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6. THE SEVENTIES: REGGAE AND THE WAILERS

The movie arrived in theaters in 1972, and Island released the soundtrack album, which featured Cliff singing
the title song, which was also the lead single. Rumors circulated that the 45 never became a hit because Island
ignored store requests for more stock to prevent its success, in an attempt to make the reluctant Cliff sign a
further one-year option with the label; they were offering 14,000GBP, and he was asking 20,000 (in 1973 Cliff
wouls sign with EMI in the U.K., and Warner Bros. In the U.S.).

More than anything before it, The Harder They Came brought reggae and Jamaica to global attention, without any
concessions to the mass market. The characters all spoke in patois, virtually incomprehensible to non-native
ears, telling the story of a rude boy's rise and fall in Kingston. The ghettoes were truthfully portrayed. The
soundtrack steered clear of the pop-reggae sound. While half of the album's twelve tracks were from Cliff,
the others were a selection of reggae classics - "Rivers Of Babylon" (Melodians), "007 (Shanty Town)"
(Desmond Dekker), "Pressure Drop" (Toots and the Maytals), and of the greatest rude boy anthems,
The Slickers' "Johnny Too Bad." It was reggae at its unvarnished best, not sweetened in any attempt to win
over new fans.

Between chart success and the film, reggae how had recognition. What it needed was one person to bring
together the disparate elements - songwriting, musicianship, and image - that could fully establish reggae
both commercially and critically. It seemed like a tall order, but the person was already there.

In 1972 The Wailers, with the Barrett brothers now part of the band, moved to England to work for Johnny Nash.
Marley had preceded the others, to work with Nash on the score of a Swedish film starring Nash (it was never
released). Once ensconced in a cheap London hotel, the Wailers became the backup band for Nash's I Can See
Clearly Now album, and Marley signed a contract with CBS, who issued his "Reggae On Broadway." Nash's promotion
man, Brent Clarke, worked the single hard, but with no record company support, it only sold 3000 copies. Soon
Clarke was expending all his energies on the Wailers, moving them into a house which became a focal point for
young black musicians.

When Nash left England for America, Clarke began work at Island, and gave Blackwell a demo tape of songs Marley
had written for Nash. Blackwell was familiar with them, and had once considered signing them to Island, before
being dissuaded by their difficult reputation. Now Island were looking for a reggae artist to replace Cliff,
and The Wailers were in danger of being deported. The timing was perfect for a deal.

For the meager sum of 8000GBP, and the right to release their own records in the Caribbean, The Wailers became
Island recording artists (actually for the second time - Island had issued "Put It On" in 1965). Borrowing
money from Clarke, who'd brokered the deal, they returned to Jamaica to record. At Dynamic Studios in Kingston,
the tracks that made up Catch A Fire were laid down.

When Marley (who at this stage did not have dreadlocks) delivered the tapes to Blackwell in the winter of 1972,
Blackwell could sense the potential. With the right push, it could break reggae into the mainstream. However,
the sound was still too Jamaican, and so guitarist Al Perkins and keyboard player Rabbit Bundrick were drafted
in. The finished album had both a rootsy feel and a fine rock sheen.

Island put a lot of marketing muscle behind Catch A Fire. It came in a die-cut cover with guaranteed eye appeal.
The disc, and the band, received a great deal of press, and toured Europe and America; in New York, they played
a week at Max's Kansas City, doing three 30-minute sets a night. But a winter tour of the U.K. was abandoned,
ostensibly because of the cold.

The three core members of The Wailers had been together for a decade, but with the flowering of real success,
cracks in the unity began appearing. Blackwell had formed a strong working relationship with Marley, and was
pushing him as the leader of the group, something neither Tosh nor Wailer fully understood. But Tosh, who once
pulled a machete on Blackwell, was notoriously volatile and Wailer, still the only Rasta in the band, refused
to sign agreements and contracts, a nightmare for both label and management.

Even with Island's might and money, Catch A Fire didn't make international stars of The Wailers. The white
rock world need more time to absorb the new phenomenon (acceptance really came with Eric Clapton's cover of
Marley's "I Shot The Sheriff"). But it was the record that became the foundation for reggae to become a
global phenomenon.