AMG Review of Essential Peter Tosh: The Columbia Years

William Ruhlmann
All Music Guide

The Peter Tosh entry in Sony's The Essential series of best-ofs is a reasonable selection from Tosh's limited catalog of Columbia Records recordings, which includes only two studio albums, Legalize It (1976) and Equal Rights (1977), plus a belatedly released concert album, Live & Dangerous Boston 1976 (2001). In 1999, Columbia/Legacy released Scrolls of the Prophet: The Best of Peter Tosh, which included material from both the Columbia studio albums and Tosh's subsequent tenure on the Rolling Stones and EMI America labels (1978-1987), making that collection more comprehensive than this one. However, The Essential does contain "Why Must I Cry," an excellent song co-written by Bob Marley that is not found on Scrolls of the Prophet, as well as a live version of the Wailers classic "400 Years" also missing from the earlier disc.