One of reggae's most enduring international releases gets the deluxe treatment this fall, with a new reissue of Bob Marley & The Wailers' Catch a Fire.

Available November 3, the 50th anniversary set (available on three CDs or three LPs with a single-sided bonus 12") brings together Marley's first album for Island Records along with an unreleased 1973 concert at London's Paris Theatre, unreleased session versions (similar to material featured on a 2001 deluxe edition of the album) and three widely-bootlegged tracks from another live show in Edmonton, North London. The bonus 12" is single-sided, with the other featuring an etching of the original album sleeve, built to open like a Zippo lighter; the more familiar worldwide image of Marley smoking a spliff will be used on the general packaging.

The Catch a Fire sessions became one of the most pivotal of Marley's career up to that point. Having worked with Wailers co-founders Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer for more than a decade, the group found themselves at a crossroads after an aborted session with Johnny Nash and a contract dispute with CBS Records that left the group stranded in England, lacking the funds to return home and the ability to legally work to obtain some. That's when Island Records founder Chris Blackwell - who'd just lost Jimmy Cliff from the label roster - advanced them money with no contract; returning back home to Jamaica, the group worked on tracks like "Stir It Up," "Kinky Reggae," "Concrete Jungle" and others; the finished album was then reworked by Blackwell, adding overdubs with the help of Muscle Shoals guitarist Wayne Perkins.

Catch a Fire managed to dent the Billboard 200 album chart, helping reggae earn more of a foothold beyond the Caribbean. (The quickly-released follow-up Burnin', featuring other tracks from the Catch a Fire sessions, would fare even better, earning a Gold record from the Recording Industry Association of America; afterward, Tosh and Wailer departed the group, which Marley kept going until his death in 1981. Marley's posthumous reputation as international reggae ambassador remains strong; a biopic, Bob Marley: One Love, is due in theaters next year, with Kingsley Ben-Adir portraying the musician.

Catch a Fire still burns - and can be pre-ordered below.

Catch a Fire (50th Anniversary Edition) (Tuff Gong/Island/UMe, 2023)

3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
3LP/12": Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

CD/LP 1: Original album (released as Tuff Gong TG-001 (Jamaica)/Island ILPS 9241 (U.K.)/SW-9329 (U.S.), 1973)

1. Concrete Jungle
2. Slave Driver
3. 400 Years
4. Stop That Train
5. Baby We've Got a Date (Rock It Baby)
6. Stir It Up
7. Kinky Reggae
8. No More Trouble
9. Midnight Ravers

CD/LP 2: Live at The Paris Theatre, London, England - 5/24/1973 (previously unreleased)

1. Rastaman Chant
2. Slave Driver
3. Stop That Train
4. No More Trouble
5. 400 Years
6. Midnight Ravers
7. Stir It Up
8. Concrete Jungle
9. Get Up, Stand Up
10. Kinky Reggae

CD 3/LP 4 + 12": Sessions and Live at The Sundown Theater, Edmonton, England - May 1973) (previously unreleased)

1. Slave Driver (Jamaican Extended Version)
2. 400 Years (Jamaican Extended Version)
3. High Tide or Low Tide (Jamaican Alternate Version)
4. Stir It Up (Jamaican Alternate Version)
5. No More Trouble (Jamaican Extended Instrumental)
6. Stir It Up (Jamaican Extra Organ Version)
7. No More Trouble (Jamaican Extended Version)
8. Stop That Train (Working Mono Version)
9. Slave Driver (Live at The Sundown Theater, Endmonton, England - May 1973)
10. Get Up, Stand Up (Live at The Sundown Theater, Endmonton, England - May 1973)
11. Stop That Train (Live at The Sundown Theater, Endmonton, England - May 1973)