I&I The Natural Mystics
Marley, Tosh and Wailer, Who Shall Be King? is a group biography of the Wailers and their rise to fame and power. Rising independent historian Colin Grant argues that these reggae stars offered a model for black men in the second half of the twenty century: accommodate and succeed (Marley), fight and die (Tosh) or retreat and live (Livingston). Where this book will differ from the crowd of biographies on Marley is Grant’s eagle eye for historical details, his fantastic reputation for research, and his skilful story telling skills.
‘If Reggae music had delighted and enthralled so many around the world, transformed a tiny island into a musical super-power, and given a platform to the Wailers, a trio of extraordinarily poetic and powerful natural mystics, then how could it, in the space of thirty years, rise and fall so spectacularly and end so brutally? A cultural coup had taken place, and in decades to come the lament that ‘the singers must come back’ haunted the land. In the 1980s, the passing of Bob Marley and Peter Tosh had left a vacuum, and on 26 December 1990, the last remaining Wailer, the region’s finest Caribbean voice, had been rendered mute.’
