1973 on the Island label with a supporting tour. The album sold around 14,000 copies in its first weeks, and peaked at number 171 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart and at number 51 on ''Billboard R&B'' chart. ''Catch a Fire'' has been re-released under different recording labels with different track lengths. In 2001, a special collection edition was released containing the unreleased, non-overdubbed ("Jamaican") versions of the songs on the first side and the original, overdubbed album on the second side.

Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MFSL or MoFi) is a record label that specialized in the production of audiophile issues. The company produces reissued vinyl LP records, compact discs, and Super Audio CDs and other formats. History Recording engine ...

released an Ultradisc II version in 1995. A documentary about the album, directed by Jeremy Marre, was released in 2000, featuring interviews with the musicians and engineers who worked on the album, archive performance footage, and home video footage filmed by members of the band.

Tour

The album's supporting tour began in 1973 in the United Kingdom, and then moved to the United States. In England, they performed 19 shows at universities and clubs. While in London, the band performed on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

shows ''

The Old Grey Whistle Test ''The Old Grey Whistle Test'' (sometimes abbreviated to ''Whistle Test'' or ''OGWT'') is a British television music series broadcast by the BBC. It was devised by producer Rowan Ayers, commissioned by David Attenborough, and aired on BBC2 from ...

'' and '' Top Gear''. The UK leg of the tour was the last time singer Bunny Wailer performed with The Wailers; the reason for his departure was his unhappiness with the record marketing and promotion process, which made touring outside Jamaica difficult, with contributing factors being the difficulty in finding food suitable to his strict

Ital Ital, also spelled I-tal (), is food often celebrated by those in the Rastafari movement. It is compulsory in the Bobo Ashanti and Nyabinghi mansions, though not in the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The word derives from the English word "vital", ...

diet and other cultural clashes as a

Rastafari Rastafari is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by Religious studies, scholars of religion. There is no central authori ...

. After Bunny's departure from the tour, Tosh consulted with Marley and finally picked

Joe Higgs Joseph Benjamin Higgs (3 June 1940 – 18 December 1999) was a reggae musician from Jamaica. In the late 1950s and 1960s he was part of the duo Higgs and Wilson together with Roy Wilson. He was a popular artist in Jamaica for four decades and i ...

as a replacement. Blackwell hired the concert promoter Lee Jaffe to book gigs in North America. The Wailers performed at Paul's Mall in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and then three gigs in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, alongside

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...

E Street Band The E Street Band is an American rock band that has been the primary backing band for rock musician Bruce Springsteen since 1972. In 2014, the E Street Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the bulk of Springsteen's recordin ...

; in October, they opened for

Sly and the Family Stone Sly and the Family Stone was an American band formed in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1966 and active until 1983. Their work, which blended elements of funk, soul music, soul, psychedelic rock, gospel music, gospel, and R&B, becam ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

. These concerts marked an important step towards international acknowledgement. The tensions surrounding the marketing, promotions and income from the tour continued, causing Peter Tosh to also depart. Back in Jamaica, the group agreed to pursue solo albums, and their early solo singles were released under their Tuff Gong Records company, based at 56 Hope Road in Kingston.

Critical reception

The critical reception to ''Catch a Fire'' was positive. ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Ma ...

'' critic

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

said "half these songs are worthy of St. John the Divine", and "Barrett brothers' bass and drums save those that aren't from

limbo The unofficial term Limbo (, or , referring to the edge of Hell) is the afterlife condition in medieval Catholic theology, of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the Damned. However, it has become the gene ...

