Personnel: Peter Tosh (vocals, arranger, guitar, keyboards); Steve Golding (guitar); Dean Fraser, David Madden, Nambo, Chico (horns); Keith Sterling, Tyrone Downie (keyboards); George Fullwood, Gilbert Morrison, Danny (bass); Santa Davison (drums); Sticky Thompson, Scully Sims (percussion); Ruddy Thomas, Pam Hall, Nadine Sutherland, Cynthia Schloss, June Lodge (background vocals).
Recorded in 1987. Includes liner notes by Roger Steffens.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
This is part of EMI Records "Peter Tosh Remasters" series.
Personnel: Peter Tosh (vocals, keyboards, background vocals); David Madden, Dean Fraser, Nambo (horns); Tyrone Downe, Keith Sterling (keyboards); Scully Sims, Uziah "Sticky" Thompson (percussion); Cynthia Schloss, June Lodge, Nadine Sutherland, Pam Hall, Ruddy Thomas (background vocals).
Audio Mixers: Dennis Thompson; Peter Tosh.
Liner Note Author: Roger Steffans.
Recording information: Kingston, Jamaica.
Photographer: Adrian Boot.
On NO NUCLEAR WAR, the final release of his sadly abbreviated career, Peter Tosh continues to speak out against injustice and oppression. Tosh's rich, expressive baritone is right out front, conveying passion and urgency on every song. The title track begins the proceedings on a serious note, and this feeling continues on "Nah Goa Jail" as he declares his resistance to being imprisoned for using marijuana.
There are a few eerie ironies here. The accusatory "Vampire" contains the sound of a bloodcurdling scream that doesn't sound like mere kitsch, and in "Lessons in My Life," Tosh declares "money can make friendship end." At moments like these, it's hard not to think of his death later that year, in a botched robbery, at the hands of someone he knew. The record ends on a hopeful note on "Come Together," a straightforward plea for unity. On the last track on his final record, Tosh sings with his trademark rawness, and turns in a lovely solo on the melodica, an instrument he mastered when he was a young rising star in the world of Jamaican music.
It's one of the great ironies that Peter Tosh was murdered just days after the release of No Nuclear War, for this was a poor epitaph to an otherwise shining career. It was a tough time for a reggae artist, even a legendary one like Tosh. Previously, the former Wailer had tapped into a variety of styles, creating a unique sound that was built on a Jamaican foundation but looked equally to the West for inspiration. But at this time, Jamaica was in the grips of ragga, and digitized dancehall ruled the island, while the West was in a rut, caught between the clutches of glam metal and the tail end of synth dance. So, what was a respected roots practitioner to do? Tosh struggles with the question, but never quite finds an answer. His solution was to try to create a majestic sound, which sadly just ends up sounding ponderous and portentous, with the title track and "Lessons in My Life" particularly suffering this fate. A few of the songs are given a dancehall sheen, but for that to have worked, the rhythms have to be strong, and none of them really are. Not surprisingly then, the most successful song on the set is "Vampire," a fairly straightforward rootsy song. What adds to the irony is that lyrically the album is extremely strong and powerfully delivered. In the hands of an outside arranger and producer, this might have been an album worthy of Tosh's name, but left to his own devices, it was a disappointment, made worse by the shock of his death. [The 2002 edition includes a different version of "No Nuclear War" as a bonus track.] ~ Jo-Ann Greene minimize