The 500 - #126 - Catch A Fire - The Wailers

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by New York-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

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Album: #126
Album Title: Catch A Fire
Artist: The Wailers
Genre: Reggae, Reggae Rock, Roots Reggae
Recorded: Four Studios, Kingston, Jamaica

Released: April, 1973

My age at release: 7
How familiar was I with it before this week: A couple of songs
Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #140, dropping 14 spots
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Stir It Up

My wife and I have always loved sampling different cuisines. In fact, we recently joined friends at the Annual Taste Experience (formerly Food & Drink Show) in London, Ontario, where we eagerly tasted a variety of flavors, dishes and beverages from regional artisans. With our adventurous palates, we're ready for almost anything. Fortunately, neither of us has allergies or sensitivities, and we enjoy vegetables, seafood, and most meats. We’re also game when it comes to bold, spicy food...though, we’re not out to break any Scoville Scale records eating Carolina Reaper hot wings. We prefer spice with depth and flavor, crafted by someone who knows what they’re doing.

It took me a while to realize that not everyone possesses an adventurous approach to food. I’ve had friends who stick to a handful of simple, fairly flavorless dishes they eat over and over again. One friend even joked, "Hodgy, I’m Irish -- mayonnaise is spicy to my people."

Always the educator, I felt they were missing out. If only I could introduce them to some of the incredible dishes I’d discovered, surely they’d be won over. Sadly, in the process, I became a bit of a food bully, pushing my favorite discoveries on them, instead of respecting their cuisine comfort zone.

An AI image capturing my excitement as I push an exotic dish

on friends with more reserved tastes.

Sometimes, my pushy efforts actually worked. Case in point: Chicken Tikka Masala, a dish that delighted my wife and I while checking out East Indian cuisine in the late 1980s. At the time, the predominantly white, Anglo-Saxon city of London, Ontario, was hardly a culinary hotspot. There was just one Indian restaurant -- Curry’s on Wellington Road. Unfortunately, after 40 years it closed in 2025, a casualty of road widening. On our first visit, we tested Tikka Masala, a U.K. twist on the Delhi classic Murgh Makhani. I learned that in Britain, they simply call it Butter Chicken. And just like that, my campaign to convert the cautious began.

The front door to the recently shuttered
Curry's restaurant in London, Ontario,

Over time, we stocked up on spices and started experimenting with Indian dishes. Moving to Brampton in 1991 was a culinary jackpot. The city’s large South Asian population (15% then, 55% now) meant spices, paneer, mung beans, tamarind, ghee, naan and other Indo-Asian staples were everywhere. Now widely available, these were delicacies at the time, seemingly as rare as a snow-free January in Southwestern Ontario.

The 90s opened us up to a world of flavours. We felt tres- continental.

Slowly, we learned to tame the heat, while keeping the flavour, for more sensitive North American palates. Then came the fun part -- serving these unfamiliar dishes to dinner guests, some of whom would have bolted at the mere mention of words like spicy, Indian, or curry…let alone such mysterious names as Tikka, Masala, Murgh, or Makhani. We waited nervously as our guests took the first bite of our North American-branded “Butter Chicken on rice with a side of cheesy pita.” Just in case, a back-up pizza chilled in the fridge for quick baking.

There was no need. The foreign dish was a hit. Over and over again, our once food-reticent friends asked for seconds. We had unlocked the secret, or rather, two secrets. First. tone down the spice and, second, rebrand the name. Suddenly, ‘Butter Chicken on Rice” sounded far less intimidating than “Murgh Makhani.” Marketing works, even at the dinner table.  

The same strategy was applied when The Wailers released their fifth studio record, Catch A Fire, in 1973.

The Wailers - 1972 - (l-r) Bunny Wailer, Bob Marley, 
Carlton Barrett, Peter Tosh and Ashton Barrett.

