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Further, the following year
when he was running a motor scooter rental business in Kingston, he noticed
that Rastas were the only ones who puttered by regularly to pay up. So when
he entered the Jamaican record business in 1959, he made a point of
investigating the Rastas' ideological and social influences on ska, rock
steady and reggae, believing the heroic, principled passivity of the sect to
be the source of many of the music's more appealing permutations.
In 1964 Millie Small, an act he was managing, had a huge worldwide hit with
'My Boy Lollipop'. After that Chris Blackwell was drawn into the world of
pop and rock: he managed The Spencer Davis Group, which featured Steve
Winwood, and launched Island as a rock label on the back of Winwood's group
Traffic. Soon Island became the most sought-after label for groups
specialising in the 'underground' rock of the late 1960s.
BOB MARLEY SINGS WITH
ISLAND
In 1971, at a time when Blackwell was trying to find a way to take reggae
into the rock album market,
Bob Marley walked into his office. "He came in
right at the time when there was this idea in my head that a rebel-type
character could really emerge," Blackwell said.
"And that I could break such an artist. I was dealing with rock music, which
was really rebel music. I felt that would really be the way to break
Jamaican music. But you needed somebody who could be that image. When Bob
walked in, he really was that image..."
Although Blackwell had released Marley's first single, he had hardly kept
track of his career. All he knew was that he had been warned about The
Wailers, that these guys were "trouble". "But in my experience," Blackwell
said, "when people were described like that, it usually means that they know
what they want."
Blackwell cut a deal with the group who came to him as Bob Marley and The
Wailers, as Bob had been billed on 'Reggae on Broadway'. He would give them
£4,000 to return to
Jamaica and make an LP. When he received the final tapes
they would get another £4,000. He also agreed to give to the Tuff Gong label
the rights to Wailers material in the Caribbean, which was to provide a
useful source of cash in the coming years. (A deal also had to be struck
with Danny Sims: for another £4,000 Blackwell bought Bob out of his contract
with CBS.)
"Everybody told me I was mad: they said I'd never see the money again,"
Blackwell says. He ignored these naysayers, instead giving advice as to how
the three singers should pursue their career. The idea of a vocal trio with
backing musicians was dated, he told them: they should take their favourite
musicians and forge themselves into a tight road band, capable of touring
and presenting several layers of identity in addition to Bob Marley's.
On their return to
Jamaica, the group immediately went into Kingston's Harry
J's studio. By the end of the year, after further sessions at Dynamic and
Randy's studios, the album, which was to be called
Catch a Fire, was
completed. Chris Blackwell set about marketing the record.
ROOTS, ROCK, REGGAE
The decision was made that
Catch A Fire should be the first reggae album
sold as though it was a rock act. In line with this, rock guitar and
keyboards were also added to the LP at Island's Basing Street studio in
London's Notting Hill.
Then the cover was worked on, an outsize cardboard replica of a Zippo
cigarette lighter. It hinged upwards and the record was removed from the top
of the sleeve; in fact, it often stuck within the packaging, but the desired
effect was created all the same.
Danny Sims, eager to sell singles via American radio air-play, had had no
time whatsoever for
Rastafari subject matter. Chris Blackwell, on the other
hand, positively welcomed it. As well as feeling sympathetic to the
philosophy of the religion, he understood its strength as a marketing tool.
The British music press had always been more important in selling albums in
the United Kingdom than the limited radio air-play that was then available.
"So what Bob Marley believed in and how he lived his life was something that
had tremendous appeal for the media," Blackwell said.
"The press had been dealing with the greatest time in the emergence of rock
'n' roll and it was starting to quiet down.
Now here was this Third World superstar who had a different point of view,
an individual against the system, who also had an incredible look: this was
the first time you had seen anyone looking like that, other than Jimi
Hendrix. And Bob had that power about him and incredible lyrics," he
continued.
Catch A Fire was released to critical acclaim and was followed by
Burnin',
the last album the Wailers' original trio -
Bob,
Bunny, and
Peter would
record together. With Island, the Wailers enjoyed International stardom, and
the teachings of
Rastafari reaching every corner of the globe. |
