Review: The Wailers’ ‘Catch a Fire’ Still Sizzles on 50th Anniversary

Bob Marley and the Wailers
Catch a Fire-50^th Anniversary Edition
(Island/UMe)
4 1/2 out of 5 stars

Few music fans outside of Jamaica knew about reggae before the April 1973 appearance of The Wailers’ Island label debut, Catch a Fire. Sadly, not many more were aware of it immediately afterward either.

The band’s fifth full-length, but first with worldwide distribution, languished on the charts, reaching a disappointing No. 171 in the States, selling an anemic 14,000 copies.

Things have radically changed five decades later. Catch a Fire, its title taken from the lyrics of the searing “Slave Driver,” is now considered a milestone in pop music history. It was formerly credited to The Wailers, Bob Marley’s name was later amended to the group’s imprint after two original members, Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston (later Wailer), left for solo careers later in 1973. Their harmonies, along with call and response interaction, a key ingredient of the often haunting Wailers sound, were replaced by a female trio, the I Threes.

The initial nine tracks combine sultry, salty, hot-blooded lyrics (“Stir It Up,” “Kinky Reggae”) with a potent political stance. The latter is best represented by Tosh’s “400 Years” (Way too long, that’s the reason my people can’t see), the aforementioned, tightly wound “Slave Driver” (How they brutalized our very souls), and Marley’s gripping opener “Concrete Jungle” (…I’ve never known happiness and I’ve never known sweet caresses). The band’s loose yet boiling rhythms were stripped down, the singing (mostly led by Marley, some from Tosh), was distinctive and soulful, and the project seethed with the heat implied in its name.

Dedicated Marley fans likely own the 2001 expanded double disc with its early, non-overdubbed version packaged with the final remix. This 50th go-round adds some of those tracks in what is described as “Jamaican Alternate” or “Extended Versions,” and a few instrumental takes on a second disc; all worthwhile, none essential.

But an additional platter delivers a professionally recorded 10-song concert with the original quintet from a May 1973 London show.  It includes a preview of “Get Up Stand Up” (that wouldn’t appear for another few months on the band’s follow-up studio album) and finds the Wailers in rugged, raw form, locking into a hypnotic groove centered around Aston “Family Man” Barrett’s elastic, rubbery bass lines. A stuffy UK radio announcer introduces each selection in a hushed tone as if he’s announcing a golf game, which slows the momentum somewhat. Still, there isn’t much tape from this early incarnation of The Wailers, especially with pristine audio, providing this with significant historical context.

In any configuration, Catch a Fire is a monumental release, the first international introduction to Bob Marley (after a few unsuccessful tries) presenting reggae music to the world. Later albums may include better material, but this one ignited the flame.   

Photo by Arthur Gorson