Peter Tosh
Winston "Peter Tosh" McIntosh was a founding member of the Wailers alongside Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer before launching a solo career defined by militant, uncompromising lyrics about racial and social justice. His albums Legalize It (1976) and Equal Rights (1977) established him as reggae's most confrontational voice on Rastafari and Black liberation. He was murdered in a 1987 home invasion at his Jamaican home.
In the early 1960s Tosh, Bob Marley, and Bunny Wailer took free informal vocal lessons from Joe Higgs in Trenchtown, where Higgs taught the trio to harmonize — the direct technical foundation for the Wailers' sound.
listen forHiggs's own plaintive, close-harmony singing on 'There's A Reward' and Tosh's later 'Equal Rights' both carry that same Trenchtown vocal-class phrasing, even as Tosh's version turns harder and more declarative.
American soul group the Impressions, fronted by Curtis Mayfield, were an early listening touchstone for the teenage Wailers, whose close three-part harmonies and socially aware songwriting fed into the group's developing style.
listen forThe Impressions' gospel-tinged, close-harmony 'People Get Ready' and Tosh's righteous 'Stepping Razor' both use tight vocal harmony and steady rhythm to build toward a message of resolve.
Count Ossie's Rastafari hand-drumming ensembles helped root Kingston's musicians, the young Wailers among them, in Nyabinghi rhythm and Rastafari spirituality that runs underneath Tosh's own mystic, chant-inflected material.
listen forThe layered, ceremonial hand drums of Count Ossie's 'Tales of Mozambique' sit underneath the surface of Tosh's meditative 'Mystic Man' the same way Nyabinghi drumming sits underneath reggae's one-drop generally.