Customer Reviews

Catch A Fire

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In The Wailers' "Catch A Fire" and "Burnin'" (both released in the same year, 1973), the group released two instant classics that they never surpassed in terms of artistry, musicianship, rhythm foundation or edginess. And these two albums were also the last two that the original Wailing Wailers (Marley, Tosh, Bunny) made together.
A blend of new and old (such familiar tracks as "Concrete Jungle," "Slave Driver," "400 Years," "Stop that Train" from "Catch A Fire," and "Put It On," "Small Axe" and "Duppy Conqueror" from "Burnin'" were remakes), these albums were the Wailers first releases with the intent to reach an international, mainstream audience. Blending in some rock influences such as the guitar style, and toning down the bass and drum for more treble sounds to reach the rock audiences in Europe and America, the Wailers debut on Island label snuck up slowly on these listeners, just as the intro to "Concrete Jungle" slowly rolls in, opening the "Catch A Fire" album. There may be some lesser, lighter moments on both albums, but no songs are throwaway, no songs are filler.
Sadly, despite being full of gems and instant Wailers classics, original members Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer left to start solo careers, feeling they were in the shadow of Bob, and had their own stories to tell musically. It was more unfortunate, because Bob Marley and the Wailers (as the group became known) never surpassed the quality of these albums on later efforts. With Tosh's departure went the edgy, bassy rhythm sounds, and with both Bunny and Tosh went the delectable harmonies they provided behind Bob's lead vocals. If there are only two albums in the Wailers library of music, they go by the names "Catch A Fire" and "Burnin'." They both had a stark, unadulterated emotion and edge that Bob Marley's more pop-influenced efforts lack. With the departures of Tosh and Bunny, it felt as if a light was being extinguished. But listening to these albums again, makes me remember back to a time, when the childhood friends were like brothers, making music together until the sun came up. Listening to these albums is bittersweet, but I can still relive those times listening to the sweet, harmonious music they made together, as family, reminiscing to a time when something truly mystical, magical was happening in the studio. But with the breakup of the original Wailing Wailers, the circle was broken, the fire doused, and what once was one, was splintered into three, to never join back together again. "In the ghetto, bitter was sweet....."

Don't you love it when a record company puts out a "Deluxe Edition" of an album (such as is the case with "Catch a Fire" some) and then six months later puts out a reissue of the same album with bonus tracks? Tacking on two extra tracks to the U.S. mix of "Catch a Fire" gives Marley fans a dilemma : the "Deluxe Edition" or this edition? I don't think Bob Marley would have approved of such corporate cynicism. I can't help but rate this CD five stars on its historical and artistic merits (even though I prefer the leaner Jamaican mix on the second disk of the "Deluxe Edition" to the organ-drenched U.S. mix), but I feel cheated neverthless.

"Catch a Fire" is an excellent debut album by the Wailers. All the original Wailers are there including Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer. Their performance here is electric. The album was released in 1973 and it was this album that got me hooked to reggae music. This is the album that popularized reggae. Wailer fans will find this a treat. Listeners will enjoy the excellent instrumentation: the guitar, keyboards and percussion combined with gentle and soothing vocals to complete an exhilarating picture.

The songs in the album address serious social and political issues. Some of the songs include "Slave Driver", "Concrete Jungle", "Stop that Train", "No More Trouble" and my favourite song on the album "Stir it Up".

For me, this is the best and most creative album by the Wailers with its classic roots reggae. This is great music even for those that are not reggae fans. When I need to lift my spirits up, I play this album. I always feel better afterwards.

When Bob Marley, Bunny Livingston (Wailer), and Peter McIntosh (Tosh)entered the studio and began recording Catch a Fire in 1972, they had already established an impressive track record on the island of Jamaica. But when they signed to Chris Blackwell's Island label, their music reached a new level. While reggae music had not been tremendously popular at this time, The Wailers proved their style of reggae was strong enough to carry a full-length album.
Not only is this album one of the best by Bob Marley and the Wailers, it is one of the best albums in the entire genre of reggae music, and here's why...up to this point, Bob, Peter, and Bunny have never sounded better. Their vocals and harmonies are suberb, their musicianship is just as impressive, and their song writing (Bob's in particular) is passionate (Concrete Jungle), personal (Slave Driver), and seductive (Stir It Up). Blackwell's production and mixing give the songs a crisper, more rock/dub influenced edge that really enhance the original recordings, and he really helped bring out the best in The Wailers. Any way you look at it, this album is a classic and a must-have for fans of reggae music.

