Halloween Mix 2007 Track 21 - Peter Tosh's Vampire

We're nearing the end... the big day is only 2 days away and here we are with the second to last track. This one is "Vampire" and comes from Peter Tosh's final album No Nuclear War on EMI. To be honest with you this wasn't the version of "Vampire" that I wanted to include but I've spent nearly a year searching for the 1977 Intel Diplo single with "Dracula" on the flip side with no avail. It's gotten to be a morning ritual... get up, make the kids breakfast and do an Ebay search for Peter Tosh Vampire, see nothing available, then get back to the rest of my day. I know it was also repressed on the Shock label and that one has been just as illusive. But anyway, this version does hold some significance when it came to my initial idea of compiling a reggae Halloween mix and though Tosh's bloodsucker is also of the real life downpressor variety, the spooky wolf howling, chains and screaming woman opened my eyes nearly 20 years ago that there might be more Jamaican music following a similar scary theme. I have always envisioned "Vampire" playing as the end credits roll in a Caribbean based, good versus evil vampire film, that's yet to be written. I'll get to work on that as soon as I get the time.

We discussed how Peter Tosh had been fighting vampires in the final years of his life last October. You can click here to read my post from October 19th, 2006. There was also an episode where Tosh claimed he was held down by evil spirits and was unable to move and only after he invoked the power of the word "Bumboclaat" was he able to free himself. You see in Jamaica the word Bumboclaat is one of the worst expletives you can mutter... it's along the lines of vulgarities go like mother ----er, which has kind of lost its edge since it's been embraced by a few popular hip-hop artists and used ad nauseam but is still considered highly offensive in other circles. You can hear Tosh recounting how the cuss word saved him from the forces of evil by clicking here... it's a bit of an interview borrowed from the JAD Records CD I Am That I Am.

See you tomorrow!

Track 21