Description

When Island Records launched the Wailers to an international rock audience in April 1973, Chris Blackwell's label wanted the packaging to stand out. Graphic artists Rod Dyer and Bob Weiner designed a sleeve in the shape of a Zippo lighter that worked like the real thing: it opened on a side hinge to reveal the record inside.

The idea proved too expensive to keep. Each cover had to be riveted by hand, which was not cost-effective, so only the first pressing of 20,000 copies used it. Later pressings switched to a conventional sleeve designed by John Bonis, built around Esther Anderson's photograph of Bob Marley smoking a joint, and the album was then credited to Bob Marley and the Wailers rather than simply the Wailers. Jamaican police later seized Anderson's photographs and film, which were never returned.

The Zippo sleeve has become one of the most sought-after artefacts in reggae, and the design was reproduced for the 2001 deluxe CD edition. It captures the moment Island treated a Jamaican band as an album act worthy of the same packaging budgets as rock stars, which was exactly the bet Catch a Fire represented.

Credit

Original Zippo-style sleeve concept and design by Rod Dyer and Bob Weiner.