one ting immediately comes to mind when i listen to this disc... and that is, tight rythmn section. Aston and carlton barrett produced the heaviest, tightest rythmn section the planet has seen to date. I don't know if this album was originally released in the summer, but the beats have a lot of heat coming off them. I can only picture listening to "stir it up" and "midnight ravers" on a hot, sultry summer night. "Slave driver" is my favorite wailers song, period. That song takes one on a painful journey over the unprecendented, melodic, soulful chorus of tosh, bunny and marley. The harmonies on "concrete jungle" interspersed with marley's lead are beautiful...and even though i wasn't old enough to understand that music lost wonderful possibility when tosh and bunny left, after listening to this disc i lament the fact these guys couldn't stay together. i really don't like tosh's lead vocals as much as marley, but the harmonies on "400 years" and "stop that train" make these songs almost as powerful as the ones where marley takes the lead.

This disc is a good combination of political, biblical, romantic and sexual songs. Marley's later albums had many more conspicuous political tracks on them. This album, lyrically speaking, is like a combination of "kaya" and "rastaman vibration." There are heavy political statements like "no more troubles" and then there are songs about everyday things like "kinky reggae." I really like the lyrics on the first four tracks, because they aren't as hit-you-over-the-head as "no more troubles," ironically making their messages come across stronger. These four tracks remind me of the harlem renaissance writers, who allowed readers to transcend white u.s. culture and feel the obsurdity of the contradictions in the system ("it's only a machine that make money").

I'd have to say the two tracks added to this remaster are my favorite, except for "am-a-do", out of all the others added to the other remastered wailers albums. Once again, these melodic, expressive vocals of tosh, bunny and marley make these songs heavenly. A beautiful disc.

When the Wailers were signed to island records in 1972, this marked the beginning of reggae to an international audience. The Wailers were already famous throughout the Carribbean, but worldwide they were nobody's. Catch a Fire changed all that. This was packaged as a rock album and the original album sleeve was actually a zippo lighter and when you opened the lighter the record would come out. This artwork is not original. The sound tapes were actually overdubbed with rock giutars and other instruments to make this album appeal to an American and English audience. To hear the original versions, check out Catch a Fire Deluxe Edition which has the original Jamaican versions, and the versions heard here. This is still a great recording, but the Deluxe Edition has the original Jamaican versions which are a real treat.

"Catch a Fire" may not be the first album by Bob Marley and the Wailers, but it did help put the band (and, by extension, reggae music) on the map with mainstream listeners. As with virtually all Marley albums, this 1973 CD stands tall on the merits of its tight melodies, solid instrumentation, and the often politically charged lyrics on cuts like the impassioned "Slave Driver," "400 Years" (a Peter Tosh original), and "No More Trouble," a tough jam that can be interpreted as a pro-peace/anti-war anthem. But for me, the album's high point is the catchy "Stir it Up," one of his most familiar tunes that captures the essence of a classic reggae song. Some complain that it's a bit long-winded at over 5 minutes, but for me, the groove is just fine as it is. This reissue has two bonus songs that really aren't bonus songs at all: "High Tide or Low Tide" and "All Day All Night." They were actually available on the early version of "Catch a Fire" but were later deleted from future pressings. It's good to have them back so the listener can absorb the album as it was originally released. I wouldn't exactly recommend this album as a first Bob Marley purchase, but it's still an essential recording and a definite classic that definitely shouldn't be overlooked.

