I and I The Natural Mystics Marley, Tosh and Wailer
Over one dramatic decade, a trio of Trenchtown R&B crooners, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer and Bob Marley, swapped their 1960s Brylcreem hairdos and two-tone suits for 1970s battle fatigues and dreadlocks to become the Wailers—one of the most influential groups in popular music.
From youth to early adulthood, they had been inseparable; united in their ambition, through musical harmony and financial reward, to escape Jamaica’s Trench Town ghetto. On the cusp of success however, they’d been pulled apart by the elevation of Marley as first among equals and by the razor sharp instincts of Chris Blackwell, the shrewd and charming boss of Island Records.
I & I: The Natural Mystics examines for the first time the story of the Wailers, arguing that these musicians offered a model for black men in the second half of the twentieth century: accommodate and succeed (Marley), fight and die (Tosh) or retreat and live (Wailer). It charts their complex relationship, their fluctuating fortunes, musical peak, and the politics and ideologies that provoked their split.
Following their trail from Jamaica through Europe, America, and back to the vibrant and volatile world of Trench Town, Grant travels in search of the last surviving Wailer. He unravels the roots of their charisma, their adoption of Rastafari, their suspicion of race pimps and Obeah men (witch doctors), and their quest to become not just extraordinary musicians but also natural mystics.
I & I is a remarkable story of creativity, squandered talent and fierce ambitious rivalry – a mix of reportage and revelatory history.
About Colin Grant
Colin Grant is the author of Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey and His Dream of Mother Africa, (Jonathan Cape, 2008;Oxford University Press, USA , 2008). Grant is a radio producer in the BBC Science Unit. His radio career started in 1989 as a script editor and producer of arts programmes on BBC World Service. He has written and produced countless plays including The Clinic, based on the lives of the photojournalists, Tim Page and Don McCullin. Grant is represented by Tibor Jones & Associates, Literary Agency, London, UK.
Colin Grant's blog: http://colincgrant.blogspot.com/
Colin Grant's blog: http://colincgrant.blogspot.com/
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