The band found themselves financially strapped and stranded in the U.K. following a tour supporting American singer Johnny Nash, known best for his 1972 hit, I Can See Clearly Now. The Wailers’ road manager, Brent Clark, reached out to Chris Blackwell, head of Island Records, with a proposal. Blackwell agreed to pay for their fares back to Jamaica in exchange for a chance to market their next record. Five months later, Marley returned to London with the tapes from their recording sessions. Blackwell, in pure “butter chicken” fashion, reworked the tracks at Island Studios, adding rock guitar overdubs from famed Muscle Shoals session player Wayne Perkins.

Musicians Jimmy Johnson (left) and Ronnie Van Zandt of Lynyrd
Skynyrd pointing at Wayne Perkins in the Muscle Shoals Sound Studios.

The original album cover on the Tuff Gong label featured a picture of a Zippo lighter and was credited to "The Wailers". Blackwell changed the name for the International release of Island Records. The group was now credited as Bob Marley and The Wailers and featured a portrait of Marley smoking a "marijuana spliff", as seen at the toop of this post. There’s debate among historians and reggae scholars that skin tone may also have also been a factor in promoting Marley as the band’s leader. Marley was of mixed heritage, his father was white and his mother was black, and some argue that his lighter skin and "universal" image made him more appealing to Western markets. However, this ignores Marley’s natural leadership qualities as well as his talents as a singer, songwriter and musician.

Original album cover for Catch A Fire on Tuff Gong Records.

In 1973, The Wailers performed their first single, Stir It Up, on the popular U.K. television program The Old Grey Whistle Test, and international attention began to build. 

Bob Marley (centre) and The Wailers on The Old Grey Whistle Test.

A tour followed, and by the summer of 1974 the album had sold about 14,000 copies. Although not a blockbuster by any stretch, it was enough to establish The Wailers and Bob Marley as bona fide artists in a now palatable genre of reggae. The following year, Eric Clapton released his version of Marley’s I Shot the Sheriff, and reggae exploded into the mainstream. And, like our butter chicken, it was enjoyed by everyone, even those with a sensitive palate for spicy, exotic flavours. These days, it is tough to find a person who doesn't like both -- butter chicken and reggae. Mission accomplished!

The 500 - #128 - Raw Power - Iggy And The Stooges

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by New York-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

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Album: #128
Album Title: Raw Power
Artist: The Stooges
Genre: Proto Punk, Hard Rock, Garage Rock
Recorded: CBS Studios, London, England
Released: February, 1973
My age at release: 7
How familiar was I with it before this week: One Song
Is it on the 2020 list? No
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Search and Destroy

Although I’m on a two-week winter break, I’m still focused on report card writing. If I don’t start now, January will hit like a freight train.  Elementary school volleyball season, several social obligations and publishing this blog will collide with lesson prep, report card delivery and everything else that makes the first month of the year a whirlwind of deadlines and distractions.

Despite all of this, I’m excited to bring back to the classroom an old favorite activity: CNN10. Each weekday, network host Coy Wire, a former Buffalo Bills player with infectious energy, delivers a 10-minute recap of current events. It’s quick, digestible, and engaging – the perfect way to help my middle school students think beyond four walls and connect to the wider world using their critical thinking and listening skills.

Coy Wire presenting the news on CNN 10.

I teach several literacy and social studies activities that are enhanced by the short and snappy CNN program. Moreso, I connect with a colleague at another school, Chris Wilson, who creates a current events-based trivia game based on CNN10 via a program called Kahoot! that lightens up Friday classes.

Using CNN 10 reminds me of the first time I paid attention to the news. I was about eight years old and my parents had CBC Radio on constantly. The evening news program As It Happens was a staple, often playing as we ate dinner. The voice of host Barbara Frum became as familiar as family and her recap of Canadian and world events made me feel tuned in.

It was as if I had discovered a secret window into the world of adults. Most of the headlines flew past me, but I remember the word "impeachment" tickling my brain because it sounded like a cocktail of "peach" and "mint". soon deciphered it had nothing to do with either.

