It's taken awhile, but an American label has finally seen the light and taken the plunge into reggae.

More than a decade ago, Peter Tosh formed a vocal trio, the Wailers (then called the Wailing Rudeboys), with Bob Marley and Bunny Livingston. On Legalize It Tosh is backed by the Wailers' instrumental quintet and two of the I-Threes—Rita Marley and Judy Mowatt—who replaced Tosh and Livingston when they quit the band about a year ago. Legalize It is the first Wailers album without Bob Marley, and it shows how much the Wailers have missed the sonorous, strictly moral vocals and chopping rhythm guitar of Tosh and the uplifting harmonies of Livingston.

"Legalize It," an endorsement for the smoking of herbs, was the reggae single in Jamaica in 1975. It was instantly banned by both Jamaican radio stations, which only made the song more popular. Deep and authoritative, Tosh demands: "Legalize it and I will advertise it" while the singers coo in agreement. It's a wonderful, impassioned performance comparable to Wailers hits like "400 Years" and "Get Up, Stand Up," which Tosh also wrote.

"Why Must I Cry," a Marley/Tosh collaboration, recalls in its high harmonies the old Wailers; "Igziabeher (Let Jah Be Praised)" is an esoteric Rastafarian testament; "Ketchy Shuby" is a characteristic reggae sex chant; and "Burial" and "Till Your Well Runs Dry," both written with Livingston, are flawless examples of Tosh's very Dread world view. Only the overproduced "No Sympathy," whose slickness shows that in reggae more is less, mars an otherwise strong set.

The basic reggae unit is a vocal trio (the Maytals, the old Wailers, Burning Spear, the Heptones and dozens more) made up of a lead and two harmony singers. The Mighty Diamonds, currently the most popular group in Jamaica after Burning Spear, is the newest and youngest of the trios. If record charts weren't banned in Jamaica because of intra-industry violence, the Diamonds' brilliant singles, like "Right Time" and "Have Mercy," would have been on top all last winter. Right Time is simply one of the finest reggae LPs ever released. "Why Me Black Brother Why" is a touching, elementally lovely plea for peace. "Them Never Love Poor Marcus" pursues the Garvey cult revived by Burning Spear. "I Need a Roof" is a Kingston shanty dweller's lament delivered in ska terms. This release marks the Diamonds as one of the hardest and culturally tough reggae outfits to come out of Jamaica since the Wailers.

The great U-Roy is the prime representative of reggae disc jockey music, called "dub" or "version." When a single is released in Jamaica, its flip side is a remixed version of the original without the vocals, enabling the disc jockey at a dance to "skank" or "toast" over the single, layering his own comments, squawks and demented vocal riffs into the music. It is claimed that U-Roy invented this, but a host of imitators (like I-Roy and current champion Big Youth) put him into retirement, from which he emerged like a triumphant grand master last year to record this album.

Dread in a Babylon is a fine introduction to the many charms of dub reggae. Roy's patented mojo screams sound like a severely goosed parrot. "Runaway Girl" is prototypically moronic (in dub that's good), while the gemlike "Chalice in the Palace" postulates a ganja session with Elizabeth II—the chalice is the flamboyant, very Dread goats-horn or coconut water pipe. And in case any fevered listener wants to try a little toasting, the final cut is an instrumental led by Augustus Pablo, one of Jamaica's leading sessionmen.

Dub music is banned on Jamaica radio for obscure reasons, but as I-Roy put it: "It's easier for a camel to pass through needle's eye, than for version to die." (RS 220)

STEPHEN DAVIS