Reggae Got Soul - Skinhead Style

The Jamaican musical group Toots and the Maytals, originally called simply The Maytals, are one of the best known ska and reggae vocal groups. Their sound is a unique, original combination of gospel, ska, soul, reggae and rock.

Frederick "Toots" Hibbert, the leader of the group, was born in May Pen, Clarendon, Jamaica in 1945, the youngest of seven children. He grew up singing gospel music in a church choir, but moved to Kingston in 1958 at the age of thirteen.

In Kingston, Hibbert met Henry "Raleigh" Gordon and Nathaniel "Jerry" McCarthy, forming in 1962 a group whose early recordings were incorrectly attributed to "The Flames" and "The Vikings" by Island records in the UK. The Maytals first had chart success recording for producer Clement "Coxsone" Dodd at Studio One. With musical backing from Dodd's house band, the legendary Skatalites, the Maytals' close-harmony gospel singing ensured success, overshadowing Dodd's other up-and-coming vocal group, The Wailers. After staying at Studio One for about two years, the group moved on to do sessions for Prince Buster before recording with Byron Lee in 1965. With Lee, the Maytals won the first-ever Jamaican Independence Festival Popular Song Competition with their original song "Bam Bam" (not to be confused with the Sister Nancy song of the same title) . However, the group's musical career was interrupted in late 1966 when Hibbert was arrested and imprisoned. Toots states that he was not arrested for ganja, but while bailing a friend. He also states that he made up the number 54-46 when writing 54-46 That's My Number about his time in jail.

Following Hibbert's release from jail towards the end of 1967, the Maytals began working with Chinese-Jamaican producer Leslie Kong, a collaboration a string of hits throughout the late sixties and early seventies - "Do the Reggay", a 1968 single widely credited with coining the word "reggae", "Pressure Drop", "54-46" the 1969 Jamaica festival's popular song winner, "Sweet & Dandy" and "Monkey Man", the group's first international hit in 1970. In 1972 they won their third Jamaica festival popular song with "Pomp & Pride". The group was also featured in one of reggae's greatest breakthrough events - The Harder They Come, the 1972 film and soundtrack starring Jimmy Cliff, named as one of Vanity Fair's Top 10 Best Soundtracks of all time.

Following Kong's death in 1971, the group continued to record with Kong's former sound engineer, Warwick Lyn; the group released three best-selling albums produced by Lyn and Chris Blackwell of Island Records, and enjoyed international hits with Funky Kingston in 1973 and Reggae Got Soul in 1975. Following the release of "Reggae Got Soul", Toots & The Maytals were invited to tour as the warm-up act for The Who during their North American Tour. The tour went poorly and Toots & The Maytals never went on the success of Bob Marley or Peter Tosh in the US].

Toots and the Maytals' compositions would be given a second airing in 1978-80 during the reggae-punk and ska revival period in the UK, when The Specials included "Monkey Man" on their 1979 debut album and The Clash produced their version of "Pressure Drop". They were also included in the Bob Marley and the Wailers song, *Punky Reggae Party". "The Wailers will be there, The Damned, The Jam, The Clash, The Maytals will be there, Dr. Feelgood too".

Having toured throughout the world for many years, Toots and the Maytals disbanded in the early 1980s, but reformed in the early 90s to continue touring and recording successfully. Sublime recorded cover versions of some Maytals songs in the 1990s as well.

In 2005, the group released True Love, an album consisting of re-recorded versions of their classics alongside popular and legendary musicians such as Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton, and Keith Richards, No Doubt, Ben Harper, The Roots, and Shaggy. The album won the Grammy Award that year for best reggae album.

In 2006, they recorded a reggae/ska version of Radiohead's Let Down for the tribute album, Radiodread, by the Easy Star All-Stars. The album is a complete song for song makeover of the English rock band's album OK Computer into reggae, dub and ska.

On 27 August 2007 they released the album Light Your Light, which featured re-workings of classics such as "Johnny Cool Man" as well as new material. The album was nominated for the Grammy in the category Best Reggae Album.

Toots & the Maytals hold the current record of number one hit songs in Jamaica, with a total of 31 number one songs.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Reggae
• Skinheads

[tylercox2]

what part of this is Skinhead Style? The music is pure reggae and they were Jamaican...not British

[red777photo]

@tylercox2 Skinhead is of purely British origin, it was not until well into it's existence that it was recognized as such by the Jamaican music industry, and then became part of a feed-back loop connecting the British Isle's to Jamaica. What is Skinhead in a Jamaican music context? In truth it could be said that almost all music, known collectively as Reggae, from the late 1960s until about c1972 could be claimed as Skinhead,

[TUKKERCLAN]

Anyone able to tell me what's the "oi" is all about? i see it at almost every movie related to this one.

[red777photo]

@TUKKERCLAN Oi! is a working class street-level subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The music and associated subculture had the goal of promoting unity between punks, skinheads and other non-aligned working class youths

[fallzskin]

@tylercox2 where do you think SKA came from? Skinhead originated from music the Jamican immigrants brought with them to England. This is skinhead music.

[leeham987]

great song! seen them play this live, amazing!!!!

[nittuninadie]

@tylercox2 Well, skinhead were the main group to follow this music,non other group was into it in England. And this kind of reggae is different from modern reggae: lyrics are not rastafari and sound is obvious a bit antique comparated with modern reggae. now skinheads around the world still playing this music and dancing it. this is skinhead reggae. if you have more question,let me know,cheers

[madedigital]

I remember growing up in brixton Acre Lane in 70s, There this skinhead john, and he use too hangout on the estate with my brother and he's mates. They love the roots rock reggae and going to blues dances to check out the sound systems. You did not need to be a skinhead to be a NF nor most skins i knew weren't. I was a Rude boy.

[collinha]

Nice video, beautiful song.

Cheers from Brasil & keep the faith! Oi! Oi!

[BakkwardProductionZ]

gwan the rudeboys

[djthelion]

perfect song realy jah jah alive

[sistaORAH]

@modstyle408 Thank you mod...That was very informative and I'm sure helped enlighten a few of us. Music is truly a beautiful,mystifying and unifying force. Especially Reggae music, my fav.+ Love to all +