Promotional poster for CBC's As It Happens (circa 1974)

Watergate was everywhere. Nixon, in my mind, was like a comic book villain. He was shadowy, scheming and, with his rubbery face and jowl-wagging delivery, larger than life. He was the kind of character who could have stepped out of the panels of a Batman or Superman monthly. The grown-ups whispered about scandals while the radio hummed with tension, and even as a kid, I could feel something cracking at the edges. I  later recognized that the optimism of the 1960s was gone; the air was heavy with mistrust and exhaustion.

That sensation of a country fraying feels like the same energy The Stooges bottled in Raw Power. It wasn’t polished or polite. The four-piece garage band from Ann Arbor, Michigan, had created something that was jagged, feral and loud. It was the sound of a world coming apart at the seams, and lead vocalist Iggy Pop didn’t just sing songs, he detonated them.

Iggy Pop performing (circa 1974)

Raw Power is the third record by The Stooges on The 500 list. I wrote about their self-titled debut (#185) in November, 2024, and their second record, Fun House (#191), a month earlier. In each post, I recap their formation and the development of their sound, as they moved from minimalist hypnotic and psychedelic grooves to a more aggressive and chaotic proto-punk sound.

Shortly after the release of Fun House, the band was on hiatus. Three of the four members, including Pop, had become serious heroin users and, in 1972, they had relocated to England in an attempt to reconstitute the group. Their new line-up, now dubbed Iggy and The Stooges, featured Pop on vocals, James Williamson on guitars, with brothers Ron and Scott Asheton on bass and drums respectively.

The Stooges (1974) (l-r) Williamson, Pop, R. Asheton & S. Asheton

The record was produced by David Bowie, who was also helping Pop recover from his heroin addiction. It sold rather poorly on release, with many critics complaining that Bowie had mixed it poorly. However, the album’s raw and rough sound gained in popularity among the earliest pioneers of punk rock, a genre which exploded in 1976.

Listening now, one can recognize its intensity. It is as if the guitars were tearing through the fabric of the era, shredding the last remnants of peace-and-love idealism and spitting out something raw, honest and dangerous. As Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong said when inducting the group into The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2010: "They symbolized the destruction of Flower Power and introduced us to raw power".

Pop (left) with Bowie (1974).

If history doesn't repeat, it does echo. We’re living through an era of deep political divides and alarming international tensions. Who can guess at how the future will unfold?  I can already see some of my students starting to tune into the world beyond their own circles, the same way I did back in the early ’70s. That awareness often leads to something bigger and I am sure that some of them will seek clarification of the mayhem we are living through. I think our daily 10 minute check-ins with Coy Wire and the team at CNN10 will help facilitate that.

They might, for instance,  discover a musician or band that rises above today’s cacophony and uncertainty, and bring a new era in music that reflects how we got through the current upheaval. Honestly, I can’t wait to look back a decade from now and ask: Who gave us the 2020s version of Raw Power, a record that didn’t just play the times, but ripped them wide open?

Kendrick Lamar? Run The Jewels? Childish Gambino? Fontaines D.C.? or someone currently writing their debut record?

Not me for sure. I'm too old for tearing up stages or reinventing genres...beside, I have to get back to report cards.

The 500 = #133 - The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by New York-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

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Album: #133
Album Title: The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle
Artist: Bruce Springsteen
Genre: Rock
Recorded: 914 Sound Studios, Blauvett, New York.
Released: November, 1973
My age at release: 8
How familiar was I with it before this week: Fairly
Is it on the 2020 list? No
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)

The film Blade Runner, the television series The Wire, and the teen dramedy Freaks and Geeks rank among my all-time favorite works of media. Like this week’s featured record, The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle, each was hailed by critics, yet initially struggled to find an audience and commercial success.

Thankfully, time changed the trio’s fortunes. Blade Runner became a science fiction classic through home video, and The Wire built a devoted following across five brilliant seasons. To their credit, the HBO network stuck with the gritty crime drama despite lacklustre numbers, and it is often listed as one of the greatest television shows of all time. Only Freaks and Geeks met an untimely end, cancelled after one perfect season. That single season, however, has since achieved cult status, and I’ve used it for years as a creative way to teach Ontario’s Health Curriculum to middle school students.

