The Wailers - Catch A Fire (1973)

In 1971 Bob Marley moved to Sweden to work with Johnny Nash, writing and composing songs for the soundtrack to the film 'Want So Much To Believe'. At the end of the year Marley and the Wailers toured Great Britain with Nash, but when the tour was over Marley and the band didn't have funds to return to Jamaica, nor could they earn money due to work-permit restrictions. The band asked promoter Brent Clarke to help them, and he contacted Chris Blackwell from Island Records, who had released singles by the Wailers in the UK. Blackwell promised Clarke an advance of £8,000.00 for their next album, so Clarke lent the Wailers some money to return to Jamaica. Once back in Jamaica sessions for the album started, with recording taking place at three different studios in Kingston, Jamaica: Dynamic Sound, Harry J's and Randy's. In the winter of 1972 Marley flew back to London to present the master tapes, but the deal with Island led to a dispute with CBS, to whom the band were already contracted, and a court case soon followed. Island Records won the case, receiving $9,000.00 and two percent of royalties from the band's first six albums, and so the stage was set for the first UK release of a Bob Marley And The Wailers album. However, when Blackwell heard the tapes he insisted that more work was needed on the songs, and took over as producer, adding overdubbed guitar from Wayne Perkins. Blackwell also tweaked arrangements and adjusted mixes, rolling back some of the heavier bass-end parts and generally moulding the sound into a shape that remained true to the band’s roots, but which would also sit comfortably in the mainstream rock marketplace of the day. It seemed to work, and the album took off in the UK, introducing reggae to a massive new audience, and it remains one of the greatest reggae albums of all time. It was given a deluxe re-issue in 2001, and as a bonus we were treated to our first hearing of the un-edited takes of the songs, as recorded in Jamaica, and with no overdubs. So for anyone who missed that re-issue, or never even knew that the album that they love has an rough-edged cousin, then here is the original Jamaican version of it, including two songs which were dropped from the UK issue. 

Track listing

01 Concrete Jungle
02 Stir It Up
03 High Tide Or Low Tide
04 Stop That Train
05 400 Years
06 Baby We've Got A Date (Rock It Baby)
07 Midnight Ravers
08 All Day All Night
09 Slave Driver
10 Kinky Reggae
11 No More Trouble