1973 was a pivotal year for reggae music. It was the year Bob Marley & The Wailers released both their 5th, 6th studio albums “Catch A Fire” {Island} “Burnin” {Island} in April and October. Trojan Records also re-released “African Herbsman” {Trojan} in July. It’s the year reggae picked up momentum after Jimmy Cliff’s Harder They Come was released in the U.S. the previous year and the Wailer’s went on tour to promote their albums.
That year marked the departure of founding Wailers members: Bunny Livingston (later Wailer) in April and Peter Tosh in December. Despite this, The Wailers were still booked to open for Sly and The Family Stone for 17 dates beginning in October 1973. Sadly, they only performed on four shows before being fired because they didn’t connect with Sly’s audience.
Stranded in Las Vegas, the band called upon Jamaican attorney Gus Brown who brought them to San Francisco, where they performed a pair of shows before traveling to Los Angeles. It was here that Shelter Records had released The Wailers’ first U.S. single, “Duppy Conqueror” (misspelled as “Doppy Conquer”), which was one of the songs they performed on Capitol Session ’73 per Billboard Magazine.
Bob Marley’s mesmeric vocals and the band’s infectious reggae beat can be seen in an exclusive clip of their performance. While 1973 was a year of upheaval for The Wailers, it also showcased their resilience and cemented their place in the history of reggae music.
“Catch A Fire,” was the first Island Records album by the Wailers Trio, Bob Marley & The Wailers. Since 1991, the album has sold 584K units in the U.S. according to data provided to WMV by Luminate.
The album which features Marley classics such as Concrete Jungle, Stir It Up and Kinky Reggae is now eligible for Gold certification by the Recording Industry Association (RIAA).The album which was made with a £4,000 investment by Chris Blackwell re-entered at No. 6 on last week’s U.S. Billboard Reggae Chart 50 years after its release after peaking at No. 171 on the Billboard 200 and No. 51 on Billboard’s Black Albums Chart.
Blackwell, who claimed he believed in the image of the trio Bob Bunny and Peter from the start said Catch a Fire didn’t resonate widely in the major music markets like the U.S. in its first year of release.
The music business impresario took great care to overdub the songs at his U.K. Island Studios to give them a “rock feel” and It initually sold 14000 copies at the time and about 6000 units in the first week of its global release. A small profit considering he had sold 7 million units of Millie Small’s “My Boy Lollipop.”
In his memoir “The Islander: My Life In Music And Beyond,” Blackwell said he didn’t mark the low sales as a failure, instead he insisted that the label put the necessary support behind the album. Now, Catch A Fire is one piece of the Bob Marley and The Wailers catalogue of albums that sells forever.
Most of the recording for the album was done in Kingston, Jamaica at Dynamic Sound studios, Harry J’s, and Randy’s (Now VP Records).
In an excerpt from the book, the 84 year old hotelier Blackwell recalls his experience in making the band’s first Island records album saying he wanted to “take the music out of Jamaica without taking Jamaica out of it.”
“They were immediately something else, these three — strong characters. They did not walk in like losers, like they were defeated by being flat broke. To the contrary, they exuded power and self-possession. Bob especially had a certain something; he was small and slight but exceptionally good-looking and charismatic. Bunny and Pete had a cool, laid-back nonchalance,” the book stated.
It was also the year non-Jamaican bands and individual singers released records that climbed the pop charts all over the world.
Tidbits used Jamaican musicians Winston Wright, and Denzil Laing to play on “My Friend Maude” for the 1973 album Greetings From Jamaica recorded at Dynamic Sounds. Paul McCartney & Wings 1973 song – “Live and Let Die” inspired by the Ian Flemming screenplay adaptation for the James Bond movie is a rock song – which has small reggae bridge.
The dub classic helped to put Lee “Scratch” Perry in a class by himself with tracks like “Dreamland Dub” and “Kasha Macka Dub.”
“Lee “Scratch” Perry and the Upsetter’s innovations in dub music and experimentation with extending instruments and incorporating sound effects in the studio has been indelible for Black American music and reggae alike,” says the Grio who named Perry as one of 8 black producers who changed the game.
