Lest We Forget Peter Tosh, Free I, Doc Brown

By Basil Walters

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Last Friday, September 11, had immense global historical significance. This date is traditionally celebrated in Ethiopia as New Year's Day according to its ancient Julian Calendar.

Since 2001, it took on new meaning in the western world as for the past eight years the calamity that was 9/11, is being commemorated. Not to be left out is one of Jamaica's greatest misfortunes and reggae's most tragic losses, the brutal slaying of Peter Tosh, along with his associates broadcaster Free I, and Winston "Doc" Brown.

But whereas in the Americas, the day was solemnly observed, in Jamaica the day went by almost imperceptibly. One is fully aware that the greater focus is placed on Peter Tosh's birthday, but given the extent of the gravity of the sordid incident on that fateful night of Friday September 11, 1987, a day of remembrance and deep reflection should be established.

Lest we forget, the dust was settled from the brutal attack by gun-hawks on Peter Tosh's Plymouth Avenue residence at Barbican in Kingston, Doc Brown who was shot in the head died on the spot, Tosh shot twice in the head was pronounced dead later that night in the intensive care unit at the University Hospital and Free I who also took two bullets in the head died in hospital a few days later.

Tosh's female companion, Marlene Brown, was grazed in the head, Free I's wife (Joy Dixon) was shot in the mouth and leg, Tosh's drummer Carlton Davis was shot in the stomach and in the hand. And one Michael Robinson was shot three times; one bullet hit him in the head, another went through his legs and another lodged in his back.

To understand the full measure of the loss to Jamaica and reggae music from this incident, one only has to revisit Dr Omar Davis' paper presented on Peter Tosh at the Bob Marley's lecture a few years ago.

"In looking at Tosh's domestic social commentary, one saw from his earliest days an outpouring of music highlighting the injustices, which he perceived then in the society. These songs include You Can't Blame the Youth, 400 Years , Stop That Train and Sinner Man which later became Downpressor Man.  As his music evolved, we had Haffi Get a Beaten, Mark of the Beast, and his concern about the dominance of materialism in our society in Pound Get a Blow and The Day the Dollar Died. In preparing for this lecture, I must state that I have become even more aware of the consistency of his protest as well as his ability to frame that protest into popular form, even while remaining at the frontier of the changes in the music, from ska to rock steady to reggae," Dr Davis noted.

The former Minister of Finance concluded, "There are many who would be surprised that the Minister of Finance maintains a deep interest in the development of our pop music. Such expressions of surprise would be derived from an inability to understand that each of us is the product of our experiences and and environment. I can relate very vividly to difficult periods in my life when the music produced by our artistes played a critical role in stabilizing me in times of tension, motivating me in times of depression and reinvigorating me in periods of stagnation. Peter Tosh is one such artiste and for the body of work which he left us, I feel obliged to give thanks."

And no lesser person than the Reverend Canon Ernie Gordon said in his 2007 Peter Tosh's Lecture, that if you listen to the Stepping Razor or the Mystic Man as Tosh often dubbed himself, there's a link between philosophy, epistemology and theology. "What Peter Tosh has done for theology is to move it up a notch," Rev Gordon said.