Bob Marley — Catch a Fire

Bob Marley may be taking on a giant spliff on the album cover, but Catch a Fire is not a drug album.

Marley is synonymous with weed, which he smoked regularly. Still, he and The Wailers (Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston) partook of the grass because it’s considered a sacrament and aid to meditation in their Rastafari faith. True, Marley smoked weed when writing, but he and The Wailers produced intelligent, catchy protest music that continues to resonate worldwide today.

You can’t talk about reggae or even have a severe music discussion without a nod to the legendary Bob Marley. He and The Wailers invented reggae, became demigods in their homeland of Jamaica. With Catch a Fire, they became international stars.

While the blend of rock, blues, and Calypso had youngsters around the world bobbing their heads to The Wailers’ melodies, Jamaicans nodded in agreement with Marley’s lyrics. As he decried the social conditions around him while remaining hopeful that his people would overcome them on songs like “Midnight Ravers” and “Concrete Jungle” — “No chains around my feet but I’m not free/I know I am bound here in captivity.”

Marley’s verses are full of passion and sorrow but his love ballad, “Stir it Up,” showed that Marley could do more than bray against the…