Peter Tosh - Live & Dangerous Boston 1976 (2001)

When the reggae is mentioned to the casual fan, the first name that comes to mind is Bob Marley. If the person is really into the “island riddims,” then they might throw names like Jimmy Cliff or Steel Pulse at you. An original member of the Wailers with Marley, Peter Tosh is the ultimate reggae cult artist – popular enough to attract new fans to his music years after his death, but too hardcore and edgy to appeal to a mainstream audience. Whereas Marley softened his songs of struggle and liberation with a healthy dose of melody and “peace and love” styled lyrics, Tosh was raw, politically outspoken and brutally honest, sort of the “punk rocker” of Jamaican reggae.

To many of his fans, Tosh’s uncompromising stance and undistilled sound were part of the artist’s charm, and his albums from the '70s – classics like Equal Rights or Legalize It – stand up well to repeated listening today. Unlike his former bandmate Marley, Tosh’s musical catalog has remained fairly static, which makes the release of Live & Dangerous Boston 1976 a treat for the longtime fan. For his first American tour, in support of his debut album, Tosh assembled a band that included both Jamaican and American musicians, and which he subsequently dubbed “Word, Sound and Power.” Beginning with bassist Robbie Shakespeare and drummer Sly Dunbar, the greatest reggae rhythm pairing that the genre has ever seen, Tosh added the lead guitars of New Jersey native Al Anderson and bluesman Donald Kinsey. Twin keyboards were provided by Earl “Wire” Lindo and Errol “Tarzan” Nelson, with vocals and rhythm guitar from Tosh, and thus the stage was set for as dynamic a reggae band as you could ever ask for.

Live & Dangerous Boston 1976, taken from a November performance in nearby college-town Cambridge, is more-or-less typical Tosh. One of the most outwardly political of the Rasta artists, Tosh was a strong lyricist who wrote of the struggle of the poor and dispossessed against the police, the government and the corporations that oppressed them. You’ll find a healthy dose of political content here; songs like “400 Years,” “Babylon Queendom” and “Mark Of The Beast” among some of the best that Tosh has written. There are some laid-back performances as well, songs like “Burial” or “Ketchy Shuby” featuring mellow Rasta grooves matched by winsome vocals heavy with island patois, and there are the usual spiritual numbers like “Igziabeher (Let Jah Be Praised).” The band is phenomenal, tight as the proverbial drum, providing the proper backdrop for Tosh’s charismatic and electric performances.

Peter Tosh’s Live & Dangerous Boston 1976 is a fine documentation of a night’s performance by one of reggae’s most important artists. One minor cavil must be expressed, however – the eleven songs presented here time out at seventy-five minutes and change, but only seem to scratch the surface of the night recalled by former Tosh manager Herbie Miller’s liner notes. Where are the performances of “Legalize It” or “Apartheid,” important songs from the Tosh canon and both from the album he was touring to promote. Perhaps a double-CD set clocked at 90 minutes might have served Tosh fans better? This oversight would gladly be overlooked if Legacy digs up and releases some other vintage Tosh performances from their vaults. (Legacy Recordings)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Live & Dangerous Boston 1976 from Amazon.com)

Bunny Wailer - Crucial! Roots Classics (1994)

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Jamaica, there was a musical trio who, by coming together and recording a handful of albums, forever changed the face of popular music. The trio's artistic influence was worldwide, their popularity cutting across boundaries of race, religion or heritage to reach an international audience. Their message of peace and love, and their never-ending battle against oppression endowed them with a near-mythical status. The tragic youthful deaths of two-thirds of the trio, including the band's charismatic leader, forever sealed their place in history.

That band was the Wailers, the trio – Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer – whose impact on rock and reggae music is incalculable. As the only surviving member of the important threesome, Bunny Wailer has been lost to the obscurity of legend. This is unfortunate, considering that Wailer has sporadically released some classic reggae gems during the past decade and a half, albums like Blackheart Man and Roots, Radics, Rockers, Reggae, released on small indie labels. Crucial! Roots Classics collects material from through this fifteen year period, all unreleased songs that showcase Wailer's talents not only as a tunesmith, but as a socially-conscious and extremely spiritual poet, as well.

A devout Rastafarian, Wailer's lyrics often espouse a world view shaped by that benevolent philosophy, mixing in political commentary that serves as a musical call to arms. Reggae has long been a populist art form, bowing to no certain ideology. An example would be Togawar Game, a thinly-veiled damnation of corrupt organized politics, about which Wailer says "I don't deal with the left or right...one day the rope is going to burst and both sides are going to fall. We are Rastas, neither left or right. We stand for the people."

Other cuts such as Old Dragon, the Wailers' traditional show-opener that casts down the proverbial serpent of evil with its energy and emotion, or the angry relevance of Innocent Blame, Peace Talks or Trouble On The Road Again illustrate the struggle of the average Jamaican in the face of the island's cultural and political oppression. Crucial! Roots Classics is a powerful collection, the creation of a still-important artist deserving of a much wider hearing. (Shanachie Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Crucial! Roots Classics from Amazon.com)