Continuing a torrid release pace, The Wailers dropped their fifth album in three years, and their second in just six months, in October of 1973. That album was Burnin’, their second straight release recorded in Jamaica and mixed and overdubbed by producer Chris Blackwell in London.
Like Catch a Fire before it, Burnin’ features some of Marley’s best-known tracks, including opener ‘Get Up, Stand Up’ and ‘I Shot the Sheriff,’ which Eric Clapton took to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 just a year later.
Those tracks, as well as today’s SOTD, kick Burnin’ off with a fiery call to arms against the plight of the downtrodden in Jamaica and elsewhere. This confrontational tone was new for the band, at least in such concentrated fashion.
Following the release of Burnin’, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer quit the group, fed up with the starring role increasingly bestowed upon Marley. They were particularly bothered by Blackwell, whom they blamed for the marketing decision to highlight Marley. Both would go on to have successful solo careers.
Burnin’ is my favorite Wailers album so far, so it’s nice to know the trio went out on a high note. I look forward to seeing how Marley moved forward without his original partners.
This morning I woke up in a curfew
O God, I was a prisoner, too – yeah!
Could not recognize the faces standing over me
They were all dressed in uniforms of brutality. (Ay!)
How many rivers do we have to cross
Before we can talk to the boss? (Yeah!)
All that we got, it seems we have lost
We must have really paid the cost
(That’s why we going to be)
Burning and a-looting tonight
(Say we going to burn and loot)
Burning and a-looting tonight
(One more thing)
Burning all pollution tonight
(Oh, yeah, yeah)
Burning all illusion tonight
Oh, stop them!
[Chorus]
Give me the food and let me grow
Let the Roots Man take a blow
All them drugs going to make you slow now
It’s not the music of the ghetto. (Ay!)
[Verse 2]
Weeping and a-wailing tonight
(Who can stop the tears?)
Weeping and a-wailing tonight
(We’ve been suffering these long, long-a years!)
Weeping and a-wailing tonight
(Will you say cheer?)
Weeping and a-wailing tonight
(But where?)
[Chorus]
Give me the food and let me grow
Let the Roots Man take a blow
All them drugs going to make you slow now
It’s not the music of the ghetto. (Ay!)
[Verse 3]
We going to be burning and a-looting tonight
(To survive, yeah!)
Burning and a-looting tonight
(Save your baby lives)
Burning all pollution tonight
(Pollution, yeah, yeah!)
Burning all illusion tonight
(Lord-a, Lord-a, Lord-a, Lord!)
[Outro]
Burning and a-looting tonight
Burning and a-looting tonight
Meet Me In Montauk 
Great, great song. This is the album that introduced me to the Wailers, thanks to my sophomore year roommate and lifelong friend Tom.
I have heard of Peter Tosh, but didn’t really know anything about him or his association with Marley. In looking him up, I see he was murdered in his home in 1987. That’s quite the tragedy!