"They want to keep me in the back, keep Bunny Wailer in the back like we weren't doing NOTHING, like we were just baggage's. THAT'S WHY I HAVE TO WRITE MY BOOK! And when my book is written, then they will know.", Peter Tosh
Chapter 1: A Star is Born
Chapter 2: The Wailers
Chapter 3: Legalize It
Chapter 4: One Love 'Peace' Concert
Chapter 5: Equal Rights
Chapter 6: The Troubled Prophet
Chapter 7: The Duppies In The Night
Chapter 8: Comments From Compatriots
Peter Tosh was born Winston Hubert McIntosh on October 9th 1944,
in Church Lincoln, West Moreland on the island of Jamaica. He was the only child
of his mother, Alvira Coke, and his father, James McIntosh. His father was a
local preacher, who did a little more than laying on hands! "My father, James McIntosh, is a bad boy, a
rascal. That's what him do for a livin'. He jus' go around and have a million
and one children! Right now me have many brothers that me don't know. I was the
only child me mother have....", recalls Peter. Peter only met his father
once, when he was ten.
Peter's mother then turned the baby over to an aunt,
Loretta Campbell, to
raise because she was unwilling to accept the responsibility. He was taken as a
tot to the coastal town of Savanna-La-Mar, and then to the Denham Town section
of Kingston in 1956.
Tosh reflected upon this period of his life in one of
his many interviews with Roger Steffens:
PT: I didn't live with my mother, but I am my mother's only child, and I
didn't grow with her, I was grown with my aunt, my mother's aunt, my grand-aunt,
when I was three years old until I was fifteen.
RS: So she had a lot of influence in your life?
PT: No. No. Never.
RS: You were three by the time you got to her ...
PT: See, I was three years in size, but fifty years old in the mind, seen? Because I was born with matured mind, and born with a concept of creativity, and any time there's a controversy within me, it create an inner conflict, seen? And any time that inner conflict is created, something is wrong, so you must internally investigate it. And with that mind, I grew up with that mind. I like, and I love, everything that is right. seen? I was born, raised in righteousness, not to say that my parents was righteous, because they did not know what was righteousness. They were being led away to a shitstem, or being deceived by deceivers, you see, because they wanted to know what was righteousness.Tosh would spend the weekdays with his aunt, and the weekends with his mother. He was forced to go to church and brought up as a Christian, learning the Christian teachings which he despised, "Well, my first spiritual teacher is Jah. Yeah, mon, Jah himself from such time, because everyone who try a-go to church, and they were trying to teach but they weren't teaching, they was brainwashing. Since I would never call that teaching. But it was still a lie, because out of every nonsense, there is sense, if you know how to disintegrate them, seen?"
An irony that this was where he got his introduction to music. Peter Tosh was a member of the choir, and at the age of ten Loretta Campbell gave Tosh piano lessons. "I was born in music. From ever since I could talk and exchange verbal thought. I could sing from such a time."
Oh his early mentors and latter compatriots who he admired musically, Tosh said: "Joe Higgs was a brother amongst the Wailers for years. He was encouragement, and he inspired us and kept us together. Also I looked up at Horace Andy, and admired Delroy Wilson and Ken Boothe, but dem rather sing commercially about "I love you darlin' " and alla dat. "
Tosh learnt to play the guitar soon after in a bizarre fashion the has Tosh written all over it! "Me just one time see a mon in the country play guitar and say 'My that mon play geetar nice'. It just attract me so much that me just sat there taking it in for about a half-day and when him done-he was playin' one tune for the whole half-day-he had hypnotized me so much that my eyes extracted everything he had done with his fingers. I picked up the guitar and played the tune he had just played with him showin' me a t'ing. And when he asked me who taught me I tell him it was him!". His first guitar also shows the extent of his talent, making it himself. "Piece of board, sardine pan, and some plastic line, the plastic you use for fishing ... get good sound too."
After the death of his aunt, Tosh moved to live with an uncle on West Road in Trenchtown. Trench Town was an area composed of housing projects which provided inadequate, yet much needed shelter for the indigent people of the city, a shanty town. It was here that he met three individuals who would, arguably, alter the reggae music scene for ever.
Trenchtown had a lively reggae scene. Many of it's occupants would hang out and play reggae, attracted by the like of Studio Ones Clement 'Coxsone' Dodds and his performers. It was here in the ghetto of Trenchtown that Peter Tosh would meet two people with whom he would form a group that would stand the test of time, a mentor who would become a life-long friend. In 1962 Peter Tosh, then still Winston Hubert McIntosh came across two like minded individuals, Neville O'Reilly Livingstone and Robert Nesta Marley. "We all group up in Trench Town as youths. I used to live up on West Road, and Bob and Bunny live down on Second Street. Second Street was off West Road and so it was just a coupla blocks down the way. I was way down in my teens at the time, maybe 17. What is routine is routine, what is gone is gone. It was about '62 that we started, and Wailing Wailers was about '64-'65."
