ENTITY · PERSON (ARTIST, SELECTOR, PRODUCER…)
Peter Tosh
Well supported
Winston Hubert McIntosh (19 October 1944 - 11 September 1987), born in Westmoreland, was the most confrontational of the three original Wailers and the one whose politics never softened. He met Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer through Joe Higgs, who gave free singing lessons to young people in Trench Town, and the three began singing together in 1962.
Tosh's importance to the group was practical as well as vocal: he was a self-taught guitarist and keyboardist at a time when neither of the others played, and he also handled melodica, percussion and violin. He left in 1974 with Bunny Wailer, after Chris Blackwell declined to release his solo album, and made a career of unambiguous protest — Legalize It (1976), Equal Rights (1977), Bush Doctor (1978) for the Rolling Stones' label with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Mama Africa (1983) and No Nuclear War (1987).
At the One Love Peace Concert in April 1978 he lit a spliff on stage and lectured the assembled politicians on cannabis law; that September he was arrested at Half Way Tree and severely beaten in police custody, leaving him with a broken hand and head injuries. He was killed at his Kingston home on 11 September 1987 when three men came demanding money — the gunman was Dennis "Leppo" Lobban, a man Tosh had previously tried to help. Two others died with him.
At a glance
- Confidence
- Well supported
- Sources
- Wikipedia; David Katz, Solid Foundation.
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What people argued about this record — two documented positions each time, kept apart from verified fact. Browse every argument in the archive →
"Legalize It": sacrament and rights, or endorsement of vice?
One side
Cannabis as Rasta sacrament and a legalization-rights cause
The other
A broadcast ban to protect public morality
Peter Tosh's 1976 'Legalize It' was banned from Jamaican radio and copies were seized by customs, on the grounds that it promoted an illegal drug. Tosh and his supporters framed ganja as a Rastafari sacrament and the ban as state suppression of a legitimate call for cannabis reform and an answer to police harassment; he responded by printing the song's lyrics as a paid newspaper advertisement and posing amid cannabis plants on the album cover. Authorities and respectability-minded critics defended the ban as protecting public morals. Grounded in Far Out Magazine's 'Ban Tosh, Radio Told' account and the Wikipedia entry on the album.
Read the argument →Joining the leaders' hands: transcendent peace or a used moment?
One side
A transcendent image of reconciliation
The other
A naive or manipulated moment
Two documented readings of Bob Marley bringing the rival leaders together on stage: as a transcendent, enduring image of reconciliation, or as a naive or manipulated moment that lent the parties legitimacy without changing conditions, a tension underscored by Peter Tosh's confrontational set at the same event. Neutral framing; no verdict.
Read the argument →The One Love Peace Concert handshake: reconciliation or naive spectacle?
One side
Brave symbol of unity above party violence
The other
Hollow spectacle co-opted by the politicians it embraced
“we're gonna unite, we're gonna make it right”
At the 22 April 1978 One Love Peace Concert in Kingston's National Stadium, Bob Marley pulled rivals Michael Manley (PNP) and Edward Seaga (JLP) onstage during 'Jamming' and joined their hands above his head, saying he wanted to show the people 'we're gonna unite, we're gonna make it right.' Admirers hailed the gesture as a courageous act of reconciliation amid a near-civil war; skeptics — including Peter Tosh, who used his own set to berate both leaders for failing the poor and refusing to legalize ganja — dismissed it as a naive photo-op that lent legitimacy to politicians while the killings continued (1980 saw a sharp rise in political murders). Grounded in the Wikipedia entry on the concert and Biography.com's account.
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Compiled and researched by The Jamaica Music Atlas music desk. The sources that informed it are credited above.
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