RIP Toots Hibbert who passed away 11 Sept 2020 from Covid-19 complications.
In the David Bowie review I mentioned that he'd released two albums with the same name - 'David Bowie' - one in 1967 and the other in 1969.
Toots and the Maytals did the same with this one. 'Funky Kingston' was released in 1972 in the UK with 8 songs on board.
In 1975 another album of the same name was released in the US and other parts of the world with the same cover photo. This version had 10 tracks, only 2 of which were the same as the previous LP.
I bought my 1975 copy in New Zealand and played it till the stylus melted.
I've always loved reggae, but without Toots, we may never have had the genre and probably not the name. In 1968 he released a single, 'Do the Reggay' (yes, spelled like that), which was the first popular song to use the word reggae and attach it to the style of music. Taking over from rocksteady, based on mento, it became forever associated with Jamaica and was easily identified by the walking bass line.
If you want to get to know Toots and the Maytals, start with '54-46 (That's My Number)'. In 1966 he was arrested for possession of marijuana and got 18 months in prison. This song was written based on his experience and it has one of the best known and used bass lines in popular music. Have a listen, even if you've never heard it before, you know it well. Then find 'Monkey Man'. Basic, repetitious, addictive - all in a good way. In a great way. It's a brilliant song, so much so that people like The Specials and Amy Winehouse covered it.
By the time you get to this album you'll be ready for 'Time Tough', 'Got to be There', the title track 'Funky Kingston' and the marvelous 'Pressure Drop'. Toots explained the song as a sort of 'karmic justice', that if you do bad things to innocent people "the pressure's going to drop on you".
There's a couple of covers on this album too .. John Denver's 'Country Roads' gets a Caribbean flavour by making it more local ...
"Country roads take me home
To the place I belong
West Jamaica, my ol' mama
Take me home country roads"
... and they took on the Richard Berry song made famous by The Kingsmen, 'Louie Louie'. If you thought The Kingsmens version was undecipherable, wait till you get it in reggae !
Toots, along with the Maytals, was a founding member of a musical genre that started small but went on to enrich the world. I for one am eternally grateful.
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