After also playing slide guitar on "Baby We've Got a Date (Rock It Baby)" and the wah-wah-laced lead on "Stir it Up," Perkins then completed his own album. Perkins, not knowing at the time what reggae was, agreed with the proposal and first played the guitar solo on "Concrete Jungle", including the three- octave feedback at the end. Muscle Shoals session guitarist Wayne Perkins, who at that time was recording a new Smith, Perkins & Smith album at the Island Studios on Basing Street, was asked by Blackwell in early 1973 to make overdubs for the song "Catch a Fire" in the studio below. The album includes many backing musicians, but none of those were credited in the liner notes. The album's title phrase, Catch a Fire, actually means "burn in Hell" this marks the essential message of the song, "Slave Driver," in which Bob Marley conveys clearly his negative attitude towards slavery and oppression. Island won the case, and received US$9,000 and two percent of royalties from the band's first six albums, while Sims received GB£5,000 and the publishing rights to the Wailers songs.
In the winter of 1972, Marley flew back to London to present the master tapes to Chris Blackwell.ĬBS and Sims, with whom the band were already contracted, took Blackwell and the Island Records label to court over the recording. The album was recorded on eight-track tape by engineer Sylvan Morris in 1972 at three different studios in Kingston, Jamaica: Dynamic Sound, Harry J's and Randy's. Blackwell gave Marley an advance (of either £4000 or £8000 depending on source) to help them get home to Jamaica, and to record their next album. The band asked their London road manager, Brent Clarke, to put them in contact with Chris Blackwell from Island Records, who had released singles by the Wailers in Great Britain. After the tour, Marley and the band did not have funds to return to Jamaica, nor could they earn money due to work-permit restrictions. Columbia Records (CBS) released a single by the Wailers (the Nash-produced "Reggae on Broadway"). From November to December 1971, Marley and the Wailers toured Great Britain with Nash. It is regarded as one of the top reggae albums of all time.īob Marley moved to Sweden to work with Johnny Nash, writing and composing songs for the soundtrack to the film Want So Much To Believe.
Critical acclaim has included the album being listed at number 126 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, second only to Legend among five Bob Marley albums on the list.
Catch a Fire peaked at number 171 on the Billboard 200 and number 51 on the Billboard Black Albums charts. The Catch a Fire Tour, which covered England and the United States, helped generate international interest in the band. 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 used the name Bob Marley and the Wailers. 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 has nine songs, two of which were written and composed by Peter Tosh, the remaining seven were by Bob Marley. After finishing a tour in the United Kingdom with Johnny Nash, the band did not have enough money to return to Jamaica they approached producer Chris Blackwell, who agreed to advance the Wailers money for an album and paid their fares back home, where they recorded Catch a Fire. It was their first album released by Island Records. The sleeve art from the 1974 issue of the albumĬatch a Fire is the fifth studio album by the reggae band Bob Marley and the Wailers, released in April 1973.