At this time Tosh was the only one who could play any instruments, and he taught Neville Livingstone (later Bunny Wailer) and Bob Marley to play guitar and piano. Later in an interview when questioned about how much better Bob Marley was Peter Tosh replied angrily: "I taught Bob Marley music, seen? And when my student is promoted and reach a potential of acceptance ... well, it's very good, but at the same time, remember the teacher. And they always tend to forget the teacher. They pretend as if the teacher never existed, seen, and pretend as if the student's potential is bigger than the teacher. And that is wrong, totally wrong."
The three young Wailers joined forces with Junior Braithwaite, and two young female singers, Cherry Green and Beverly Kelso, and formed The Wailing Wailers, so named as Bunny Wailers recalled " because we were always crying!"
But success did not come from just this band of amazing individuals. While in Trenchtown they met there mentor and tutor, Joe Higgs. Higgs was a star of Studio One, having a string of hits in the late 50's and early 60's. "Peter came from the country when we were living in Trench Town. He had some family that were cabinet makers and they used to sell syrup, that's how I first saw him. He was introduced to me by Bob Marley, because they wanted to form a new group. They practiced and became perfect", recalled Higgs.
Under the guidance of Higgs, they managed to get an audition at Studio One, which they passed and were invited to come back and record the very next day! The first song the Wailers ever cut was Simmer Down. The song was an immediate number one hit on the Jamaican music charts, and the group went forward from there. The Wailers immediately became the most successful group in Jamaica, yet all the while unbeknownst to them, they were being mistreated and betrayed by their producer. Tosh recalls that the Wailers were being paid a mere three pounds a week, while their songs were topping the Jamaican music charts. These financial constraints proved too much, and Braithwaite left around 1964 to pursue a Medical career in America. The girls followed shortly after.
Tosh had also began cutting solo performances whilst at Studio One. "The first tune I ever recorded was "I'm the Toughest." I did that around 1964-65 for Clement Dodd. I did some other tunes like "Maga Dog," "Arise Black Man," "Leave My Business," "400 Years:' "Stop That Train," "Soon Come," "Go Tell It On The Mountain" and many other I don't remember"
The Wailers, fed up with being ripped off by Studio One, and around 1970 left and signed for Jamaican record producer Lee ' Scratch ' Perry, who they saw as advancing their careers. Financially the Wailers were ripped off again. Perry released three records in the UK on the Trojan label, and the Wailers never received a penny. At this period of The Wailers history, they began working with The Barrett brother, Aston 'Familyman' and Carlton 'Carly', Alva 'Reggie' Lewis and Glen Adams. This is considered by many to be the greatest period of the Wailers music. Tosh recalls: "I remember we were working magic in those times cos when we did Soul Rebels we took just three hours to record it. Three hours! I mean live recording straight to the book!...No group in the world ever do that! I mean perfect recording one cut every time, harmony perfect, Yeah mon, and it's three hours album done, seen."
Apart from Lee Perry, Tosh was also working for Joe Gibbs and Randy's laying such tracks as "Here Comes The Judge, You Can't Fool Me Again, Black Dignity, Leave My Business', etc. There were also instances where producers would record rehearsal sessions that Peter himself did, and then release these recordings without Tosh even knowing. Most of these secret releases occurred in England, many of them under the pseudonym Peter Touch. Some of which have recently resurfaced in 'Arise Blackman' (The Crimson Pirate, Selassie Serenade, The Return Of Alcapone to name but a few) Tosh would later recall these producers as "Those things are pirates".
Towards the end of 1971 the Wailers left Perry. The new line up of Tosh on lead guitar, Carlton Barrett on drums, Aston Barrett on bass, Earl Lindo on keyboards, Bunny on percussion and Bob on rhythm would jam at producer Danny Sim's place on Russell Heights. The Wailers spent around three months jamming, rehearsing new tracks.
In 1972 The Wailers were introduced to Island Records boss, and heir to the Cross and Blackwell fortune Chris Blackwell. Blackwell offered The Wailers £4000 to record their first album with Island, "Catch A Fire". The Wailers thought that this would bring international acclaim that they had been fighting for nearly 10 years. "It's just a matter of proving our potential, seen? And a matter of spreading more messages, cos when we were together we were singular. It was one message", said Tosh.
