Catch A Fire - Bob Marley and The Wailers at their best (Catch A Fire - Bob Marley & The Wailers)

Member Name: dangaroo

Product:	Catch A Fire - Bob Marley & The Wailers
Date:	04/08/08 (40 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great mix of talented musicians

Disadvantages: none

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 album by the band, the first being Burnin', this album was "westernised" by being sent to the UK and having various instruments added to it, in recent years the originally unreleased Jamaican versions of the album have been released in a rip-off deluxe package.

The album is 125 in the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame and ironically despite being close to the end of the band at its best, it gained Bob Marley & The Wailers their first hit outside of Jamaica when "Stir It Up" was covered by Johnny Nash.

The original album was designed like a Zippo lighter but these days the cheaper version tends to feature Bob with a joint. The album goes through different styles on different songs, whether it be the racy track - kinky reggae, backing vocal heavy songs like Stir It Up or conga heavy Midnight Ravers, catchy Stop That Train or a soulful Tosh song like 400 years and an anthem like Concrete Jungle with an almost Santana sound, every song on this album is a peach.

1. Concrete Jungle
2. Slave Driver
3. 400 Years
4. Stop That Train
5. Baby We've Got A Date (Rock It Baby)
6. Stir It Up
7. Kinky Reggae
8. No More Trouble
9. Midnight Ravers
10. High Tide Or Low Tide
11. All Day All Night

Summary: Superb