Search - Toots & Maytals :: Funky Kingston / In the Dark (Dlx)

Two reggae classics restored to their original glory

hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 05/12/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Having debuted as a ska outfit in the early 60s, the Maytals eventually found success in mid-decade via a Jamaican song festival competition (at which their song "Bam Bam" took first place), and a string of successful singles recorded with legendary producer Leslie Kong. Following Kong's untimely death in 1971, the Maytals found themselves renamed Toots & The Maytals and recording with Kong's former arranger and sound engineer, Warwick Lyn. The resulting pair of albums, 1972's "Funky Kingston" and 1973's "In the Dark," are perhaps the best -- and certainly the most accessible -- albums recorded by one of reggae's artistic pillars.



"Funky Kingston" includes signature songs like "Pomp and Pride," "Redemption Song" and the title track, along with the band's hear-it-to-believe cover of Richard Berry's "Louie Louie" and a spellbinding take of Ike & Tina Turner's "I Can't Believe." Frederick "Toots" Hibbert sings with a soulfulness unmatched in reggae, equal parts Otis Redding and Ray Charles, and with bandmates who can provide both call-and-response gospel and sweet harmony singing. Instrumentally, the band pulses with deep, hypnotically grooved tracks, crackling with the kinetic energy of their early years.



"In the Dark" strips the band's sound of the overdubbed horn section, and digs deeply into their reggae roots. Hits include the title track, along with "Time Tough," and the prison-time inspired (and James Brown styled) "54-46 Was My Number." The Maytals second hear-it-to-believe-it cover, this time reworking John Denver's "Take Me Home Country Roads," is a marvel of reggae soul. It's nearly impossible to remember Denver's treacly original after spinning the Maytals' rendition.



This two-fer brings together both albums' original U.K. track listings and running orders for the first time on a U.S. release. In contrast, the 1976 U.S. issue of "Funky Kingston" distilled the ten tracks of "Funky Kingston" and twelve tracks of "In the Dark" (plus "Pressure Drop" from the soundtrack of "The Harder They Come") to a scant ten track total. With the inclusion of "Pressure Drop" as a bonus on this collection, listeners weaned on the U.S. original can restore its original track order by programming 12, 10, 7, 17, 3, 2, 9, 15, 21, 20. Not that you're likely to want to after listening to these albums in their original glory.



Bob Marley may have become the prophet's face of reggae, but these two classic albums demonstrate plain and simple: Toots & The Maytals were as large a part of the music's soul as anyone. Period."

Toots is best heard on LIVE recordings

Scott A. Balun | Johns Creek, GA | 10/11/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Sure...on this double album you get many of the tunes Toots and company have made famous but the studio versions lack the excitement and power of the live recordings. That is where Toots really shines. The band is able to stretch out and let Toots do his thing. If you want to hear the originals then this record is for you but if you want to get a load of the power that is Toots & The Maytals I'd highly recommend starting with "Live" and "Live in London" as they are far better representations of what this fine band can do. Roots, Rock, Reggae!"

Classic LPs, terrible mastering

M. Duke | Oakland, CA United States | 11/09/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"As others have posted, this CD compiles two sublime LPs from Toots and the Maytals, and easily rates 5 stars. My vinyl copy of Funky Kingston became a symphony of crackles and pops because I had played it so often. Unfortunately, the current collection does a real disservice to the music. In place of the warm and clear analog production of the originals, the recordings on the current CD are muffled and extremely muddy. I'm not an audio snob, but really, I find the CD to be almost unlistenable, which is a tragedy given that this is such joyful funky music."