Emma Duckett
•March 19, 2025•5 min read
In April 1973, Bob Marley & The Wailers released their fifth studio album ‘Catch a Fire’. Produced under Island Records, the now-iconic reggae record became their first major international release, capturing the eyes and ears of the world.
Surfing a wave of critical acclaim, the band joined Sly and the Family Stone’s U.S. tour in the autumn of ‘73 for 17 dates. This was a golden opportunity for Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and the rest of the group to break the ice with American fans.
Yet, after only five shows, The Wailers were unexpectedly dropped. Their reggae groove proved too different for Sly and the Family Stone's funk-heavy audience - leaving them stranded with no gigs, little money, and figuring out the next steps. So, the collective set out west to California to find fresh opportunities.
In October ‘73, Denny Cordell, a record producer and executive at Capitol Records, invited The Wailers to perform in an intimate, closed-door session at the Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood - five days after the release of their seventh album ‘Burnin’.
On that day, Bob Marley & The Wailers performed a one-hour, 12-track set – including ‘You Can’t Blame the Youth’, ‘Stop That Train’, ‘Get Up Stand Up’, and ‘Stir it Up’ – captured with four cameras and mixed live to colourised tape.
Marley jams on the guitar, sings, plays percussion, and sometimes dances around the room. Tosh sings backing vocals and cooly plays the guitar, the legendary Joe Higgs (standing in for Bunny Wailer, who left the group the same year) holds down the beat, Earl Lindo handles the organ, while brothers Aston and Calton Barrett dreams up the bass and percussions.
The footage remained lost in the archive, unseen for decades – until a freelancer researcher discovered a few frames and began a 20-year project to locate more. The search led to archives and storage units in New York, London, and San Diego, eventually unearthing seven and a half hours of film from the shoot.
The tapes were painstakingly repaired, synced, and whittled down to a 60-minute film, The Capitol Session '73 (released in September 2021), revealing a historical snapshot of Bob Marley & The Wailers in a key career moment — stranded, searching, but ultimately meant for global stardom.
Featuring smooth-as-butter reggae hits ‘You Can’t Blame the Youth’, ‘Rastaman Chant’, ‘Duppy Conqueror’, ‘Slave Driver’, ‘Burnin & Lootin’, ‘Midnight Ravers’, ‘Put It On’, ‘Stop That Train’, ‘Kinky Reggae’, ‘Stir It Up’, ‘No More Trouble’, and ‘Get Up Stand Up’, Bob Marley & The Wailers’ The Capitol Session '73 is available to stream with unlimited rewatches through On Air.
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