Line #4 Music/CatchAFire


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/catch_a_fire_4093.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:The two album covers.]]
3
4	''Catch a Fire'' is a 1973 album by [[Music/BobMarley Bob Marley And The Wailers]]. It was the first of their albums to be released by Chris Blackwell's Creator/IslandRecords and thus the first time a Jamaican {{reggae}} band was given ideal technical facilities to record their songs in excellent sound quality.
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6	Together with the soundtrack of ''Film/TheHarderTheyCome'', ''Catch a Fire'' is notable for bringing {{reggae}} to worldwide attention outside the Carribean. There had been succesful Jamaican music artists before in the 1950s and 1960s, but apart from Music/HarryBelafonte and Music/JimmyCliff they were always one-hit wonders that didn't chart that high in Western countries. "Stir It Up" was Marley's first hit song in Western charts. However, it would take until "No Woman No Cry" in the version of the LiveAlbum ''[[Music/LiveBobMarleyAlbum Live!]]'' before Marley and reggae really broke through internationally.
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8	''Catch a Fire'' is considered to be one of the finest reggae albums in existence. In 2001 a Deluxe Edition was released with the unreleased, non-overdubbed Jamaican songs on the first disc and the original, overdubbed album on the second disc. Despite what many fans think, Marley always intended the songs to be overdubbed, but it provides an interesting alternative.
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10	A documentary about the creative process behind the making of this album can be seen in the ''Series/ClassicAlbums'' TV documentary series.
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12	----
13	!! Tracklist:
14	'''Original release'''
15
16	[[AC:Side One]]
17	# "Concrete Jungle" (4:13)
18	# "Slave Driver" (2:53)
19	# "400 Years" (2:45)
20	# "Stop That Train" (3:55)
21	# "Baby, We've Got A Date (Rock It Baby)" (3:57)
22
23	[[AC:Side Two]]
24	# "Stir It Up" (5:32)
25	# "Kinky Reggae" (3:37)
26	# "No More Trouble" (3:57)
27	# "Midnight Ravers" (5:10)
28
29	!! Stirred up tropes:
30	* AdventureTowns: Marley visits them in "Kinky Reggae".
31	* AlbumTitleDrop:
32	--> ''Slave driver, you're gonna get burned''
33	--> ''Catch a fire/ the table is turned.''
34	* AlternateAlbumCover: The original LP release featured an elaborate sleeve fashioned after a massive lighter. Due to the costs involved with producing it, reissues eventually swapped it out for a photo of Marley smoking a joint.
35	* AmbiguousGender: Women and men in "Midnight Ravers", the premise being that even the ghetto women lack the caring instincts that would ordinarily separate them from the rude boys.
36	--> ''Can't tell the woman from the man''
37	--> ''Cause they're dressed in the same pollution''
38	* AsTheGoodBookSays: "400 Years" refers to the Bible quote from Psalm 68:17 about the arrival of "ten thousand chariots of God".
39	--> ''I see 10.000 chariots''
40	* CouldntFindALighter: Subverted with the album cover, which is shaped in the form of a lighter.
41	* CrapsackWorld: "Concrete Jungle", "400 Years", "Slave Driver", "Midnight Ravers", "No More Trouble" all show the world as a place of misery and despair.
42	* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: "Concrete Jungle", in which the protagonist feels down, but hopes that "life [sweet life] must be somewhere to be found".
43	* DistinctDoubleAlbum: The 2001 Deluxe Edition is interesting because it has both the original mixes recorded in Jamaica before the overdubs were added, as well as the released album with overdubs. The set list on both is mostly the same, save for the order of the songs, occasional alt vocal takes or editing, and the inclusion of "High Tide Or Low Tide" and "All Day All Night" on the unoverdubbed version. Contrary to what people think, Marley's intention was always to have the overdubs on the album, it was just that Island Records hired outside session musicians rather thna the Wailers themselves doing it.
44	* DreamingOfThingsToCome: "Midnight Ravers":
45	--> ''I see ten thousand chariots''
46	--> ''And they're coming without horses''
47	--> ''The riders they cover their face''
48	--> ''So you couldn't make them out in smokey places.''
49	* TheEnd: "No More Trouble" which chants for an end to all problems and troubles.
50	* FaceOnTheCover: One album cover shows Bob in close-up, enjoying a joint.
51	* FugitiveArc: The protagonist in "Kinky Reggae" runs away from the kinky part of town.
52	* HeadTiltinglyKinky: Subverted in "Kinky Reggae"
53	--> ''I think I might join the fun/ but I had to hit and run.''
54	--> ''See I just can't settle down/ In the kinky part of town.''
55	* IJustWantToBeFree:
56	** "Slave Driver"
57	--> ''Today they say that we're free/ only to be chained in poverty.''
58	** "400 Years":
59	--> ''So, won't you come with me''
60	--> ''I'll take you to a land of liberty''
61	--> ''Where we can live- live a good, good life''
62	--> ''And be free''.
63	** ''"No chains around my feet/ but I'm not free/ I know I'm bounded in captivity"'' from "Concrete Jungle".
64	* MadeASlave: "Slave Driver":
65	--> ''I remember on the slaveship/ how they brutalized our very souls.''
66	--> ''Today they say that we're free/ only to be chained in poverty.''
67	* MinimalisticCoverArt: One of the album covers is shaped and colored like a lighter.
68	* NurseryRhyme: "Kinky Reggae" references a Jamaican playground song which has the following lyrics:
69	--> ''An ah went dung town one day''
70	--> ''Ah met Miss Brown one day''
71	--> ''Wid a bunch of cane one day''
72	--> ''An a beg har piece one day''
73	--> ''An shi gave it to me one day''
74	--> ''Bapsi-kysiko pindah shell, bees a go bite yu tender toe...' ''
75	* PackagedAsOtherMedium: The original LP cover was designed to look like a lighter and could have the top half be moved about, like the top of a lighter does.
76	* ThePowerOfLove: "Stop That Train", "Baby We've Got A Date", "Rock It Baby" and "Stir It Up".
77	* ShoutOut:
78	** "Concrete Jungle" is referenced in "The Beast" from ''Music/TheScore'' (1996) by Music/TheFugees
79	--> ''The streets of corruption have me bustin' and cussin' in the concrete jungle''
80	** "Forgive Them Father" from ''Music/TheMiseducationOfLaurynHill'' (1998) by Music/LaurynHill samples "Concrete Jungle".
81	** The 2006 film "Catch A Fire", set in South Africa during UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra, lends its title from this album.
82	* SmokingIsCool: One of the alternative covers shows Marley smoking a huge joint.
83	* TrainSong: "Stop That Train", although it is actually a metaphor for Tosh's thoughts of leaving the Wailers to embark on a solo career, which he eventually did.
84	* UnusualEuphemism: "She had brown sugar/all over her booga-wooga" and "He had a candy tar all over his chocolate bar" in "Kinky Reggae". ''Booga-wooga's'' are apparently little girls' shoes.

Context Music / CatchAFire