Toots and the Maytals

The news that Toots Hibbert had become a Rastafarian didn't fill my heart with joy. I like
Rastafarian music, but it is a spiritual form and I couldn't reconcile the Maytals' earthy
celebration of joy now with the Rasta conviction of a righteous revolution tomorrow. Toots
may have always lacked Bob Marley's intensity but he's also lacked Marley's edge of
despair. Maytals' music (on The Harder They Come soundtrack, for example) is s... More >

In Toots the physical voice is all but equivalent to the artistic "voice," the way that term is applied to poets sometimes, and all its warmth, humor, and vivacity come through here. But what has made Toots doubly impressive is the amazing hit songs his voice was attached to. For starters: "Sweet and Dandy," "5446 Was My Number," "Monkey Man," and "African Doctor." None of these has been released on an American Maytals album, and nothing on this album, not even "Rasta Man" or "True Love Is Hard to Find," equals any of them. (Grade: B+)