Album: Toots & the Maytals - Got to be Tough | reviews, news & interviews
Album: Toots & the Maytals - Got to be Tough
Album: Toots & the Maytals - Got to be Tough
Toots back on fine form in what has become his final album
Toots Hibbert may have invented the term “reggae” with his 1968 hit “Do the Reggay” but he has never felt boxed in by the genre.
Things kick off with the swampy blues of “Drop Off Head” with fellow reggae superstar Sly Dunbar and New Orleans funk legend Cyril Neville’s shuffling groove, before ploughing into the up-tempo, funky soul of “Just Brutal”, which has more than a sniff of Otis Redding at his most energetic. “Warning Warning” has a skanking reggae groove that is aimed directly at the dancefloor and emphatically hits its mark, while a cover of “Three Little Birds” has Toots trading lines with Ziggy Marley for a dynamic re-tread of his dad’s classic that seriously pumps things up. In fact, there’s not one duff track on Got to be Tough – and that is especially impressive, given that it’s the Maytals’ 22nd studio album.
For a 77-year-old, in fact for a singer of any age, Toots Hibbert has got a mighty set of lungs on this album and his song writing is still top notch. So it was particularly sad to hear that Toots died last night in the intensive care unit of a Jamaican hospital with suspected Covid-19. This is a massive loss of a true musical innovator and Got to be Tough is an impressive swansong for such a musical giant.
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