Bringing Reggae to the Masses: Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff and Desmond Dekker
If there was a Mount Rushmore for Reggae artists, it would be made up of these four giants: Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff and Desmond Dekker.
The ‘60s gave us so much musically, and among that gold was the ska/rocksteady influenced Reggae. All four musicians were active at the same time, with Dekker coming out the gate with the international hit “Israelites” in 1968. Cliff would sign to Island Records in the late ‘60s and release his debut album Hard Road to Travel.
However, Marley and Tosh’s work as part of The Wailers took Reggae to a whole new level.
These Rastamen together created magic with albums like Catch a Fire and Burnin’, but even when Tosh exited the Wailers with Bunny Wailer in 1974, they continued to produce some of the genre’s biggest hits like Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” and Tosh’s “Legalize It.”
Tragically, Cliff is the last man standing today, but even in death, the music of these four icons continues to live on.
PLAYLIST – Tracklist
Desmond Dekker & the Aces – “Israelites”
Jimmy Cliff – “You Can Get It If You Really Want”
Bob Marley & the Wailers – “One Love/People Get Ready”
Peter Tosh – “Stepping Razor”
Bob Marley – “Redemption Song”
Jimmy Cliff – “The Harder They Come”
Desmond Dekker – “007 (Shanty Town)”
Peter Tosh – “Legalize It”
Bob Marley – “Three Little Birds”
Whenever blogger Erica Banas gets stressed, she’s plays “Three Little Birds” on repeat. It always works.