Recorded in the spring of 1973, the record marked an important shift in Bruce Springsteen's sound. His debut record, Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ, was heavily influenced by folk traditions. Specifically, Springsteen was inspired by the song-writing approach of Bob Dylan, leaning into dense wordy songs, vivid imagery and stream of consciousness storytelling. This is evident in tracks such as Angel and Mary Queen Of Arkansas, both of which were composed as acoustic pieces in the tradition of the singer/songwriter style.

The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle saw Springsteen learn more into the style found in early rock and roll or the soulful rhythm and blues songs of his youth. I am currently reading his biography, Born To Run, in which he writes that his earliest musical influences came from the transformative impact of Elvis Presley, who represented rebellion and escape from the confines of his working-class upbringing, as well as The Beatles, who opened his eyes to the joy and camaraderie of rock and roll.

He also discusses the impact that soul musicians and Motown artists had on him as a youth. He loved their ability to combine emotional storytelling with irresistible grooves. These influences can be felt, particularly on the record's opening track, The E Street Shuffle, which echoes the rhythmic energy of James Brown and the layered texture found in many Motown hits.

Like his debut, The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle earned glowing reviews but struggled commercially at first. Undeterred, Springsteen and his newly christened E Street Band hit the road, playing relentless, high-energy shows up and down the East Coast. These marathon concerts, equal parts sweat, soul and storytelling, built a fiercely loyal fan base and kept the band afloat despite lacklustre record sales.

Everything changed with Born to Run (#18 on The 500), the breakthrough Springsteen had dreamed of. It quickly went Gold and within a few years surpassed six million copies sold. That success sent fans back to his first two albums, both of which were eventually certified Platinum. For critics, and for Springsteen, the vindication must have been sweet.

The 500 - #148 - Houses Of The Holy - Led Zeppelin

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by New York-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #148

Album Title: Houses Of The Holy

Artist: Led Zeppelin

Genre: Hard Rock, Art Rock

Recorded: Multiple Studios, London, England

Released: March, 1973

My age at release: 7

How familiar was I with it before this week: Very

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #278 - dropping 130 spots

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: The Rain Song

To say my high school clique and I were fans of Led Zeppelin in the early ’80s would be putting it mildly -- our enthusiasm veered into full-blown obsession for months. At some parties, the debate wasn’t which album to play next, but which side of which Zeppelin album deserved the honor. It was serious business.

Led Zeppelin: John Paul Jones (bass, keys), Jimmy Page
(guitars), John Bonham (drums), Robert Plant (vocals).

We were already devoted fans of the 1976 concert film The Song Remains the Same, which captured Zeppelin’s electrifying  performances at Madison Square Garden, interwoven with behind-the-scenes footage and surreal fantasy sequences tailored to each band member. In 1984, when the film became available on video cassette, our friend, Steve Mackison, quickly tracked down a bootleg copy, and it became a staple of our viewing rotation.

Steve had built up an impressive collection of cult classic video tapes by the early ’80s. His townhouse became our unofficial screening room. We’d skip a few high school classes, head over to Steve’s place, drink tea, eat Pop Tarts and dive into his ever-growing archive of rock films and other flicks destined to become dramatic and comedic classics. Steve, unbeknownst to his parents, was taking a one-year hiatus from school, so he was always home and ready to hit play. We actually framed our morning sojourns from our high school to his town house on Dalhousie Drive in London, Ontario, as if we were attending a film class, We called it Mackison 101.

Steve's place in the 80s, pic courtesy of Google Street View.

In 1985, Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga hit the shelves, and it landed like a thunderclap in our circle. Written by rock biographer Stephen Davis, the book was packed with gritty, lurid tales of the band’s wild years, including tales of sex, drugs, mysticism, and mayhem. I didn’t get around to reading it, but it became gospel among my Zeppelin-obsessed friends. The book sparked endless debates and retellings, often between puffs at parties. Though the book was a hit with young rockers, the band famously criticized it for its sensationalism and factual liberties. Still, for the rest of us, it added another layer to the myth. It was our backstage pass to the chaos behind the music. As the adage goes: “Never let truth get in the way of a good story”. This was doubly true for teenagers in a time before the Internet.

