140. Bob Marley and the Wailers, "Catch a Fire"

 

There is something so hypnotic and soothng about reggae that it can lull you into a pleasant torpor while the song is about skulls being crushed in the slums of Kingston.  Although this was the Wailers' fifth studio album, it was the one that really launched the group, and frontman Bob Marley, and reggae in general, into the Western musical consciousness.  And this shit is dark.  Take "Slave Driver," the second song on the album.  Set over a typically langorous reggae beat, Bob sings:

Ev'rytime I hear the crack of a whip,
My blood runs cold.
I remember on the slave ship,
How they brutalize the very souls.
Today they say that we are free,
Only to be chained in poverty.
Good God, I think it's illiteracy;
It's only a machine that makes money.
Slave driver, the table is turn, y'all. Ooh-ooh-oo-ooh.

Real shit, not some metaphorical "slave driver."  But with Marley's bewitching high tenor and the absolutely lovely backing vocals, you almost forget what's going on here.  

I've never been a huge reggae fan; I like it just fine when it's on, but I don't really go seeking it out, so this album was new to me, and I really, really liked it.  There have been albums on here that I literally hated listening to, and some that were just boring, but this I actually listened to pretty much continuously for two days because it's just so pleasant, despite the sometimes harrowing subject matter.

But it's not all misery!  Sometimes Bob has, uh, different concerns (from "Kinky Reggae"):

I went downtown, (I went downtown)
I saw Miss Brown; (said, I saw Miss Brown)
She had brown sugar (had brown sugar)
All over her booga-wooga. (over her booga-wooga)
I think I might join the fun, (I might join the fun)
But I had to hit and run. (had to hit and run)
See I just can't settle down (just can't settle down)
In a kinky part of town.

OK then!  This album also has "Stir It Up," a flat-out love (well, maybe lust) song that became famous from its inclusion on Legend, Bob's greatest hits album that will almost surely be on this list.

The original cover art for this album has become legendary.  It looked like a Zippo lighter and the cover itelf was hinged to open in the middle like that kind of lighter.  Only something like 20,000 were produced because they were so expensive to make, and they're now collector's items.

It's gonna be 80 degrees or some such nonsense in San Francisco today.  Perfect day to put this album on and sit in the park or your yard or whatever.  Weed's legal too, nudge nudge.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? My knowledge of reggae is limited, as I've said, but I'll go ahead and say yes.