Daily Archives: February 13, 2012

I Come With Earthquake, Lightning, and Thunder To Destroy This Shitstem!

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The last thing they should have given him was a mic and a time slot to perform.  I mean, this whole concert was about peace and unity, and bridging the political divide, right?  Oh, to see the faces of Prime Minister Michael Manley and Edward Seaga as they sit there, looking up at Peter Tosh while he directed his ire down on them.

The One Love Peace Concert is held on April 22, 1978 at The National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica.

This concert is held on the twelfth anniversary of His Imperial Majesty, Haile Selassie’s visit to Jamaica, during a political civil war in Jamaica between opposing parties Jamaican Labour Party and the People’s National Party. The Concert brings together 16 of Reggae’s biggest acts, and is dubbed by the media as the “Third World Woodstock.”  The concert is divided into two halves, with the first half devoted to showcasing some of Reggae’s newer talent, and the second half devoted to the more established artists.

The mighty Jacob Miller, Bob Marley and the Wailers, and Peter Tosh backed by Word, Sound, and Power headline the second half of the show.  I will explore Jacob Miller’s and Bob Marley’s performances in a separate post.

Peter decides to open his set with praises to Jah on a thunderous version of “Igziabeher (Let Jah Be Praise)”. Peter strolls the stage as only Peter could, in his black Kung-Fu kimono, flexing and puffing out his chest as if he were the only performer worth seeing that night.

The band slips effortlessly into “400 years”, a tune from the Wailers’ Catch A Fire album and one of Tosh’s strongest songs.  They follow 400 years with a blazing rendition of Stepping Razor, in which the Wailers’ lead guitarist Al Anderson slays his guitar solo, bringing the crowd close to frenzy.

It is on the heels of Stepping Razor that Tosh delivers his first of several livitribes, each of which render the audience speechless.  In his first livitribe, Tosh speaks about “breaking down the barriers of oppression and to rule equality”.

” I come with earthquake, lightning and thunder to break down the barriers of oppression, to drive away transgression and to rule equality between humble black people”.

After performing “Burial“, a fantastic cut (and probably my favorite Tosh track) off of Legalize It, Tosh launches into another  livitribe and focuses his anger directly at Manley and Seaga, who are seated just before the stage.

“Me glad all the Prime Minister is here and the Minister of Opposition and members of Parliament. We can’t make the little pirate dem come here and rob up the resources for the country. Because that is what dem been doing a long bloodbath time…I am not a politician but I suffer the consequences (Steffens, The Peter Tosh Biography 48).”

“The police are still out there brutalising poor people,” Tosh raged at Manley, who sat in the second row. “This concert here they call a peace concert … but peace is the diploma you get in the cemetery on top of your grave.”

“If I was the authorities I would close all the police stations.”

While smoking a spliff onstage (marijuana is illegal in Jamaica), Tosh berates the politicians for keeping the people from using this most essential herb, given unto the earth by God for man to use, and for harassing Rastafarians.

His set lasts 66 minutes.  Tosh spends almost half of that time denouncing the problems prevalent in society.

It is therefore not without coincidence that Tosh, only a few short months later, is beaten nearly to death by as many as ten police officers for his antics at the One Love Peace Concert.

At 7:30 AM on September 19, 1978, Tosh is arrested on suspicion of smoking a spliff.  At the police station, in a private lock-up, no less than 10 police officers laid into him.  Tosh is left with a broken arm, too many bruises to count, and a large gash on his skull.  This is not totally out of the ordinary for Tosh, as his face bears the scars of multiple police beatings he has endured throughout his life.

Like Marley’s firebrand performance at the Smile Jamaica Concert, and his now-historic performance at the One Love Peace Concert (which I shall cover in detail in a later post), the importance of Tosh’s performance at the One Love Peace Concert in the sociopolitical history of Jamaica cannot be underestimated.

As stated so eloquently by Assata Shakur at The Talking Drum:

“Never before had such a public figure openly insulted and contested the Jamaican regime. That is what separated Peter from the rest of his peers in the Jamaican music industry. While Bob Marley decided to go more mainstream, and easygoing, and Bunny became somewhat reclusive and unnoticed, Peter continued on in his same staunch, militant manner. This gave the people of Jamaica a strong leader whom they could trust to hold his morals steadfast in the face of adversity.”

I have included part of Peter’s performance at the One Love Peace Concert, including his livitribes.  I am unable to share his performance in entirety because it has been officially released by JAD records.  It can be purchased here.


Tosh’s Livitribes at One Love Peace Concert


Video Excerpts of Tosh’s Livitribes at One Love Peace Concert


“Igziabeher” (Let Jah Be Praise) One Love Peace Concert

“Equal Rights”

Speech

Click here to download the bootleg audio version of Tosh’s performance at the One Love Peace Concert.

