Reggae Greats

Don't let this fossil from the dawn of the CD era fool you. Though it weighs in at a lightweight 35 minutes, this volume of the Island label series REGGAE GREATS features the distinctive pop reggae rhythm of Toots' first major UK hit, "Reggae Got Soul" as well as the exuberant "Sweet and Dandy". The latter combines a gospel feel with lyrics that concern hangovers after a pre-wedding celebration. This song and the glorious, skittering "Pressure Drop" (which was covered by the Clash) were featured in the seminal Jamaican reggae movie THE HARDER THEY COME.
Also included here are the later, less successful Toots efforts "Spiritual Healing" and "Peace Perfect Peace", recorded in the mid-'80s after he had parted company with Maytals Nathaniel "Jerry" Mathias and Henry "Raleigh" Gordon. The take of "54-46 Was My Number", though not without interest, is an earlier, inferior version of the '60s Maytals hit about Toots' stay in a Kingston jail for possession of marijuana. But the band's cover of John Denver's "Take Me Home Country Roads" ("Almost heaven, west Jamaica."..) remains a delight and even decades later, there's still no denying the mighty rock-steady rhythm of the group's first international hit, "Monkey Man".|