Customer Reviews

Funky Kingston / In the Dark (Dlx)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

Toots & The Maytals make melodic reggae with beautiful vocal harmonies. Funky Kingston explores the rougher edge of the band in classic tracks like the gripping Pomp and Pride and the hypnotic Louie Louie. There's a joyous party atmosphere in the rousing choruses and the swaying beats. Daddy is a jazzy, bluesy song and doesn't sound like reggae at all, while the title track is a tour de force of funky reggae. Toots vocalises a lot throughout, whith "la la's" and "da da's" to take the groove beyond words. Rough and rootsy, this album ranks among this legendary band's finest moments.

In The Dark has a spiritual undertone and lots of soul. My favorites here include Got To Be There, the title track, Time Tough, the John Denver song Take Me Home Country Roads, 54-36 and Fever. A very accomplished set that demonstrates the band's versatility and their musical prowess that earned them an almost mythical status in Jamaica. Reggae comes in many forms - whereas there is a strong rock influence in the music of Marley and Tosh, for example, the music of the Maytals is a seamless blend of reggae and soul. Listen and enjoy.

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!

The other reviewer is right. This issue is very bad in it's sound quality.
I love to see a clean and true copy of the two LPs.
Even one cd for one LP is OK too.
Would still be worth the buying price.

Toots and the Maytals are such a great reggae band! They just don't make reggae bands like them these days! This album is a must have for any reggae fans. It has Toots cover of "Louie Louie" and it has become my favorite of the two. I can't believe I have the opportunity to see them this summer at Wakarusa!! I never thought I would get this opportunity, y'all all need to take advantage of this opportunity and check out Wakarusa 2011!!

I picked this album up on a whim. I am a bit of a music geek and, having heard my other music geek friends sing the praises of this collection, I decided to pick it up. I am so glad that I did, as it has since become one of my favorite albums of all time; certainly a top-10. Toots is to reggae what Otis Redding is to soul music: tough, weathered, and deeply soulful, with a voice to match. When he howls, "It is you... oh yeah!!!!" on "Pressure Drop", you feel it in your soul. Likewise, when he pulls you closer with "Everybody don't cry... today might be a happy day!" (on my favorite song: "Pomp & Pride") you believe him. Because you can hear in his voice the hopefulness of a man who has been through hell and knows that there are better things ahead -- because there have to be.
Covers -- of "Take Me Home Country Road" and "Louie Louie" -- are equally revelatory. This is reggae music for those of you, like me, who love the music, but are so sick of Bob Marley that you think you can't stand to listen to another not from the islands. You are wrong. You won't be able to live without some island music after hearing Toots.
It's deep soul. And you need this.

A must for anyone delving deeper into rock steady and roots reggae. The fact is that the jamaican roots music revelution went a lot deeper than Bob Marley. This is a good one to give you another point of view on how
oppressive the government is and the underlying love of their country that jamaicans embody. PEACE

This is a great roots reggae style two-for-one album from one of the top 5 reggae acts of all time: Toots & the Maytals. If you like the original Wailers, Burning Spear, Steel Pulse, etc. then you should go ahead a buy this because you won't be disappointed. Best songs are "Pressure Drop," "Time Tough," "Pomp and Pride" (my favorite Toots song), "Redemption Song" (completely different version than Bob Marley's), "Funky Kingston," and gosh there are too many to name. I'm listening to it right now and its beautiful. Get it!

Toots is like a Jamaican Marvin Gaye and James Brown rolled into one. His voice is so real and every note is sung like his life depends on it. How you can listen to this album and not want to shake your a** is beyond me. It is virtually impossible to be sad and listen to this album at the same time. Always an uplifting experience even when he's singing about being broke or being in jail.