Burnin' is the sixth album by Jamaican reggae group the Wailers (also known as Bob Marley and the Wailers), released in October 1973. It was written by all three members and recorded and produced by the Wailers in Jamaica, contemporaneously with tracks from the Catch a Fire album with further recording, mixing and completion while on the Catch a Fire tour in London. It contains the song "I Shot the Sheriff". It was the last album before Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer decided to pursue solo careers, while continuing their local releases through their company Tuff Gong Records. A commercial and critical success in the United States, Burnin' was certified Gold and later added to the National Recording Registry, with the Library of Congress deeming it historically and culturally significant.
Burnin' opens with one of The Wailers' best known songs,[citation needed] the call to action "Get Up, Stand Up" and includes a more confrontational and militant tone than previous records,[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
Critical reception
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]