Peter Tosh / Wanted Dread and Alive (Bonus Tracks Edition) [2002 Remaster] / 1981
Oh Bumbo Klaat
frustrated, incredulous, ultimately defiant
Peter Tosh uses two of Jamaican patois's most taboo curses as a recurring exclamation, framing a plainspoken sermon on human failure, social corruption, and spiritual deliverance. The profanity isn't decorative shock value but functions as punctuation — a verbal exhale of disgust that the polite verses can't quite contain.
social injustice brotherhood and its failure spiritual oppression and release righteous anger Rastafari critique of 'shitstem'
Who's speaking
A first-person prophetic voice, closely aligned with Tosh himself, addressing an unspecified collective 'you' — society, oppressors, or simply the world at large. The speaker presents himself as a reliable moral witness, someone sent to teach but confounded by what he observes.
What happens
The song moves from a stated mission (to guide and uplift his fellow man) through disillusioned observation of lies and suffering, to a call for systemic change, and finally to a personal testimony of supernatural affliction and release through faith. The curse-refrain interrupts each stage like a reflexive cry of exasperation.
How it's built
A simple verse-and-refrain form: four short verses, each followed by the same two-line expletive chant. There's no bridge or key change in the lyric itself — the repetition of the curse acts as the song's structural spine, functioning almost like a chorus despite having no conventional 'hook' lyric content. The final section extends the refrain into a longer vamp, letting the curse itself become the climax.
Section by section
Opening refrain
The song opens cold with the curse-chant before any context is given, establishing tone before argument — disgust precedes explanation.'
First verse
Tosh positions himself as a teacher or messenger figure whose mission is undermined by humanity's failure at basic solidarity.'
Second verse
“there's so much lies”
He shifts from stated purpose to observed evidence, citing widespread deceit as the root of children's suffering — tying abstract corruption to concrete harm.
Third verse
“shitstem we got to rearrange”
The critique becomes structural rather than personal, naming 'the system' itself (mockingly respelled) as the obstacle requiring forceful removal, not reform.
Fourth verse
The song pivots to a first-person account of spiritual paralysis and release through divine intervention, reframing social struggle as also a spiritual battle — the personal and political are collapsed into one story of bondage and freedom.
Closing refrain extension
The final repeated curses, stretched out longer than before, function as a kind of exorcism or release valve, matching the testimony of liberation just described.
Craft
- refrain as emotional release
- The repeated profanity isn't narrative content but an affective outburst, used the way a sigh or shout might punctuate a sermon — it does the emotional work the verses' measured language avoids.
- wordplay/neologism
- Tosh's substitution of 'shitstem' for 'system' fuses contempt with critique, embedding judgment into the very vocabulary used to describe social structures.
- testimony/parable structure
- The final verse shifts into a brief allegorical narrative of possession and liberation, mirroring Rastafari narratives of spiritual bondage broken by faith and the power of the spoken word.
- direct address and moral rhetorical questioning
- Lines framed as personal confusion ('why don't people love each other') function less as genuine questions than as accusations aimed outward at society.
Reading it
The most persuasive reading treats the profanity not as a joke but as the song's emotional core — an unfiltered reaction to injustice that the measured verses can only gesture toward politely. A secondary reading might see the curse refrain as satirical self-awareness, Tosh needling radio censors and respectability politics by making obscenity the structural centerpiece of a serious protest song. Both readings can coexist: the provocation is sincere and strategic.
Context
Tosh was known for confrontational, taboo-breaking expression as a form of political and spiritual defiance, consistent with his broader body of work challenging colonial and postcolonial power structures. The specific circumstances of this bonus track's recording are not something I can confirm with certainty; it reads as one of his more minimalist, almost sketch-like compositions compared to his more polished album cuts.
Listen for
- the rhythmic insistence of the repeated curse phrase and how it functions almost as a percussion hook
- the shift in tone between the plainspoken verses and the explosive refrain
- the moment the lyric turns from social commentary to personal spiritual testimony
- the ironic respelling of 'system' as an audible jab within the verse
About Peter Tosh
Peter Tosh was a Jamaican musician and reggae singer. Along with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer, he was one of the core members of the band the Wailers (1963–1976), after which he established himself as a successful solo artist and a promoter of Rastafari.
1944 - 1987 / Jamaica
Full biography and catalogue