April 13, 1973 - The Wailers and Catch A Fire

A new band joins my library on April 13, 1973 when The Wailers released their fifth album, "Catch A Fire". But who are The Wailers? They were a reggae band from Kingston, Jamaica and their first album came out in 1965! They have gone through several line-up changes, but retained three founding members: Bunny Wailer (bongos, congas, vocals), Peter Tosh (keyboards, guitar, vocals) and Bob Marley (guitar, lead vocals). On this first album I have of theirs, they are a 7-piece, and joining the three original members are brothers Carlton Barret (drums) and Aston "Family Man" Barrett (bass) as well as backup singers Marcia Griffiths and Bob's wife Rita Marley. The Wailers were successful mostly in Jamaica, but it was this album that started to gain them some international stardom. Let's check out some reggae from the guys who do it best!

Side one kicks off with "Concrete Jungle" and Tosh's organ sounds pretty sweet, along with a catchy guitar riff. Marley sings lead, with Tosh and Wailer doing backing vocals. Reggae doesn't really do flashy parts so this song is pretty much par for the course. The next track is "Slave Driver" which has an echo-y guitar keeping the pace while Griffiths and Rita sing "oooo" background vocals. Marley's lead singing is pretty good and he sings about slaves being brought over from Africa on ships. It's certainly a little sad, but it's a well done song. Bob wrote most of the songs on this album, but the next two are both written by Tosh, starting with "400 Years". He sings lead on this song, and there's lots of backup vocals. Some great bass by Barrett carries this song and the guitar and keyboards sound cool as well. Tosh's voice sounds really good and everybody is doing a great job on this one. Track 4 is "Stop That Train" which has Bob and Tosh play some cool guitar and organ respectively throughout the song. Tosh is on lead vocals again as he writes another really catchy, laid-back beat. The final song on the side is "Baby We've Got A Date (Rock It Baby)" which is a bit of a rock meets reggae song. Bob's back on lead vocals again, and he sounds great as Rita and Griffiths back him. Keyboards and some cool bass carry the beat, and we hear lots of cool guitar by Bob. He sings about reminding a girl that they have a date, and they're gonna rock it tonight in this pretty cool love song.

Side two begins with "Stir It Up" which is led by some cool bass by Barrett and a typical reggae guitar. Bob sings lead, and has lots of backup vocals, both male and female. We hear an extended cool guitar solo by Tosh that sounds pretty sweet and it adds some spice to this laid-back song. The next track is called "Kinky Reggae" and Bob sings a little quicker on this one, with Wailer echoing his lyrics. Tosh's organ sounds cool backing another catchy, simple guitar riff which doesn't quite do justice to the variety of riffs they play. Track 8 is titled "No More Trouble" and heavily features Rita and Griffiths singing backing vocals. Bob's voice sounds smooth as usual and we hear more cool keyboards by Tosh as well as some nice congas by Wailer too. The final song is "Midnight Ravers" and just like the last one has cool congas and some really cool organ by Tosh. Again, Bob sings with backup from male and female singers. "It's a musical stampede"! A cool finish to a very solid album.

That is the end of "Catch A Fire" and I thought it was a pretty cool album. Reggae is certainly different than most of the stuff I've been listening to. It's much softer, more laid-back music than rock, but it has a relaxing feel to it while still having the best parts of rock music, with guitar, bass and drums leading the way, as well some cool keyboards in this genre as well. I look forward to hearing more from The Wailers in the future! It's a "couple months" until my next release, see you then!

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