Peter Tosh - Brand New Second Hand (1971)

Winston Hubert McIntosh, professionally known as Peter Tosh, was born on 19 October 1944 in Westmoreland, the westernmost parish of Jamaica. He was abandoned by his parents and shuffled among relatives, and when he was fifteen, his aunt died and he moved to Trenchtown in Kingston, Jamaica. During the early 1960's, as an aspiring musician, he went to vocal teacher Joe Higgs, who gave free music lessons to young people, and through his contact with Higgs, Tosh met Robert Nesta Marley (Bob Marley) and Neville O'Reilly Livingston (Bunny Wailer). He then changed his name to Peter Tosh and the trio started singing together in 1962, with Higgs teaching the trio to harmonise and develop their music. By 1964, Tosh, Marley, and Bunny had formed the Wailing Wailers, with falsetto singer Junior Braithwaite, and backup singers Beverley Kelso and Cherry Smith. Initially, Tosh was the only one in the group who could play musical instruments, and according to Bunny Wailer, Tosh was critical to the band because he was a self-taught guitarist and keyboardist, and thus became an inspiration for the other band members to learn to play. The Wailing Wailers had a major ska hit with their first single, 'Simmer Down', and recorded several more successful singles before Braithwaite, Kelso and Smith left the band in late 1965. Marley spent much of 1966 in Delaware in the United States with his mother, and for a brief time was working at a nearby Chrysler factory. He returned to Jamaica in early 1967 with a renewed interest in music and a new spirituality, and as Tosh and Bunny were already Rastafarians when Marley returned from the US, the three became very involved with the Rastafari faith. Soon afterwards, they renamed their group the Wailers, and rejecting the up-tempo dance of ska, the band slowed their music to a rocksteady pace, and infused their lyrics with political and social messages inspired by their new-found faith. The Wailers composed several songs for the American-born singer Johnny Nash before teaming up with producer Lee "Scratch" Perry to record some of the earliest well-known reggae songs, including 'Soul Rebel', 'Duppy Conqueror', and 'Small Axe'. Although Tosh didn't record his debut solo album, 'Legalize It', until 1975/76, he'd been releasing solo singles in Jamaica since 1964, often with the Wailers as his backing band. For most of his records he was only allowed one song, with two different artists sharing each 7" disc, and so his solo discography is somewhat disjointed, but this album collects together all the songs that were either issued under his own name, or as b-sides of Wailers' singles, between 1964 and 1971, and includes a number of promo singles which were never officially released.  

Track listing

01 Hoot Nanny Hoot (single 1964)
02 Shame And Scandal (single 1965)
03 Amen (b-side of 'Habits' by The Wailers 1965)
04 Maga Dog (b-side of 'Hoolighans' by The Wailers 1965)
05 The Toughest (single 1966)
06 Rasta Put It On (Promo single 1966)
07 Lemon Tree (Promo single 1966)
08 Treat Me Good (b-side of 'Dancing Time' by The Wailers 1967)
09 Funeral (b-side of 'Thank You Lord' by The Wailers 1967)
10 Pound Get A Blow (b-side of 'Fire Fire' by The Wailers' 1967) 
11 Steppin' Razor (Promo single 1968)
12 Dem A Fi Get A Beaten (Promo single 1968)
13 Give Me A Ticket (Promo single 1969)
14 Once Bitten (single 1971)
15 Brand New Second Hand (single 1971)
16 Here Comes The Sun (Promo single 1971)
17 No Sympathy (single 1971)

Keith Richards - ...and on guitar (1987)

Keith Richards didn't really have a huge amount of spare time in the 60's to play on other artist's records, as being the guitarist and songwriter in the Rolling Stones was a full-time job, but he did manage to sneak off to appear on the TV broadcast of The Beatles' 'All You Need Is Love' in 1967, and to provide bass guitar with The Dirty Mac - the all-star band who played on the 'The Rolling Stones' Rock & Roll Circus' film. While he had his bass guitar handy he helped out Billy Preston on his 'That's The Way God Planned It' album in 1969, but the first time he actually added his guitar to someone else's record was in 1974, when he was heavily involved in Ron Wood's 'I've Got My Own Album To Do', providing guitar and backing vocals on a number of songs, and even co-writing two of them with Wood. Around this time he recorded with Alexis Korner, adding guitar to his own 'Get Off My Cloud', which would eventually appear on a Korner anthology in 2003, and also in 1974 he was invited to appear at the final concert of the Faces tour of that year, adding guitar to three tracks which would later appear on a recording of the show in 2000. Between 1976 and 1977 he recorded some tracks with John Phillips, alongside band-mates Jagger, Wood and Taylor, and he also co-produced what would become the 'Pay Pack And Follow' and 'Pussycat' albums. If you've heard my Rolling Stones reggae compilation you'll know that the Stones always had a fondness for reggae, and that was mostly down to Richards, so it's no real surprise to find him adding his guitar to albums by Peter Tosh and Max Romeo. In 1979 Richards and Wood contributed guitar and backing vocals to Ian McLagan's 'Troublemaker' album, on another reggae-inspired song 'Truly', and he also played guitar on Screamin' Jay Hawkins' remake of his classic 'I Put A Spell On You' for an anthology of the famed 50's rocker. In 1985 he added guitar and backing vocals to Tom Waits' 'Rain Dogs' album, and that was the beginning of a lengthy working relationship between them, with Richards also contributing to Waits' albums 'Bone Machine' in 1992 and 'Bad As Me' in 2011. In 1987 he was one of an impressive list of guitarists who played on songs from The Neville Brothers' 'Uptown' album, and although Richards career has spanned an impressive sixty years, this collection just covers a decade of guest appearances from the mid 70's to the mid 80's, which gave him the opportunity to play on songs which he wouldn't have been able to do in his day job. From 1988 to date he's guested on another 40 or so albums from friends and colleagues, but this is where it all started.  

Track listing

01 Get Off My Cloud (from 'Musically Rich...and Famous: Anthology' by Alexis Korner 2003)
02 Act Together (from 'I've Got My Own Album To Do' by Ron Wood 1974) 
03 I'd Rather Go Blind (from 'The Faces' Final Concert' recorded 1974, released 2000)
04 Pussycat (from 'Pay Pack & Follow' by John Phillips recorded 1976–77, released 2001)
05 Stand Firm (from 'Bush Doctor' by Peter Tosh 1978)
06 Truly (from 'Troublemaker' by Ian McLagan 1979) 
07 I Put A Spell On You (from 'Portrait Of A Man: A History Of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' 1979) 
08 Bell The Cat (from 'Holding Out My Love For You' by Max Romeo 1981)
09 Big Black Mariah (from 'Rain Dogs' by Tom Waits 1985) 
10 Midnight Key (from 'Uptown' by The Neville Brothers 1987)