Peter Tosh (October 19, 1944 – September 11, 1987) – Not Gonna Give It Up (1983)

Four years before his tragic murder, the revolutionary musical prophet released this liberation anthem on his brilliant Mama Africa LP.

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Peter Tosh was a revolutionary musical genius who was taken from us far too soon at age 42 when he was brutally murdered on September 11, 1987. He was one of the founding members of the Wailers along with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer before going solo in 1973.

Winston Hubert McIntosh was born in Westmoreland, Jamaica, the island’s westernmost parish. Abandoned by his parents, he was raised by relatives. When he was 15, his aunt died and he moved to the Trench Town section of Kingston. There, he learned to play the guitar by watching a man play one song for half a day, and played it back to him after memorizing everything he did with his fingers.

Through vocal teacher Joe Higgs he met Neville O'Reilly Livingston (Bunny Wailer) and Robert Nesta Marley (Bob Marley). Higgs taught them all to harmonize, and they began singing together as The Wailers in 1962.

Over the next ten years, they became the most popular reggae group in Jamaica. In 1972, Chris Blackwell of Island Records advanced them £4000 to record their first album for his label, their breakthrough LP Catch A Fire, released in April, 1973. They seemed poised for international stardom.

However, Catch A Fire was released under the name Bob Marley and the Wailers with a photo of only Marley on the front cover (although early copies were credited solely to The Wailers, with an album sleeve that resembled a Zippo lighter). This caused friction within the group, with Tosh and Bunny Wailer resenting Blackwell’s attempt to market Marley as the Wailers’ leader.

When their second album for Island, Burnin’, was released in October, 1973, Bunny refused to go on tour. After a show in London, tensions between Tosh and Marley boiled over and the two bandmates got into a heated backstage fist fight. Once they were separated, Tosh quit the group on the spot. He and Bunny subsequently embarked on their own solo careers, with Marley continuing on with a new lineup of the Wailers until his untimely death from cancer in 1981 at age 36.

Tosh’s debut solo LP was the classic Legalize It (1976). The title track was released in Jamaica in 1975 and immediately banned due to its pro-marijuana message. The song still became an international hit, although in the U.S. the album only barely cracked the Billboard 200 at #199.

His second studio LP Equal Rights dropped in 1977. Arguably Tosh’s most political album (rivaled only by his final LP No Nuclear War), it included the powerful opening cut “Get Up, Stand Up” (co-written by Tosh and Marley and originally recorded by the Wailers for the Burnin’ LP in 1973), its anthemic title track, and the album’s superb closing cut “Apartheid,” a forceful call for action against the white supremacist regime in South Africa.

In 1983, for his brilliant sixth studio album Mama Africa, Tosh wrote the powerful liberation anthem “Not Gonna Give It Up.”

It was his next-to-last LP released in his lifetime, co-produced by Tosh and Rolling Stones producer Chris Kimsey. Another highlight was his version of “Stop That Train,” which he originally recorded with The Wailers.

Mama Africa also contained other socially conscious message songs including its superb title track, and the extremely funky, wisdom-drenched “Feel No Way.”

“Cannot tell lie and hear truth...Cannot live bad and love good...Cannot be wrong and get right...Cannot be kicked and don't fight.”

Mama Africa became his highest-charting album in the U.S., reaching #49 R&B and #59 on the Billboard 200 album charts.

Stepping Razor: Red X is the essential 1992 documentary on Tosh’s life, music and quest for equal rights and justice. Based on audiotapes he recorded in the years immediately before his death, the film provided an intimate glimpse into Tosh’s world, mostly narrated in his own words. Produced by Edger Egger for Bush Doctor Films, and directed by Canadian actor/director Nicholas Campbell, who has appeared in several of David Cronenberg’s films including The Dead Zone, Naked Lunch and The Brood. In 2019, Campbell told Jointz Of The Day it was “the most significant project I’ve ever had the privilege of being involved with.”

The documentary’s introduction:

“From 1983 to 1987 Peter Tosh recorded what he called the Red X tapes. These tapes were to form the basis for an autobiography called RedX. It seemed that whenever he saw his name on any official document he saw it marked with an red X. The tapes were uncovered in July 1990. These are the actual Red X tapes.”

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