Peter Tosh - The Best Of Peter Tosh 1978-1987 '2004

Tracks list

The words Wolde Senayet are scrawled in silver ink across a black-and-white
image of Peter Tosh on the cover of this long overdue best-of from Toshs EMI
period. The words are an honorific Rastafarian title meaning Son of Thunder.
During those years, Tosh, who was thought to have had his best years behind him
critically, was rocking reggae audiences all over the world commercially. This
set puts both ends of that spectrum in perspective. Toshs creative muse was
always present during these years, even if he was misunderstood as a superstar.
These 14 tracks are seamless in their quality, and are more than representative
of Toshs vision -- one that has been adopted and reworked in all sorts of reggae
subgenres since his death. The music here, culled from six albums, marks reggae
history with the sheer audacity of Toshs restlessness. A much more diffident man
than his former partners Bunny Wailer and Bob Marley, Tosh let it all come
through in the music. His charisma was not in interviews, but in performances
both live and recorded. His Columbia albums were all raw exercises in deep dread
thinking and execution, while his EMI period was one of experimentation and
sonic inquiry. The production standards on the EMI records were high; Tosh was
looking to incorporate all of the modern sounds he liked into his own and
trademark it. He succeeded, as proven by tracks like Bush Doctor, Mystic Man, Oh
Bumbo Klaat, The Day the Dollar Die, and the single version of (You Gotta Walk
And) Dont Look Back with Mick Jagger. In the live cuts included here, including
the stellar medley of Equal Rights/ Downpresser Man as well as African and Get
Up, Stand Up, the listener gets Tosh pretty much unedited, full of swirling,
burning, and dark intensity. The album closes with Fools Die (For Want of
Wisdom), a song known by Wailers fans as Wisdom from 1970 and issued on the
posthumous Marley collection as Lips of the Righteous. But neither of these
versions comes close to Toshs spooky, deeply moving balladic haunt of a song.
Flutes, electric pianos, and a shimmering acoustic guitar float atop a spare
bassline to gird Toshs vocal as it asks the tough questions of all within
hearing range. At about five minutes, the instruments -- all covered in swimming
echoes and delicate spaces -- carry the track to its resting place in the heart
of the listener. This is among Toshs most moving songs, and his least angry.
Perhaps his bemusement was really heartbreak, but then, that will never be
known; listeners can only find instruction in his songs, not solace. If any
figure in popular music deserved to be reconsidered for the entirety of his
contribution, Tosh is such an artist, and this collection proves it. Therefore,
as Bruce Cockburn so aptly put it in a song long ago: All you can do is praise
the razor/For the fineness of the slash. Tosh was the razor; these are his
beautiful wounds. Praise them, for they are worthy.

01. Peter Tosh - Mystic Man (2002 Remaster)
02. Peter Tosh - Bush Doctor (2002 Remaster)
03. Peter Tosh - Pick Myself Up (2002 Remaster)
04. Peter Tosh - (You Gotta Walk) Dont Look Back (2002 Remaster)
05. Peter Tosh - Oh Bumbo Klaat (2002 Remaster)
06. Peter Tosh - In My Song (2002 Remaster)
07. Peter Tosh - Lesson in My Life (2002 Remaster)
08. Peter Tosh - Equal Rights / Downpressor Man (Live)
09. Peter Tosh - Johnny B Goode (2002 Remaster)
10. Peter Tosh - The Day the Dollar Die (2002 Remaster)
11. Peter Tosh - African (Live; 2002 Remaster)
12. Peter Tosh - Not Gonna Give It Up (2002 Remaster)
13. Peter Tosh - Get Up, Stand Up (Live in Los Angeles)
14. Peter Tosh - Fools Die (For Want of Wisdom) (2002 Remaster)

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