Hammer of the Gods book cover (1985).

Houses of the Holy is the first of five Led Zeppelin records on this The 500 list Released in 1973, it marked a bold evolution in the group’s sound. Departing from the heavier blues-rock of their earlier albums, it embraced a more eclectic and experimental vibe. The record features fan favorites, such as The Song Remains the Same, (later to become the title of the aforementioned concert film). The Hobbit inspired Over the Hills and Far Away, and the reggae-tinged D’yer Mak’er. For years, my friends and I pronounced that track as “Dire Maker”, not realizing it was a play on the expression “Did ya make her?’ said quickly with a Cockney Accent -- “Jamaica”. It was, I would later learn, a play on a well known and silly British joke.

“My wife’s gone to the Caribbean.”

“D’yer mak’er?” ("Jamaica" aka “Did you make her?”)

“No, she went of her own accord.”

Houses of the Holy is a record I often cite as my favorite, although I’ve come to accept that ranking Zeppelin albums is a game of inches for me, and the criteria change with age and mood. The album contains an eclectic mix of songs, including the ethereally beautiful The Rain Song, a tune that will forever hold a spot in my personal top ten. But it also includes The Crunge, a James Brown-inspired funk experiment that’s never quite landed for me. As a teenager, I’d often joke (hoping for a laugh that never came) that it sounded like it was written specifically to make a drunk person feel like vomiting.

The Crunge is predominantly crafted in a time signature of 9/8 -- nine beats to a measure with the each eighth note getting a beat and an emphasis on the first fourth and seventh beats. The result is a rolling feel that can seem slightly uneven. Thinking about it as ONE-two-three, FOUR-five-six, SEVEN-eight-nine. Consequently, it moves a bit like a lilting ship in heavy waves. Now, throw in a few measures of 4/4 time (and a sneaky 10/8) and one might be able to understand how it could even make a drunken sailor a bit sea sick.

As I mentioned in my Black Sabbath Masters Of Reality post, back in September, 2022, Houses of the Holy was the first Zeppelin record I brought (sneaked) into my home -- having borrowed it from a chum named Adrian. At the time, I knew that the cover, which featured 11 naked, golden haired children bathed in an eerie, orange-pink glow climbing a stepped, rocky cliff, would not meet with parental approval. At the very least the gatefold art piece would prompt many questions I was ill equipped to answer.

Full gatefold picture for Houses of The Holy.

I would later learn that the photograph, taken by Aubrey Powell from the legendary art group Hipgnosis, actually depicts the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, a natural rock formation of interlocking basalt columns. The photo was created using multiple exposures of two child models, siblings Stefan and Samantha Gates, who were photographed in different poses and positions.

Aubrey Powell -- who also did the covers for many of my
favourite bands, including Pink Floyd, Styx, Peter Gabriel,
Black Sabbath, Yes and Genesis.

The use of nude children, even in this non-sexual artistic context, has sparked discomfort and debate -- particularly in recent years. However, the image was not intended to be provocative. Powell noted that it was inspired by Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction novel, Childhood’s End. It was meant to evoke a sense of mystery, mythology and transformation that aligned with the album's eclectic and experimental tone.

I do know that the Houses of the Holy cover was never considered provocative by my high school peers. Like so many Zeppelin album covers, it was simply a cool, mysterious image and one we could project our own meanings onto while jamming to the eight tracks within. If anything, it felt more straightforward than the eerie minimalism of Presence (1976) or the cryptic symbolism of their untitled 1971 release, often called Led Zeppelin IV. Such was the “serious business” of Zeppelin fandom for a handful of Ontario teens in the early ’80s -- decoding album art, debating track rankings, and letting the music shape our own mythology.