". Reviewers from ''Rolling Stone'' also praised the brothers' playing, concluding that "''Catch a Fire'' is a blazing debut". According to the review, "'Concrete Jungle' and 'Slave Driver' crackle with streetwise immediacy, while 'Kinky Reggae' and 'Stir It Up' ... revel in the music's vast capacity for good-time skanking. 'Stop That Train' and '400 Years,' both written by Peter Tosh, indicate the original Wailers weren't strictly a one-man show". Critics have called ''Catch a Fire'' one of the greatest reggae albums of all time. Vik Iyengar from

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

comments that "Marley would continue to achieve great critical and commercial success during the 1970s, but ''Catch a Fire'' is one of the finest reggae albums ever. This album is essential for any music collection". ''Rolling Stone'' ranked the album at number 123 on its list of

, moving to 126 in a 2012 revised listing, the second highest placement for a reggae album; only ''

'', ranked higher at number 46. It was later ranked at number 140 in the 2020 reboot of the list. Writing in ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

'' arts blog in 2012,

David Rodigan David Michael "Ram Jam" Rodigan MBE OD (born 24 June 1951) is a British radio DJ who also performs as a disc jockey. Known for his selections of reggae and dancehall music, he has played on stations including Radio London, Capital 95.8, K ...

described it as "quite simply, one of the greatest reggae albums ever made". The album was voted number 285 in the third edition of

Colin Larkin Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British music writer. He founded and was the editor-in-chief of ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. Along with the ten-volume encyclopedia, Larkin also wrote the book ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'', and edited th ...

's ''

All Time Top 1000 Albums ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'' is a book by Colin Larkin, creator and editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. The book was first published by Guinness Publishing in 1994. The list presented is the result of over 200,000 votes cast by the ...

'' (2000).

Track listing

All songs were written by

, except where noted. ''The Definitive Remastered'' edition (2001) Deluxe edition (2001)

Personnel

– guitar, vocals *

– organ, guitar, piano, vocals *

–

bongos Bongos (Spanish language, Spanish: ''bongó'') are an Afro-Cubans, Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small open bottomed hand drums of different sizes. The pair consists of the larger ''hembra'' () and the smaller ''macho'' ...

conga The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest ...

, vocals *

Aston "Family Man" Barrett Aston Francis Barrett, Order of Distinction, CD (22 November 1946 – 3 February 2024), often called "Family Man" or "Fams" for short, was a Jamaican musician and Rastafari movement, Rastafarian. He was best known as the bass-guitar bandleader ...

– bass guitar * Carlton "Carlie" Barrett – drums *

– backing vocals *

– backing vocals Additional musicians * John "Rabbit" Bundrick – keyboards, synthesizer,

clavinet The Clavinet is an electric clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds with rubber pads, each matching one of the keys and respond ...

* Wayne Perkins – guitar ("Concrete Jungle", "Baby We've Got a Date (Rock It Baby)", "Stir it Up") * Robbie Shakespeare – bass guitar ("Concrete Jungle" and “Stir It Up”) *

– flute * Jean Alain Roussel – piano, keyboards * Winston Wright – organ * Francisco Willie Pep – percussion * Chris Karan – percussion Production *

– production * The Wailers – production * Carlton Lee –

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

* Stu Barrett – engineering * Tony Platt – engineering * Bob Weiner – design * Rod Dyer – design

Charts

References

Sources *Farley, Christopher (2007), ''Before the Legend: The Rise of Bob Marley'', HarperCollins, *Irvin, Jim (2007), ''The MOJO Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion'', Canongate Books Ltd, *Miley, Barry et al. (2008), ''The Greatest Album Covers of All Time'', Anova Books, *Moskowitz, David Vlado (February 2007), ''The Words and Music of Bob Marley'', Greenwood Publishing Group, *Moskowitz, David Vlado (August 2007), ''Bob Marley: A Biography'', Greenwood Publishing Group, *Thompson, Dave (2002), ''Reggae & Caribbean Music'', Backbeat Books, *White, Timothy (2006), ''Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley'', Henry Holt, *Blackwell, Chris (2022), ''The Islander: My Life in Music and Beyond'', Gallery Books,

External links

''Catch a Fire''
(

Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a mostly discontinuedAlthough it is discontinued by Adobe Inc., for the Chinese market it is developed by Zhongcheng and for the international enterprise market it is developed by Ha ...

) at

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

(streamed copy where licensed) {{Authority control Bob Marley and the Wailers albums Tuff Gong albums 1973 albums Island Records albums Albums produced by Chris Blackwell