Fifty years ago, the singer-songwriter was in vogue. Most of the artistes with that tag, including Joni Mitchell, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Van Morrison, and David Bowie, released albums in 1974.

Bob Marley joined that august group with Natty Dread, his first solo album for Island Records. It was released in October that year and had critics raving.

Marley, along with Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston, had recorded two albums (
Catch A Fire and Burnin’) for Island Records the previous year, but the trio split in early 1974 when they seemed on the verge of an overseas breakthrough.

Chris Blackwell, founder and owner of Island Records, envisaged the dreadlocked Marley as the ultimate anti-establishment hero and cast him as such with
Natty Dread which, in addition to the title track, included So Jah Seh, Talking Blues, No Woman, No Cry, Rebel Music, Lively Up Yourself, Them Belly Full (But We Hungry), and Revolution.

Most of the album was recorded at Harry J Studios in Kingston, where sessions for
Catch A Fire and Burnin’ also took place. The core of the musicians for those songs, including Aston “Familyman” Barrett on bass and his younger brother Carlton on drums, played on Natty Dread.

Al Anderson, an American guitarist Marley met in London in 1973, also played on the album. So did teenaged keyboardist Bernard “Touter” Harvey, fresh out of Excelsior High School.

Natty Dread was also the first album to feature The I Three, a harmony group that comprised Marley’s wife Rita, Marcia Griffiths, and Judy Mowatt.

Harvey recalls being recruited for the sessions by the Barretts, whom he had worked with in bands in their native east Kingston. He had also done sessions for producers Bunny Lee and Clement Dodd.

“If memory serves me, The Wailers had just returned from a US tour and possibly within two weeks or so Familyman said I should come to the rehearsals at Hope Road. At the time, Peter and Bunny were still there every day, more as brethren than participating in the rehearsals. Occasionally Peter would join in,” Harvey disclosed in a recent interview with the Jamaica Observer. “The rehearsals produced enough material which was recorded every evening by Familyman. Once all the tracks were known inside out by everyone, that’s when we went into the studio.”

Marley, who wrote or co-wrote most of the songs on The Wailers’ Island albums, did most of the composing on Natty Dread. Harvey remembers him being very hands-on during recording.

“Bob was very involved from start to finish, but Familyman was the backbone of those sessions as both musician and producer. During the recordings Bob rarely sang, his job at that time was to keep a steady rhythm, which he did. If a take need to be redone, usually he and Family would make a decision,” he said. “Bob didn’t like synthesisers then, he preferred the more organic sound of the clavinet which was used throughout the album. The horn section was arranged and led by [saxophonist] Tommy McCook. The interaction between Bob and I was great. I was a kid living my dream at the moment,” Harvey shared.

Natty Dread was released to favourable reviews in the United States and United Kingdom where The Wailers had toured, playing clubs and polytechnic colleges.

John Masouri, the respected English musicologist whose book Pressure Drop: Reggae in The Seventies was recently released, remembers the first time he heard Natty Dread.

“I first heard extracts from Natty Dread at that year’s Notting Hill Carnival, when Sir Coxsone [sound system] played songs like Rebel Music and a revamped Lively Up Yourself on dub plate over and over until they became imprinted on our consciousness like the Holy Scripture,” he told the Sunday Observer. “Two months after carnival, Island Records released the Natty Dread LP with that striking portrait of Marley on the cover, staring out at us from an apocalyptic landscape. A new day had dawned and the impact of such music and the culture that birthed it would change the face of popular music, not only in Britain, but worldwide.”

Like Catch A Fire and Burnin’, Natty Dread was not a commercial success, but Blackwell realised Marley’s potential to be a major star. He and The Wailers toured the US to support the album and received enthusiastic response, especially on the East Coast.

Marley died on May 11, 1981 from cancer at age 36.

Harvey was a leading session musician throughout the 1970s and has been keyboardist for more than 50 years with Inner Circle Band.

As for Natty Dread, it is his favourite Marley album.

“I like the album in its entirety. As for a particular song, I would say Rebel Music. The reason for this is we were experimenting with using extended chords. At the time, most reggae songs were major or minor progressions but we wanted to do something different, so we extended a few chords in the progression. Lyrically I also like
So Jah Seh. The horn arrangement is superb,” he said.