Catch A Fire was overdubbed using white American
musicians to make it 'easier' for
"Even for him to do even two songs on that album he had to pursue that, force his way into leadership. Don't care if he (Tosh) would write the song, arrange it Bob would take the leading position and it would be very difficult for him to even get an opportunity to lead a song, so he would have to fight his way in", recalls Marlene Brown, Tosh's common-law wife
Blackwell asked The Wailers to tour England in late 1973 to promote Catch A Fire. "We were told that Island would cover all our expenses. Instead we were told that we owed Island £42,000! for our tour expenses! When me do the tour and when we done, me leave England with 100 pounds in a me pocket!", complained Tosh. Of Chris Blackwell, Peter Tosh said, "Chris Whiteworst. You talk about Blackwell, what was well with him? So me call him every time me see him, "What happen Whitewell, what happen Blackwell?" That's how me greet him every time to make him know seh, well, is not Blackwell a really name, is Whitewell...him laugh."
"It's the general white shitstem wha' promote everything that is white and demote everything that is black, seen. And then if the black has anything good in him, try your best to extract it and give it to the white and make it look like it's the white who invent it. And I see too much of that shit, and that's what they are trying to do with reggae music." said Tosh after the Blackwell experiences.
The second album recorder for Island, Burnin', was released shortly after. It was a natural progression for The Wailers, consisting of more natural reggae. Bunny sang two songs, Hallelujah Time and Pass It On, and Peter sang just one, One Foundation and appeared on the main song on the album. A song that would become an anthem, Get Up, Stand up. But Tosh was becoming more and more displeased with the situation, as Blackwell pushed him more and more into the back of the band, and promoted Marley more. Blackwell saw the group's success resting in the voice of Bob Marley, and wanted to shift the focus solely onto Bob. The group was becoming an individual, and Marley seemed to be going along with it. Tosh later said, "Well, it's like he wasn't concerned about that. Maybe that was his intention, because nothing was said after he saw what was done, seen? I wouldn't know if he helped them to create it, but he accepted the fact that they divided us, seen? And he said nothing about it, so ... silence is consent."
Bunny Wailer was sick of all the traveling and arguments between Marley and others, particularly Earl Lindo had taken there toll. Bunny decided to leave in 1974 to return to Jamaica. Peter Tosh left soon after. "Well was not a breakup you know...Is just going in three different ways and sending the music in three different directions...was just that my inspiration was growing and my cup filled and runneth over", said Tosh. The Wailing Wailers were no more. Bob Marley would continue as Bob Marley and The Wailers, who were now his backing band. To continue with the harmonies Marley employed the I-threes made up of Rita Marley, Judy Mowatt and Marcia Griffiths. But Tosh wasn't finished.
"Eighty percent of the songs that Bob Marley wrote was co-written by me and never credited. And not only co-written, but musically architected by me. Because I am the music, and I was the music. When I met Bob Marley, Bob Marley wasn't playing no instrument, so he did not know how to design a song. He could only sing out of his mouth. But the world don't want to accept that shit, seen?" This statement from Tosh may seem like he was bitter, but he was not. He knew that he had continue with his work, spreading his message.
"I man no deh ya fe replace nobody. Bob do his work and leave, I have my work to do. The three hands that symbolize "Tuff Gong" on the label each symbolize one of us, the original Wailers. We did pledge as a group to continue the work of Rastafari, whatever happen. So I just continue the work, I not replacing no other worker. Bob use his style to give his message, I have to continue with mine. I no want to fit in a any slot. My job is to be the "constructive awakener" of the black masses of the world so them know themself and others know what black people suppose to be, and where. I deh pon earth to preach, I am a walking speech."
"As a yout' I was reborn as a Wailer, now, today in this September of 1976, I am a new mon again-as I have jus' recently come to realize! Winston Hubert McIntosh is not me real name, but is a bloood-claaat slavery name! Me real name is Wolde Semayat. Dat's my African-Ethiopian name!"
Peter was still facing problems. It took two years for a record label to sign him up as a solo artist, no-one wanting to touch the militant. Finally, Columbia signed him, and 'Legalize It' was released in 1976. The title track was aimed at the hypocrisy surrounding the use of herb (ganga). "Doctors smoke it. Nurses smoke it. Judges smoke it, even the lawyer too, so you got to legalize it, and don't criticise it!", where the words Tosh rang out, as well as pointing out the medicinal qualities of herb. Indeed in a 1976 interview with 'High Times' magazine Tosh pointed out the inequalities of the 'shitstem', saying, "A man is not too big in society if herb is degradation of society, because accordin' to de law of herb, only de small man get deprive, or go to prison, or bein' brutalize by police for Herb. Only de small man."
© 2001 'wailingwailers'