Legalize It, Peter Tosh (1976)
Peter Tosh’s first solo album occupies a hallowed place in roots reggae history. The title track and the audacious cover art of Tosh kneeling in a field of ganja are perhaps too memorable: the album is much more than an advocacy platform for weed. Tosh’s impressive stylistic and thematic range is on full display—the sneering “Burial,” the (bouncy!) mama’s lament “What’cha Gonna Do,” and the soulful warning “Till Your Well Runs Dry” stand out—but Tosh’s characteristic defiance is the thread that runs through it all. That defiance is different in quality than Marley’s—more militant, to be sure, but also more self-aware of the creative possibilities of juxtaposing sweet melody and raw anger. That talent meshes perfectly with Marley’s unparalleled anthemic instinct and Bunny Livingston’s gentle sincerity, and in an ideal world we would speak of the Wailers with the same breathless breath as we do the Beatles. But we live in a world in which artistically magical relationships fall apart and people die before their gifts are exhausted. Okay. Something else, sometimes a thing of unique beauty, lies in the ashes. 9 ↑
Tosh, Peter. Legalize It. Virgin, 1976. Reviewed October 24, 2023. Notable tracks: “Burial,” “What’cha Gonna Do,” “Till Your Well Runs Dry,” “Legalize It.”
Another Side of Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan (1964)
In February 1964, Bob Dylan released The Times They Are a-Changin’, a barrage of (mostly) political ballads that would reignite the folk-protest movement. Six months later, Another Side hit the record shops. Dylan never liked the title, but it did make the point clearly, if too obviously: Bob was worried about being defined solely as an activist singer—or to be defined at all, burdened with the expectations that accompany familiarity. And so Another Side is a jumbled mess: simple pleas for love/sex (“All I Really Want to Do,” “Spanish Harlem Incident,” “Black Crow Blues”), break-up songs that range from slightly to very, very bitter (“I Don’t Believe You”, “To Ramona,” “It Ain’t Me, Babe,” “Ballad in Plain D”), throwaway talking blues (“I Shall Be Free No.10, ” “Motorpsycho Nightmare”), and two songs that don’t fit into any of those categories but reveal, ironically, Dylan’s inescapable consistency. The first is the self-loathing “My Back Pages,” in which 24-year-old Dylan chastises the naïve politics of 23-year-old Dylan, in the process penning some of the most memorable political verses in folk history. The second is the most powerful song on Another Side: the stubbornly humane and insanely hopeful “Chimes of Freedom.” Dylan never stopped writing political songs; and, despite his insistent self-identification with simple American folk music, he never quite let go of a certain kind of metaphysical exploration. Rimbaud, the critics used to say, with a sprinkling of Baudelaire, Shakespeare, and Twain. Maybe. But “Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed/For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones and worse/And for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe” suggests less the brooding wildness of Rimbaud or Shakespeare’s cosmic wonder than someone far more compassionate. Bartolomé de las Casas, perhaps, if the good bishop had stumbled across a 12-string steel and a Leadbelly fakebook in the Chiapas jungle. 8 ↑
Dylan, Bob. Another Side of Bob Dylan. Columbia, 1964. Reviewed October 23, 2023. Notable tracks: “Chimes of Freedom,” “To Ramona,” “It Ain’t Me, Babe.”
The Ghost of Tom Joad, Bruce Springsteen (1995)
Critical praise for The Ghost of Tom Joad usually comes with qualifications. “Solid work, but not Nebraska.” “The high-water mark of Springsteen’s least creative period.” The caveats are unnecessary. Tom Joad is one of the finest folk albums of the late 20th century, a heart-in-your-throat walk through the darkness of post-Reagan America. The muddy melodies take some time to sink in, and that’s as it should be: nothing’s easy when you ain’t got that do-re-mi. Springsteen’s heroes are ex-cons fighting to stay afloat, undocumented immigrants cooking meth in the Central Valley, Border Patrol officers falling in love with the wrong person. When hope does peek through in Tom Joad, as it does now and then, it’s all the more powerful for its rarity. Springsteen had an overtly political goal here, and it’s hard for art to succeed when its intention, however virtuous, is so carefully defined. But the album works because Bruce Springsteen’s greatest talent is empathy, the ability to let his characters to sing their lives simply and proudly. We’re left understanding what politics, beyond the corruption and careerism and cynicism, is really about: to make the world sensible, as it never has been. 10 ↑
Springsteen, Bruce. The Ghost of Tom Joad. Columbia, 1995. Reviewed October 20, 2023. Notable tracks: “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” “Youngstown,” “Sinaloa Cowboys,” “Across the Border.”