Simmer Down

Simmer Down: Marley - Tosh - Livingston.

Jook Joint Press. Second pressing 2018.

ISBN 978-0-9933759-8-9.

Simmer Down is the final instalment of my trilogy of books about the Wailers. This time I've gone back to the very beginning, and written about the original trio of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston, who changed the face of reggae music before splintering apart in 1974 amidst considerable rancour.

It’s a tale set in the '60s and early '70s against a backdrop of Kingston shantytowns, rude boys, gang wars, political violence, Black Power, police harassment and Rastafari. Insider quotes – many of them previously unpublished – reveal little-known facts about the Wailers’ early lives in Trench Town and their adventures with Coxsone Dodd, Rasta elder Mortimo Planno, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Johnny Nash and Chris Blackwell, among others.

The Wailers’ recording history is at the heart of this book but new light is also shed on the group’s inner dynamics, and how they were tested to the limit by Marley’s solo ambitions.

A limited number of signed copies of this book are available on request.