Latest / DISGRACELAND / Peter Tosh (Pt. 1): Legalizing It, Police Brutality, and the Steppin’ Razor

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Peter Tosh (Pt. 1): Legalizing It, Police Brutality, and the Steppin’ Razor · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Peter Tosh are insane. He was a reggae subversive who
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: used his music as a means to fight corruption, oppression,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: and hypocrisy. Unlike his one time bandmate Bob Marley, Peter
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Tosh did not fight for peace. He fought for truth
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: and justice. He played a guitar shaped like an sixteen
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: automatic rifle. He funded an album that lobbied for the
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: legalization of marijuana by running drugs from Jamaica to Miami.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: He was arrested for smoking weed and then beaten by
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: seven police officers for over an hour in a prison cell.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: All these trials and tribulations were reflected in his music,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: great music, some of the greatest reggae music of all time,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: both as a member of the Whalers and as a
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: solo artist. Unlike that clip I played for you at
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: the top of the show, that wasn't great music. That
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: was a preset loop from my melotron called dred Kylie
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: MK one. I played you that clip because I can't
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: afford the rights to a clip from Night Fever by
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: the Beg's, And why would I play you that specific
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: slice of falsetto Cheese. Could I afford it? Because that
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: was the number one song in America on April twenty second,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight, And that was the day that Peter
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Tosh went on a thirty minute tirade during the One
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Love Peace Concert, a rant that nearly got him murdered.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: On this part on a special two part episode Reggae Subversives,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Truth and Justice, M sixteen Guitars, running drugs, police brutality,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: and Peter Tosh. I'm Jake Brennan, and this this disgraceland.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Seven year old Peter Tosh was dangerous not because he
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: was involved in the political violence that was quickly becoming
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: commonplace in his country, even way out here in Westmoreland,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Jamaica's westernmost parish. Peter Tosh was dangerous because he knew
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: the truth, a truth that was hiding in plain sight.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: It was in the ocean, in the clouds, and it
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: was carried on the wind, but few people actually saw it. Politicians,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: the people in power, the devil himself, they all worked
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: overtime to blind due to the truth. They created conflict
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: of divide brother against brother, all that hate, all that bloodshed,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: diversions away from what was really happening lies injustice, corruption.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: The world was evil. Peter Tosh knew this to his core.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: He could feel the truth coursing through his veins. It
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: was in the blades of grass that he trampled under
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: foot as he ran through the West Warman fields, running
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: toward the sound of his parents' voices, voices that he
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: hadn't heard in years, Voices that his aunt told him
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: he might one day hear again. As he got older,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: he would come to realize this was nothing but wishful thinking.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Right now, however, as a child whose parents had abandoned him,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: a child who wanted that which he did not have,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Peter ran toward the voices. He was so focused on them,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: so disoriented by their ghostly sound, so open to the
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: truth that pulsed around him in all aspects of life,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: that he failed to see the barbed wire fence. It
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: was obscure just up ahead, covered in lush green overgrowth,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: hidden there by the devil himself. Peter ran face first
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: into the barbs. They dug into his eyelids, the rusty
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: knots biting through his skin. He felt a burning sensation
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: on the surface of his eyes and felt the blood
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: as it began to run down his cheeks. Suddenly the
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: world went dark. Peter feared he would be like everyone else,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: now sightless, silenced, his own personal awakening, obscured forever by
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: one faithful accident, his consciousness and a slumber. He knew
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: he was destined for more than this, to live his life.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Fumbling through the darkness slowly, carefully, he began to open
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: his eyes. There staring back at him in the mirror,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: a bloody reflection. The devil may have tried to blind him,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: but the devil was unsuccessful. Peter's two eyelids were sliced open,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: one cut so deep that he could see right through
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: the gaping hole to his eyeball. He breathed a sigh
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: of relief. Wounds would heal? He still had his sight.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: He used that site to watch an old man up
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: the road pluck out country and Western tunes on an
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: equally old guitar, and the sound the man made was
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: the sound of beauty an otherwise ugly world. Peter internalized
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: the chord, voicings, the rhythms. He made his own guitar
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: from a piece of wood, some fishing line, and a
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: sardine pan, and he watched his own hands learn to
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: make music, and he watched as the devil kept pulling
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: the wool, kept separating black Jamaicans from positions of power.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: There were no black lawyers, black judges, black preachers. Not here.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Even the Son of God was a white man. Where
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: so Peter Tosh was told in church, not a house
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: of the Lord, a house where Peter and his family
