The year is 1973 and soft rock mania has gripped the nation. Carly Simon, Moody Blues, Carole King, and James Taylor own the top-4 albums on the chart. Men begin compensating by showing more chest hair and wearing tighter and tighter pants, just to demonstrate that they're still men, despite all the talk of tapestries and pina colada. Pushback is brewing, but we are still a year away from the birth of the Ramones and three years from The Clash. Who will bridge the gap?
Into the void stepped the most unlikely of bands, The Wailers. Primarily composed of two Kingston, Jamaica street toughs, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, and a country boy, Bob Marley, The Wailers made their major label debut today in 1973 with the release of "Catch a Fire". (The term "catch a fire" is a Jamaican euphemism for "go to hell".)
The band had been together for years but were primarily only known in Jaimaca. In 1968 they signed with a small label owned by Johnny Nash ("I Can See Clearly Now") and released a few singles but had no real success. It was on a late-1972 UK tour supporting Nash that the band's luck would change.
Initially it changed into some real bad luck when Nash left the UK for some tour dates in the US, leaving the Wailers stranded. The group contacted Island Records producer/owner Chris Blackwell, who signed them and gave them money to get home. Once home, The Wailers recorded the nine tracks that would introduce reggae to the world.
One of those tracks, "Stir It Up", was covered by Nash. Nash's version hit #12 on the US singles chart, helping the Wailers reach a wide audience. The music's exotic rhythms provided cover for many of the overtly political themes. At least five of the nine tracks dealt with oppression, slavery or issues affecting the poor. These themes would be revisited throughout the solo careers of the Wailers, most prominently through Tosh and Marley. "Catch a Fire" peaked at #171 on the album chart and is perhaps Bob Marley's finest album (he wrote seven of the nine tracks).
More on Bob Marley here: https://www.elevenwarriors.com/forum/anything-else/2016/02/67571/bob-mar...
