Burnin' (Bob Marley and the Wailers album)

The album was recorded at Harry J's studio in Kingston, Jamaica, with the Wailers producing.[4] It was mixed and overdubbed by Chris Blackwell at Island Records' Basing Street studios in London during the spring of 1973 while the band were touring in support of their previous album, Catch a Fire.[4]

Burnin' opens with one of The Wailers best known songs, the call to action "Get Up, Stand Up" and includes a more confrontational and militant tone than previous records, such as in another Wailers standard turned into a number one hit by Eric Clapton, "I Shot the Sheriff". The songs "Duppy Conqueror", "Small Axe", and "Put It On" are re-recordings of songs previously released on their co productions with Lee Perry’s Upsetters Label.

The Wailers' gold record award for Burnin' in Nine Mile, Jamaica

Reviewing in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau wrote: "This is as perplexing as it is jubilant—sometimes gripping, sometimes slippery. It's reggae, obviously, but it's not mainstream reggae, certainly not rock or soul, maybe some kind of futuristic slow funk, War without the pseudo-jazz. What's inescapable is The Wailers’ ferocious gift for melodic propaganda. It's one thing to come up with four consecutive title hooks, another to make the titles 'Get Up Stand Up,' 'Hallelujah Time,' 'I Shot the Sheriff,' 'Burnin' and Lootin'.'"[2]

In 2003, the album was ranked number 319 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[5] The album maintained the same position in a 2012 update of the list.[6]

In 2007 the album was added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry for its historical and cultural significance.[7]

• Sides one and two were combined as tracks 1–10 on CD reissues.

The Definitive Remastered edition (2001)

Text from 12 June 2001 Tuff Gong cat# 314 548 894-2 CD liner notes:[8]

• bonus tracks 11-13 recorded during Burnin' sessions at Harry J. Studios, Kingston
• track 11: originally issued 29 May 1973 b-side of "Concrete Jungle"; Island WIP cat# 6164
• tracks 12 and 13: previously unreleased

Deluxe edition (2004)

Musicians

• Bob Marley – guitar, vocals
• Peter Tosh – guitar, keyboards, vocals
• Bunny Wailer – percussion, vocals
• Aston "Family Man" Barrett – bass guitar, additional lead guitar on "I Shot the Sheriff"[9]
• Carlton "Carlie" Barrett – drums
• Earl Lindo – keyboards, vocals

Additional musician and production staff

• John "Rabbit" Bundrick – overdubbed keyboards[9]
• The Wailers and Chris Blackwell – producer
• Tony Platt – engineer
• Phill Brown – engineer

Artwork

• CCS London
• Bob Bowkett
• Simon Perfitt
• Ester Anderson – photography

• Burnin' at Discogs (list of releases)
• Library of Congress essay on the album