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: saying the hymns, the devil wanted them to sing, Lord,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: wash over me, and I will be whiter than snow.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: No dangerous thinking as dangerous as being found with the
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: truth in your possession. In nineteen sixties Kingston, in the
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: trench Town ghettos, the truth was being intimidated, shot, blown up.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Peter Tosh, now a teenager, now truly on his own
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: for the first time in his life, adjusted to his
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: new city with in trepidation. Didn't matter that Jamaica had
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: finally achieved its independence. Frustration was everywhere. Frustration with the establishment,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: with authority, with a two party system that failed to
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: serve the disenfranchised, rude boys, young unemployed, disaffected youth. They
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: did the bidding of the People's National Party or the
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Jamaican Labor Party whichever paid them more to violently disrupt
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: the other. They heckled, they threw stones, and they sewed
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: discorded local polling stations. The burgeoning ganja trade added weapons
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: to the mix, thanks to Americans and Europeans who couldn't
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: get enough Jamaican grass. They traded grass for guns, but
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: guns weren't enough. Pipe bombs, mall top cocktails, machetes, knives,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: all of them tools of the trade, tools of the poor,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the oppressed, the burners, and the looters. Unable to express
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: their anger over the growing social divide in any other way.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: They were under the state's corrupt thumb, and they wanted out.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: They wanted money, They wanted power, They wanted a voice.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Peter Tosh had a voice to lend, a voice that
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: could not be silenced from speaking out, just like his
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: eyes couldnt be shut by tangles of barbed wire, A
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: voice that blended well with those of his Trench Town
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: friends Bob Marley and Bunny Livingston. At first, the Whalers
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: were a duop vocal group, a group armed with only
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: their voices. But Peter had other weapons at his disposal,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: not that old fishing line and sardine pan guitar, and
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: not the guitar shaped like an sixteen that would come later.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: Peter sung a less Paul over his shoulder and taught
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Bob Marley how to play guitar strokes on the offbeat,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: sounding like a machine gun when you squeeze the trigger.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Their goal, or rather the goal spurred on by Peter
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Tasha's guidance, was to stir it up. Not unlike the
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: rude boys stirring it up in the streets, but unlike
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: the rude boys, the Whalers sought to combat the disinformation
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: making its way through their community. They did this first
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: by dropping the dou wop stick and finding their unique
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: voice as a group. And then they get down to
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: writing songs. Peter wrote four hundred Years about slavery, and
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: together Peter and Bob wrote get up, stand up, dangerous songs,
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Songs without compromise, songs for all the boys and girls who,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: like Peter, had no parents, no hope, no outlet. They were,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: in turn hypnotized by these songs, songs that were powerful weapons,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: songs that cut through all the noise and delivered the
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: very thing that everyone from the Devil to Jamaica's two
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: party system, the shit stem, as Peter Tosh called it,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: were so desperate to silence the truth. Peter Tosh was
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: in the revolution business. It with his bandmate Bob Marley
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: and Bunny Livingston. Peter Tosh revolutionized reggae music, first working
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: with producer Cox and Dodd at the legendary Studio one
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: in Kingston, then with the eccentric lee Scratch Perry at
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Black Arc, and now with Chris Blackwell of Island Records.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: From Scott to rock Steady to the Whaler's own unique
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: strain of reggae, a strain as potent as Jamaican Guy
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: as well defined as the Rastafari religion with which it identified,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: played as tight as a pack splip thanks to Peter,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: who taught each of them that a guitar could be
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: more powerful than a loaded gun. But there was no
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: money in the revolution business. The money was in the
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: music business, and to get that money, the Whalers had
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: to compromise their original sound in order to break through
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: in the Western market. It's hard now to overstate just
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: how foreign reggae music sounded to rock and roll fans
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: circa nineteen seventy two. Even the seasoned American session musicians
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: hired to record overdubs on the Whaler's Island Records debut
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Catch a Fire. Their fifth album, Overall, had trouble finding
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: the one, and those overdubs were the brainchild of Chris Blackwell,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: not only the record's producer, but Island Records founder and
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Bob Marley, who understood that compromise was necessary in order
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: for his message to reach a larger audience. Peter Tosh, however,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: did not do compromise, not when it came to music,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: not when it came to revolution, and certainly not when
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: it came to the money that he believed he was owed,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: money that Chris Blackwell was now telling the band they
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: owed him forty pounds in tour expenses expenses Chris Blackwell
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: promised to cover if the Whalers came to England, played
