Catch A Fire - Bob Marley & The Wailers

Catch a Fire is the first release from the Wailers on a major label. They teamed up with Island Records label owner Chris Blackwell to release what has become a must own reggae album. For this album Blackwell wanted to market the Wailers not as reggae band but as a black rock group and for this reason the album is certainly one of the first reggae releases to contain guitar solos. This album is more accessible than the Wailer's later album Burnin' and probably ranks alongside Exodus as the Wailers most commercial sounding work. This is not, in this case, a bad thing and every song is quality and very well produced. If all you have heard of Bob Marley so far is Legend ...  Read the complete review

Bob Marley & the Wailers - Catch a Fire (1973) Producer: Chris Blackwell Concrete Jungle Slave Driver 400 Years Stop That Train Baby We Got a Date (Rock It Baby) Stir It Up Kinky Reggae No More Trouble Midnight Ravers Released in 1973 on the label Island Records, Catch a Fire is the major label debut album by The Wailers (they wouldn't come to be known as Bob Marley & the Wailers until the original Wailers band split in 1974 and Bob Marley assimilated a backing band of the same name to aid him in his 'solo' career, consisting of the remaining members of The Wailers and the I Threes on ...  Read the complete review

Catch A Fire was Bob Marley & The Wailers 5th studio album, having been playing since 1965, they suddenly gathered pace releasing 2 albums in 1 year and a compilation of Wailers tracks. This was the end of the band as we knew it though, with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer going off to start their solo careers. Albums after 73 became poppy and lacked the true reggae sound with Ashton Barrett's bass line and the backing vocals of Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh. The Tosh and Marley line-up seemed to give the band more flexibility allowing one to cover for the other on either the guitar or the vocals and giving it a sublime result. This is my 2nd favourite studio ...  Read the complete review