By the early 1970s Peter Tosh had grown restless inside the Wailers. With Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer he had cut landmark sides for Lee “Scratch” Perry — “400 Years,” “Downpresser Man,” “No Sympathy” — and appeared on the albums that would land the group at Island Records. But the international push centred on Marley as frontman, and Tosh’s “generally uncompromising stance and personal prickliness” made a solo path inevitable, David Katz writes in the Guardian. In 1974 he and Bunny Wailer left.
Why they left
The split was artistic and financial. Island’s Chris Blackwell had bankrolled the Wailers’ UK launch; Marley became the face of the export market while Tosh and Livingston — who had co-founded the group — received less credit and, in Tosh’s view, less control, AllMusic records. The New York Times would later note that Tosh “left the group in 1974, complaining that he was not getting his fair share of money or credit.” Marley continued as Bob Marley & the Wailers; Tosh and Bunny each pursued solo careers.
Going it alone
Tosh did not slow down. He continued working with Perry and formed his own label, Intel-Diplo H.I.M. He cut “Legalize It” as a single before the album of the same name, and toured internationally as a solo act — preaching Rastafari, challenging police harassment and turning his 1978 arrest over a marijuana spliff into material for the stage, the Guardian records. The Wailers chapter was over; the Stepping Razor era had begun.
Why it matters
The 1974 walkout is the hinge of Tosh’s career. Everything that follows — CBS, the Rolling Stones, the Grammys, the unicycle — depends on his refusal to remain a sideman. Without the split there is no Legalize It.
Listen and dig deeper
- Browse Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer and Lee “Scratch” Perry in the Listen library.
- Previously: The Wailers take shape (1963). Next: Legalize It (1976).
Sources: The Guardian — “At last, Peter Tosh gets a museum of his own” (David Katz, Nov 7, 2016); The New York Times — “Peter Tosh, 42, Reggae’s Star” (Jon Pareles, Sep 13, 1987); AllMusic — Peter Tosh biography; Ultimate Classic Rock — “How Bob Marley Broke Out With the Wailers’ ‘Catch a Fire’”.
Editor’s note: This entry is part of the JamaicansMusic online museum — a career timeline assembled from the archive. It is dated to the era it documents; every claim is drawn from the linked sources.