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: some shows, started working on another record. In Peter Tosh's eyes,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Chris Blackwell broke that promise, just like he was now
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: breaking up the Whaler's long standing bond by putting Bob
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Marley up front as the main attraction. The Whalers were
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: no longer the Whalers. They were Bob Marley and the
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Whalers now, and Peter Tosh was fucking pissed, Irritated that
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: he was being screwed out of money, Irritated that he
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: was being creatively demoted by the very band that he
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: made musically literate, a band that was supposed to be
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: giving a voice to the voteless, but which was now
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: being led by a man groomed for pop stardom, a
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: man who was singing, Baby, Baby, We've got a date.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Bob Marley wasn't a revolutionary, not like Peter Tosh. Anyways.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: He wasn't dangerous like Peter. And that's not to say
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: that Peter had actual, real beef with Bob. They weren't
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: in conflict, weren't divided, though the Devil would like to
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: make you think they were. They were just on different paths.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Bunny Livingston too. Bunny left the band first, but Peter
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: then followed shortly after, True to himself and true to
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: the songs, he left behind. Stop that train, I'm leaving.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: It wasn't just the Bob Marley train that chugged along
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: without Peter Tosh. It was Island Records too. They didn't
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: want anything to do with Peter Tosh's debut solo album,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Legalize It Is he fucking crazy. Marijuana was one hundred
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: illegally pretty much everywhere, advocating for the decriminalization as something
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: that could get you serious jail time, even if you
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: were a rosta and considered its sacrament. That wasn't a hill.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Chris Blackwell and Island Records were willing to die on.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: If Peter Tosh wanted to put a target on his head,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: that was his prerogative. Didn't matter. Peter spoke his truth.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: He didn't fear targets. He didn't fear death either, even
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: though by the mid nineteen seventies death was all around
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: him in Trench Town and beyond, Fearing death meant becoming death.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: And this wasn't about cheating death either. Peter knew that
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: every time he was knocked down, it was another opportunity
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: to get back up. He was knocked down plenty. His
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: guitars routinely suffered the consequences of his actions, smashed to
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: pieces as he tried to jump fences or walls as
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: another cop niffed at his heels. The law made possession
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: of marijuana a bigger crime than smoking marijuana, so the
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: first part of it, this little game Peter played with
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: the police was to take a huge toke off his
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: joint when he was caught in the act, and then run.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: Running made his lungs burn. Even for a veteran weed
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: smoker like Peter. He knew he wasn't going to be
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: fast enough, though not this time. But he wasn't about
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: to give in so easily. If the cops wanted him,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: they'd have to catch him, and they did, two, three,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: four of them. He couldn't quite tell from his vantage point,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: lying on the ground, arms shielding his face, and then
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: the cops beat him mercilessly with their batons. They hit
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: him until he bled and until a few of his
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: ribs were fractured, all for a little ganja. Experiences such
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: as these strengthened Peter's resolve. Knocked down but never kept down,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: Public Enemy number one, with no fear, diving headfirst into
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: making a record called Legalize It, and not just no fear,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: no cash. What little his old friend bought Marley gave
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: him help pay for the recording of a few songs,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: but he needed more. Kingston, nineteen seventy six. The DC
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: three was loaded to the gills with Jamaican herb and
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: there were no passengers, just the pilot and the smuggler
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: not a true smuggler per se, more of a guy
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: who put thought into action and got shit done. And
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: for this he had his associate, Peter Tosh, his blessing
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: hundreds of pounds of marijuana on its way to a
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: buyer in Miami. The whole idea was a win win.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: The farmers got paid, and the island got that much
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: needed injection of foreign currency, and Peter Tosh got his
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: album made. The pilot asked about his cut, and it
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: would be. Smuggler told him to chill out and get
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: this bird to its destination and you'll be handsomely compensated
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: on the back end. Just like we discussed. The pilot
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: had no reason not to trust him, and furthermore, no
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: reason not to trust Peter Tosh, a man who lived
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: by the truth. The pilot fired up the engine and
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: got the plane in the air. He kept it real low,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: one hundred feet from the ground, so close to the
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Caribbean that the water quivered as the hunk of metal
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: rattled along above it. But it wasn't a straight shot.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: The pilot had a maneuver his way around Cuba. There
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: was zero doubt that Castro wouldn't blow their ass out
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: of the sky if he caught them, so the trip
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: took longer than either of than wanted it too. The
