Poet, Philosopher, Preacher, Prophet……..

The box set comprises of three discs, each covering a different portion of Peter Tosh’s musical life. Disc one (my favorite, by a long shot) contains nothing by rare, unreleased Jamaican singles, many of which you may never have heard off! Nearly all of these tunes has Peter as the lead vocalist with the mighty Wailers in their early days. I’m truly amazed that some of these tunes have not been reissued prior to this release. Your ears get the pleasure of hearing such tracks as ‘Rightful Ruler’ produced by Lee Perry in 1970, over the ‘grounation’ rhythm, then splicing into the ‘great U’ rhythm. ‘Black Dignity’ a rare Joe-Gibbs production, an extremely rare tribute to the Beatles in ‘Here comes the Sun’ and the original Wailers' version of "Fire Fire", ‘Dog Teeth’ another cut of the famous ‘Maga Dog’ ……………. The list is endless. It’s hard not to play this disc over and over, everyone and anyone who listens to reggae music and knows the name Peter Tosh should, own a copy of this disc.

Disc two, shows Tosh at his best……….. When live. These tunes are taken mainly from 1982. This tour took Tosh across North America and Canada. It features the legendary band members of Soul Syndicate Carlton Davis, Steve Golding, and George ‘Fully’ Fullwood, and Constantine Walker (from the Wailers). Backing vocals were provided by the Tamlins. The 13 minute version of "Rastafari Is" from the Roxy in Los Angeles is just truly astonishing! The live tunes are interspersed with spoken words of Peter. One of the highlights of this disc is the intimate solo acoustic performance of ‘Get Up Stand Up’ which Tosh did for WXFM Radio in Chicago, Illinois in 1976, and is only one of the two know acoustic live performances that Tosh ever did.

Disc three contains the classic Peter Tosh tunes. Nothing new here, but it had to be included to fully capture his musical genius whole. You get tracks such as ‘Stepping Razor’, ‘Equal Right’, ‘Downpressor Man’, ‘Bush Doctor’ and many many more. The end track is the title track ‘Honorary Citizen’, just after Peter had finished ‘No Nuclear War’ he was with a friend, Phil Pearson, who was running a tape and Peter started to say…………….

“I’m an equal, lawful, upright, honorary citizen”

He said it was going to be his next project……… Peter’s cousin, Pauline Morris, took this quote and created the tribute song ‘Honorary Citizen’

Along with all the music, there are notes, written by reggaeologists Roger Steffens and Leroy Jodie Pierson. They include tune by tune notes to each song with details of the story behind each one. This is an incredible piece of work from an incredible man.

12/10

Review by 'JumpUp'

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