Bob Marley And The Wailers – Burnin’ – Analogue Productions Hybrid Stereo SACD

Burnin’ was, to some degree, a summary of the Wailers’ progress to this point. An album full of revolutionary fire and fervor, it was also the last, heroic distillation of a lineup that had taken the teenaged Wailer, Tosh, and Marley on a journey from the streets of Trenchtown to the brink of global stardom.

Although a “new” act in Britain and America, the Wailers had been singing and recording together since 1963, and could boast a plentiful catalog of songs which were largely unknown outside Jamaica. Several of the tracks on Burnin’ were re-recordings of songs that had been released before. “Put It On,” a gentle, spiritual groove with the more emollient chant of “Lord I Thank You,” had been released as a single on the Studio One label in Jamaica in 1965, when it was one of the first songs to coin the word “toasting” to refer to the lyrical style of chanting by the dancehall DJs. Likewise “Duppy Conqueror” and “Small Axe” were both new recordings of songs that were old favorites in the Wailers’ story.

From Burnin’ forward it would be Bob Marley who was very much the man in charge.