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: sun went down, red skies at night, drug Smuggler's delight
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: or something like that, and finally they made it. The
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: DC three settled onto a runway at the Miami Airport,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: its propeller's humming, and the buyer was waiting. He took
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: the ganja and handed over seventy five thousand dollars in
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: American bills. Back home in Kingston, Peter Tosh was happy
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: he finished making Legalize It, largely paid for thanks to
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: a massive shipment of grass to the US, the strategy
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: that initially pissed off the drug dealers who provided the product,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: because the last thing they wanted to see was marijuana legalized,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: thus destroying the way they made their money. But I digress.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: Columbia Records didn't know how Peter funded his album, and
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: they didn't care. They released Legalize It in June of
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six, and though it managed to crack the
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Billboard Album chart in the United States, it was immediately
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: banned in Jamaica. Peter responded by buying a full page
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: ad in the local newspaper and printing the lyrics of
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: the title track. He was undeterred. He didn't hold back.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: He put it all out there and if anyone had
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: a problem with that, they could come talk to Peter Tosh.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: They knew where to find him. We'll be right back
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: after this. We're We're, We're. The same month that Peter
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: toge legalize it. In June of nineteen seventy six, a
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: state of emergency was declared in his home country. Jamaica
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: was in turmoil. Economically broken, distrusting of a government that
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: was seen as duplicitous. Prime Minister Michael Manley could hardly
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: hold it together, and as the general elections approached, the frustration,
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: anger and resentment festering below the surface began to bubble
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: up and leak out everywhere, and with it came more
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: violence and more bloodshed. A candidate for the People's National
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Party was shot in the side while helping us set
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: up a podium. A candidate for the Labor Party was
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: viciously attacked by a mob. His assistant cut down with
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: a machete while his car was riddled with bullets and
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: then blown up with a homemade bomb, and they even
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: came for Bob Marley, two teams of government and exiting
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: two white dotsons a moving fast through the darkness, pistols
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: and machine guns in hand. They shot Bob Marley's wife
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Rita in the head outside in the couple's yard, and
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: one of the gunmen made his way inside Bob's house
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: to the kitchen where Bob, his manager, and his guitarists
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: were sitting ducks. The shooter emptied the clip of his
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: submachine gun and then disappeared. But look at how Bob
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: Marley bounced back just two days later on stage at
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the Smile Jamaica concert.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: On stage two days later after getting shot, rolling up
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: his sleeve to show off his bullet holes and show,
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: as would be assassins, that he was not afraid.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Bob Marley was the struggle. He was the hero. Bob
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Marley was reggae music, at least to most Americans who
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: were now buying his records in such quantities that he
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: finally cracked the Billboard top ten. But not Bunny Livingston
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: and not Peter Tosh. And if Bob Marley was the struggle,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: the hero, then Peter Tosh was the truth. And just
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: like his friend and former bandmate Bob Marley, Peter Tosh
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: could put that truth on display for everyone to see.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Like Bob, Peter feared nothing, not the devil, not his enemies,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: not even death. Nineteen seventy eight, the gunman who came
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: for Peter Tosh didn't sneak into his home under the
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: cover of darkness. He didn't even hide who he was,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: a detective, a so called man of the law. He
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: pulled out his piece and broad daylight and put it
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: right to Peter's head. He cocked it, said he'd been
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: wanting to do this for a while now, ever since
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: Peter ran his mouth on stage. At the Kingston National Stadium,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: the One Loved Peace Concert, two years after Smiled, Jamaica,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: thirty five thousand people gathered together, many of them hoping
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: that music could help heal the wounds of the ongoing
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: civil war happening in their country. Peter Tosh wasn't that naive.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: He knew that his guitar was a weapon, just like
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: the REALM sixteen it was modeled after, but that it
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: would take more than strumming some machine gun rhythms, and
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: it would take more than joining the hands of political rivals,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Michael Manley and Edward Sega. That was Marley's bag. Peter
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: didn't want peace. Peace was the diploma you got in
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: the cemetery you rest in peace. Peter didn't rest. Peter
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: wanted justice, equal rights and justice. Justice for four hundred
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: years of oppression, for the colonial imperialistic situation. They now
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: found themselves in the people in power, the government, the
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: forces of evil doing everything they could to snuff out progress.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Manly Sega, all of them pirates like Columbus and Francis
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Drake before them. The people suffering, brutalized, malnourished, trying to
