Tonight’s selections from Toots and the Maytals fourth album, 1974’s In the Dark. Toots’ album Funky Kingston is better known but this one brings it home better IMO. Enjoy.
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Got To Be There
Toots and the Maytals singing styles were unique in the fact that during the early 1960’s many Jamaican artists were trying to imitate American accents in their music. Toots sang is what is called, "the broadest patois," which is singing like the common man spoke. The Maytals also had a distinctive style of response interplay of lead and backup singers. This style is found in most African derived music forms, and the use of this style gave the Maytals a very distinctive sound of energy and exuberance. Many fans of the Maytals feel that this music captures the lost innocence of the sixties which is something that many Jamaicans still yearn for.
The early sixties there were very few records that were made by Jamaican artists, and the few that were made were covers of popular American R&B. Toots Hibbert, has been referred to as the creator of "Reggae music," as well as the man who musically unified Jamaica during the early 1960’s. The Maytals music had a clear modern feeling but still held onto Jamaican rural traditions. This sound helped the Maytals become the biggest selling group that Jamaica had seen to date in the mid 60’s. Toots and the Maytals were the most successful and popular music group that Jamaica had ever seen. — UVM
54-46 Was My Number
After a shuffling drum intro, a steady groove invites us to let down our guards and open our ears. With another drum roll, the band pivots to the “one-drop,” Jamaica’s reigning rhythm since the ska days. The kick drum and rimshot anchor the backbeat, often emphasized by an organ stab, while the bass moves a simple, sinuous pattern and the rhythm guitar chops chords between each beat. To heighten our appreciation of this interlocking ensemble texture, the instruments are panned across the stereo field, the lead guitar plucking a lightly bluesy, bubbling counterpoint across the room from the steady offbeat skank.
Centered in the mix, Frederick “Toots” Hibbert begins to preach in terms downhome and direct, in a Jamaican country brogue plain enough for all to understand. Sleep won’t come. The rent is too high. Your brother can’t find a dollar, and neither can I. Time tough. In a sly inversion of hip slang, everything is out of sight, but not in a good way—life is so hard even the basics seem out of reach. Today is judgment day, so let us pray and all join in a rising refrain of higher and higher. But this isn’t about spiritual transcendence or ganja-fueled meditation. What’s getting higher is the cost of living. It’s 1974, and the future is unclear. Yet somehow this group playing secular church music in rubbery sync, with chapel-ready backup harmonies and a lead singer in the throes of ecstasy, lift the song itself up to show that deliverance is possible if we band together. — Pitchfork
Take Me Home, Country Roads
The set [In the Dark] was the second LP that Chris Blackwell pushed to the international market. First, he issued Funky Kingston, then In The Dark and one year later he repackaged the two albums for a US release, aimed to introduce the group to a wider international audience. With a spiritual undertone and positive energy, From The Dark sounds more polished then previous albums such as From The Roots and Monkey Man. Lyrically, the opening track Got To Be There is undiluted gospel: “Got to be there, Just to answer to your name when the roll is called for your fate”. But there’s also room for a social commentary song like Time Tough: “I’ve got four hundred/month rent to pay, And I can’t find a job”. Outstanding song! — Reggae Vibes
Having A Party
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I See You
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WHO’S TALKING TO WHO?
Jimmy Kimmel: Chelsea Handler, Jon Gries, Jesse Welles
Jimmy Fallon: Paul Rudd, Matt Bomer, Charley Crockett
Stephen Colbert: Sen. Chuck Schumer, Michelle Buteau
Seth Meyers: Parker Posey, Michael Kosta (R 3/12/25)
After Midnight: Josh Sharp, Suzi Barrett, Danielle Perez (R 10/23/24)
Watch What Happens Live: Shep Rose, Austen Kroll
LAST WEEK'S POLL: CORN
Bread 30%
Creamed 4%
Elote 4%
On The Cob 52%
Tortillas 4%
Pie 4%