By the time The Wailers began work on "Catch A Fire" in September 1972, the original group (Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bunny Livingstone) had been together and making a lot of superb music for nearly a decade, but discounting the Leslie Kong-produced "Best Of The Wailers" (the title literally a misnomer, as it was not a compilation), until Island Records head Chris Blackwell bankrolled this project, they had never entered a studio to make an album. Classic singles for the Jamaican market, seminal collaborations with Lee Scratch Perry, self-produced gems on their own label, or Johnny Nash/Danny Sims JAD recordings all deserve to be heard and are easily available, but in 1973 the black music market had caught up with the trend that began in the mid 1960s when the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Rolling Stones, who proved the youth/rock 'n' roll market was not just territory for singles, and the major artists of the era fought for artistic freedom and proved the 'album' was both artistically and commercially viable; thanks to the visionary work of Sly & The Family Stone, Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, and others, the idea of a reggae album seemed viable, and The Wailers were just the band to surpass expectations and create a unified classic.
Of course that great band was not together long enough to make very many. The great rhythm section of Aston and Carlton Barett (from Lee Perry's Upsetters) joined the original trio around 1969-70, but following the release of The Wailers' second great album, "Burnin", late in 1973, Bunny Livingston left, and in 1974 Peter Tosh split as well, so that by the time of 1975's "Natty Dread" the group was billed as Bob Marley & The Wailers, and it was clear just who would be the visual focus (or star) and creative force, though the Barretts especially continued to make Marley's great songs and vision into viscerally exciting music.
The "Catch A Fire" available on the single cd is a great album, on just about every level that matters. The songs - seven by Marley, two by Tosh - are very good to classic - the socially concious songs always seem personal, and the album is enriched with terrific and sexy pleasures such as "Kinky Reggae", "We've Got A Date" and "Stir It Up." If the lyrics lapse, the melodies and rhythms never falter, and Blackwell's post-production - adding ex-Free and Johnny Nash keyboardist Rabbit, and guitarist Wayne Perkins (best known for his work on the Stones' "Black And Blue") and a new mix - keeps the album texturally engrossing. Blackwell's intent may have been to make the album more 'commercial,' but the result is actually a hypnotic, almost dub-like effect, and compared to the original Wailers' production, the songs seem to be somehow moving in slow motion - an illusion, not the result of actually slowing down the tapes.
This brings me to the next point: if you love this album, you should really get the 2-cd "Deluxe Edition" which provides the familiar Island classic, in a marvelous remaster, plus the unissued "Jamaican" (Wailers) version, before the tapes were worked on in London. Both versions are wonderful, the Wailers' original clearly a bridge between the group's previous recordings (especially from 1969 - 72, when Perry and the Barretts became involved) and the Island years. The mixes are more direct, each vocal and instrumental part more clearly defined, and the vocal harmonies of the original trio more upfront in the mix. It is clear some of the lead vocals were re-done, as there are some slight lyrical variations. The soul and charisma are evident on both versions, and I'm glad to be able to alternate depending on my mood. I should mention that the two bonus tracks are both superb: "High Tide or Low Tide" is a gorgeous and passionate gem worthy of Curtis Mayfield at his best, while "All Night All Day" is a nifty vocal showcase with a groove and lyrics that show just how immersed the Wailers were in American soul music. "Catch A Fire" was one of only two classic studio albums made by the Marley/Tosh/Bunny/Barretts lineup, and I recommend without reservation the Deluxe edition; it's twice as much of one of the great albums of its era, in any genre.

This is not just an album to listen to while you are lying by the beach (although you could do that) - these are some seriously raw grooves with some pretty hardcore messages. This sounds much heavier than Marley's later work - the presence of peter tosh and bunny wailer deffinately fules the musical fire..
This is one of the best albums of the 70's!

Get this cd if -:
a) you appreciate Bob
b) you appreciate raw guitar sound
c) you know where the volume button is
d) all the above applies

I run into this cd as a fluke. I was browsing thru guitar music, and this cd talked about the early Bob Marley music and the extended version of Stir it up, Concrete Jungle guitar section. Given that I have 10 cd's of Bob, I decided to give this one a go, since I can never seem to have enough of Bob. I am not a rasta, or a ganja smoker...I just happen to have grown up around uncles who listened to Bob, and as it came to be, I appreciate his works.

Long story short, I put this cd in my car stereo, and boy does it stir some raw emotions. The kicker was I took my wife on a date and just when she got into the car, I tuned the cd to "Baby we've got a date", and she was hooked!! I also use this cd to make her feel good with my attempt to sing along the "High Tide or Low Tide" song.

In summary, this is the best $16 I have spent on a cd in a long, long, loooooonnnnnnnggggg! time.