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: make it through each day, each week. Can't get any
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: worse than this. Any worse is dead. Peter Tosh was
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: a steppen razor, dangerous for half of his hour long
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: set on stage. Peter carried on like this for thirty minutes,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: delivering a fiery rant that rejected the very notion of
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: peace that was aimed at both sides of the political aisle,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: both of whom were in attendance. It cemented him as
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: a beacon of truth, a voice for the voiceless, and
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: it also made him a marked man. Guys like this detective,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: who had the barrel of his pistol to Peter's head,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: weren't just bothered by Peter's words. That was only part
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: of it. They were bothered by his actions, lighting up
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: a spliff right there on stage and smoking it. Mister
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: legalized it himself, as if he were immune to the
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: laws of the land, as if he didn't know his place.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: The detective wanted to pull the trigger. He really did,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: but not like this, Not for nothing. He knew Peter
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Tosh would get his eventually. He hoped he would be
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: there when it happened. Peter didn't show the detective an
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: ounce of fear. He wasn't about to give these colonial
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: bastards the satisfaction the devil's legion doing the devil's work,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: hiding the truth behind corruption and lies. He just kept
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: on doing what he did, which right now. In nineteen
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: seventy eight meant touring the United States behind his new record,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: Bush Doctor, released on the Rolling Stones as Record label.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: The support of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, who appeared
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: on the album's opening track, helped boost Peter's profile in
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: a global market that continued to equate reggae solely with
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: Bob Marley back in Jamaica, there was no confusion over
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: who Peter Tosh was. He was the guy standing outside
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: a Kingston recording studio, fresh spliff burning between his fingers,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: the one who called himself Stepen Raiser, a real tough
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: guy up on the One Love Peace concert stage. Two
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: men in plain clothes then approached him, and they didn't
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: say anything. One took the joint from Peter's hand power
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: moved bullshit. Peter took it back. The man tried to
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: take it again, so Peter mashed it up and tossed
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: it on the ground and I pissed off the guy
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: and plaine clothes to no end. He put his hands
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: on Peter. Peter Tosh was a big dude six'. Five
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: the guy couldn't take him, alone not even with his.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Friend they called over a third, guy this one with
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: a pistol in his, hand and he wrapped the gun
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: tight inside his clenched fist and took a hard. Swing
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: peter moved. Fast the fist Missed peter's head by inches
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: and hit one of the other men standing behind. Him
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: cracked the guy's, nose, open blood, everywhere and that Fucked.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Peter he knew. It more men were coming, now these
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: ones wearing police. Uniforms they grabbed him and dragged him
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: to the. Station they threw him in a, cell and
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: then they got to, work finishing with that detective with
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: the loaded gun had started working Over. Peter tosh their,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: hands their, truncheons their boot. Heels they Attacked peter with
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: everything they. Had they took. Turns they hit him in the,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: ribs his, chest his. Face he put a hand up
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: to block the, blows and they broke that, hand and
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: they hit him till they, bled till their own knuckles
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: bled till they couldn't tell whose blood was who's. Anymore
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: peter tried to escape through a, window but there were
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: too many of. Them they pulled him, down and he
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: fell to his knees and they hit him some. More
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: peter collapsed to the, ground splayed out where seven police
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: officers continued to assault him for over an, hour beaten
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: until his face was swollen and blood oozed from his,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: head beaten until his eyes rolled into the back of his,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Skull beaten until the cops were sure they had actually done,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: it silenced the one man brave enough to tell the,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: truth killed nineteen eighty, One Bob murley was. Dead Peter
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: tosh wept just Like bob had wept when he rushed
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: to The Kingston police station three years prior to find
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: his Friend, peter a crumpled mass of battered, flesh hand broken,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: skull cracked, open nearly beaten to death by seven cops
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: in his jail, cell beaten for over an hour for
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: the crime of speaking his mind and smoking a. Joint
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: But peter wasn't actually. Dead he only played dead to
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: get the police to stop attacking. Him when it came To,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: bob playing dead couldn't stop the cancer that took his.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Life Losing Bob marley left a hole in the reggae.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: World many looked To Peter tosh to ascend the superstar
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: status to take his former bandmate's place as the genre's dominant.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: Avatar they called him the New king of. Reggae but
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: there was nothing new About Peter. Tosh, Besides peter had