Set List

1. “Igziabeher (Let Jah Be Praise)”
2. “400 Years”
3. “Steppin’ Razor”
4. Introduction
5. “Burial” Speech
6. “Equal Rights” Speech
7. Speech
8. “Legalize It”
9. “Get Up, Stand Up”
10. Instrumental

Marley and Tosh Reunite To Burn Down Burbank

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Live at the Starlight Amphitheater
Burbank, CA
July 22, 1978

According to David Moskowitz’s book Bob Marley: A Biography, the 1978 Kaya Tour had three parts:  two North American legs and one European leg that separated them.  Most houses were sold out and many shows were recorded for posterity by Chris Blackwell using the Island Mobile Studio.  The tour began in Ann Arbor, Michigan with shows throughout the mid-west.  This was followed by a swing out to the east coast and then north to Canada.  The band then returned to the U.S. for a series of dates before departing for Europe.  The second North American leg began in Vancouver, BC and took the band through Washington, Oregon, and on to California, where they played six shows, including a show on July 22 at the Starlight Amphitheater.

The opening act for this performance was Little Anthony & the Imperials (although Little Anthony was not with the band at the time).  Noted journalist and Marley historian Roger Steffens recalls the show:

We drove down to L.A. the following weekend to catch Bob at the Starlight Amphitheater in Burbank. It was a nightmare getting inside, because they had only one entrance, and they were searching everyone. We missed the Imperials’ opening act, but found our seats just as Bob was introduced. The show was similar to that in Cruz – at least until the encores. Later we learned that backstage that night stars like Mick Jagger and Diana Ross were milling about, trying to wangle an invitation to come on stage with Bob, but he was having none of that. Imagine our surprise then, as Bob began to sing his final encore of “Get Up Stand Up” when loping across the stage with massive strides, Peter Tosh appeared, just at the part of the song where he came in on the record. As he reached for the microphone, Bob suddenly caught sight of him, and he broke out into the most massive grin I’ve ever seen, Grand Canyon-wide with delighted surprise. Peter never missed a beat, and the two hugged each other and acted as if they’d never been separated. It was the only time they would ever appear together outside of Jamaica after the breakup of the group, a piece of history that, sadly, most people in the audience didn’t realize was happening. Afterwards, I encountered Peter walking through the crowd. The next day he was opening for the Rolling Stones in the Anaheim Stadium, and I eagerly assured him that we, like many many others, would be there basically just to see him, and that he had a whole heap of fans in L.A.

A few years later, just after Bob died, I interviewed Peter for “L.A. Reggae” a cable tv show Chilli Charles and I had just started, and asked him whether Bob had known he was going to come out on stage that evening. “No,” he said, indicating that it was the Spirit that had moved him spontaneously and “whatsoever the Spirit tell me to do, I do.” What else did he remember of that night? “Well,” he drawled, thick smoke pouring from his nostrils, “I remember we go backstage and Bob clapped my hand and say, ‘Bwoi, the Pope feel that one!’” Then he laughed and, staring straight into the camera in his most terrifying tone, announced, “And three days later, the Pope died!”.

Steffens also related the experience for me recently:

“It was amazing because when Peter marched across the stage, hardly anyone recognized him, and I remember standing up and yelling. “It’s Peter Tosh! Peter Tosh!!” to a largely ignoring crowd. There are only a very few moments in one’s life in which you are consciously aware of history happening. Seeing the reunion of Peter and Bob after so much acrimony, and witnessing the obvious love that remained between them was one for me.”

On his DVD Live at the Hollywood Bowl, artist Ben Harper relates a childhood experience in which, during the 1978 Bob Marley concert at the Starlight Amphitheater, Peter Tosh showed up unannounced as Get Up, Stand Up was being performed, took the microphone from Marley and started singing the last verse of the song to thunderous applause.

In addition to the concert descriptions provided by Roger Steffens and Ben Harper, I also obtained a review of the show from an anonymous concert-goer:

In 1978, while visiting Los Angeles, I had the opportunity to see and hear Bob Marley live at a very small venue called the Starlight Bowl in Burbank. The show was incredible, and we were able to move to within 20 feet of the stage. To this day I can still feel the music and the great vibes that Bob released into the air that night. For an encore, Peter Tosh joined on stage and that was a quite special reunion of sorts. Of all the live shows I’ve seen, I think that must be one of the best and certainly a very memorable experience, not to mention the ticket was only $10.

I have included a review of the show written by Richard Cromelin and published in the Los Angeles Times on July 24, 1978.  Click here to read on Issuu.  I have also included a full show audio download and a link to the lossless audio (FLAC) files.


DOWNLOAD FLAC AUDIO HERE

01. Positive Vibration (5:44)
02. Them Belly Full [But We Hungry] (3:41)
03. Rebel Music [3 O'Clock Roadblock] (5:14)
04. The Heathen (4:12)
05. Crisis (3:54)
06. War + No More Trouble (6:05)
07. Running Away + Crazy Baldhead (7:13)
08. I Shot The Sheriff (4:27)
09. No Woman, No Cry (5:37)
10. Jamming (7:48)
11. Is This Love (4:33)
12. Easy Skanking (2:45)
13. Get Up, Stand Up (with Peter Tosh) (5:51)

Many thanks to Roger Steffens for providing final edits and for sharing his own personal memories of the show.