Catch A Fire | Bob Marley The Wailers

Catch a Fire is the fifth studio album by the reggae band The Wailers (aka Bob Marley and the Wailers), released in April 1973. It was their first album released by Island Records. After finishing a UK tour with Johnny Nash, they had started laying down tracks for JAD Records 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, 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; the remaining seven were by Bob Marley. While Bunny Wailer 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 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 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. 

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 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 Chris Blackwell from Island Records, 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, and to complete the recording of their next album.

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.

Track Listings

Side 1

1     Concrete Jungle 
2     Slave Driver 
3     400 Years 
4     Stop That Train 
5     Baby We've Got a Date (Rock It Baby) 

Side 2

1     Stir It Up 
2     Kinky Reggae 
3     No More Trouble 
4     Midnight Ravers