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Been bob's. Teacher Bob marley would have been nothing Without Peter.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Tosh In peter's, mind at, Least peter was not a.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Superstar he was an, architect a, missionary a, messenger a
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: man who used music to shine light on the. Truth
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: he feared, nothing not the retribution of political, leaders not
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: detectives pointing guns in his, face not playing clothes cops
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: trying to get him to step out of, line and
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: certainly not the Maniacal Keith richards of The Rolling, stones
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: Technically peter's, boss seeing As peter was signed To keith's record.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Label keith could be a prickly, fuck But peter didn't.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: Care The stones were hosing him, now just Like Chris
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: blackwell And Island records host him all those years, before
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Using peter to boost their own bad boy. Image keith
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: fighting a heroin bust up In canada around the same
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Time peter was fighting for his life in a prison.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: Cell but The stones weren't doing shit For peter's. Career
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: they weren't properly promoting his. Records they wanted him to
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: pay for his touring. Expenses. Money it was always about.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Money in, reality The stones were the ones who were
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: in debt To. Peter that's How peter saw it. Anyway
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: at Least keith was nice enough to Let peter stay
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: at his place In Otro rios for a few. Days
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: The jamaican resort town was geographically and spiritually far removed
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: from the dangerous ghettos Of. Trenchtown peter liked it a
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: little too. Much he didn't want to. Leave neither did
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: the collection of Roughneck, rastafarians gangsters and goats that were
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: now squatting with him in the mansion of one of
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: the most famous rock stars in the. World peter, figured
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: what the Hell Keith richards? Odom and If Keith richards
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: wasn't going to pay, up Then Peter tosh was going
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: to take what was His news Of peter's intention made
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: its way to The stones out on. Tour keith was.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: Furious he picked up the phone and dialed the number
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: of his house In Ocho. Rios peter Answered keith told,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: him in no uncertain, terms to vacate the. Premises The
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Stepen razor had officially taken advantage Of keith's, generosity And
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: peter Told keith the fuck off if he even tried
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: to physically Remove peter from the. House peter said he
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: would use one of the machine guns he found stashed
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: in the mansion's many rooms to stand his. Ground keith
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Called peter's. Bluff he was on his way back To
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: jamaica right now get lost or get. Fucked Keith richards
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: arrived In Oro rios a few days later to Find
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Peter tosh no longer in his, house and it wasn't
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: long Before peter was no longer On keith's record label.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: Either peter wasn't about to steal from, anyone not Even Keith.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: Richards he who steals me steals, Destruction Peter tosh, SAID
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: a destruction that was the devil's. Business Peter tosh's business
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: was to stay the. Course whether or not he was
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: in league with The stones or filling the shoes Of Bob,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: marley it was. Irrelevant it was happening all the. Same
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: he was filling the. Shoes he was performing at that heightened.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Level he was the, guy the guy who gave voice
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: to the. People, but like he said on stage at
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: The One Love peace concert in nineteen seventy, eight hungry
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: people are angry. People people Like Dennis Leppo, loban one
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: of many hangers on who hit Up peter for money
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: on the. REGULAR a usual suspect At Peter tosh's, house
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: D X cohn asked for fifty bucks here and one
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: hundred bucks. There peter once Bought lepo a mattress after
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: he did a stint in. Prison some said he did
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: that stint because he took the rap for a gun
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: possession charge that Threatened peter's. Freedom didn't. Matter the point
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: is That lepo had come to expect That peter would
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: take care of. Him but Now Peter tosh was on
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: tour In america and no one was taking care Of.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: Lepo it ate at him listening To peter interviewed on
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: the radio talking about The United, states talking about making,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: records talking about his good life and the large sums
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: of money he was, making the money he was owed
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: millions of dollars By peter's. Math everyone thought they were owed.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: Something Peter tosh thought The Keith richards owed. Him Dennis
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: Leppo lobin thought That Peter tosh showed him just Like
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: peter had gone To keith's house to get what was,
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: Owed leppo was going to do the same At peter's.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: House but Unlike, Peter leppo wasn't going to back down and.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: Leave and that what's the. Truth I'm Jake brennan in
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: this episode Of disgraceland is to be.
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: Continued disgraceland was created by yours truly and is produced
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: in partnership With Double.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: Elvis credits for this episode can be found on the
• 33:28
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• 33:32
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• 33:36
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• 33:38
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• 33:50
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• 34:03
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• 34:10
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