YMMV / Peter Tosh

• Covered Up: He had a knack for this:
  • "Rasta Shook Them Up" is a pioneering early rasta recording, but it takes the melody from the mento track "Archie Buck Them Up", which is now obscure.
  • Bunny Wailer has stated that he wrote "Funeral (Burial)" and would have been the singer on it had he not gone to prison. The song is probably a cowrite between the two as it shows elements of both their writing styles, but whether they worked on it together or if Peter simply made changes to Bunny's song before he recorded it is unknown. Oddly, when Bunny recorded the song himself he chose to record Peter's rearrangement for Legalize It, which has a different melody to the original Wail N Soul M' version.
  • "Stepping Razor" was written by Joe Higgs, but by his own admission he forgot to copyright the song. This is also something of an example of The Cover Changes the Meaning , as the song refers to Higgs' short height ("Don't you watch my size"). Peter on the other hand was noticeably tall.
  • "The World Is Changing" and "Soon Come" were both written by Jimmy Norman. The former was recorded by The Coasters, but flopped and is still not on CD - whereas Tosh's version has appeared in numerous places. Norman accused Tosh of stealing "Soon Come" and just changing a few lyrics, which is likely the reason why the Bush Doctor remake of the song changes the arrangement and lyrics further.
  • "You Gotta Walk And (Don't Look Back)", became Peter's biggest hit when Peter remade it with Mick Jagger in 1978, is arguably more famous than the Temptations original.
• Misattributed Song: He provided the Amharic chanting that appears at the start of the pre-Island versions of "Concrete Jungle", but it's been miscredited to Lee Scratch Perry on more than one occasion. Peter had already used this style of chanting on a number of recordings such as "Rasta Shook Them Up", "Black Dignity" and "Righteous Ruler".
• Sampled Up: Some lines from "Burial" were interpolated by Cutty Ranks in his track "Limb By Limb", the DJ SS remix of which is used prominently in the episode of Father Ted titled "New Jack City". Father Ted remains extremely popular in the UK and Ireland, whereas Tosh has more of a cult following.
• Signature Song: He's strongly associated with "Legalize It", "Steppin' Razor", "Soon Come" "400 Years", "No Sympathy" and "You Gotta Walk (And Don't Look Back)".

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