My dad has been doing a lot of traveling lately, but luckily he had a couple days at home and wrote up this post about his recent experience with Toots Hibbert at Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Enjoy!
Pops and Toots onstage in Cleveland.
Toots Hibbert is one of reggae music's great pioneers and practitioners, whose career began as a singing barber. He made his first recordings with his trio, the Maytals, for the legendary Coxson Dodd at Studio One in 1962, sounds inflected with deep gospel yearnings and unflagging energy. He shot to international stardom in the '70s thanks in large part to his tumultuous in-studio scene in The Harder They Come, the 1973 film that jumpstarted Jamaica into the world's consciousness.
On Feb. 27, I had the great honor of being invited to host a two-hour onstage interview with my old friend Toots at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in frigid Cleveland, Ohio. He was brilliant, funny, angry, revelatory, humble, and deeply appreciated by the standing room only audience. In between telling his musical history, he sang about a dozen songs accompanied only by his acoustic guitar.
Before the show I asked him if I could inquire about his birthday in our interview. "Yes," he readily agreed, "but not the year." So imagine my surprise when I opened with that question and he answered without hesitation, "1945."
I had brought a whole bunch of his early 45s with me, and a turntable was set up onstage. He didn't want me to play most of the songs, however, saying virtually every time: "Don't play that. I hate that song!" "Why, Toots?" "Dem nevah pay me."
When it came to "54-46," a song that one encyclopedia claims is the greatest reggae song ever composed, Toots groaned. "No, not that one. I REALLY hate that one!" "But Toots," I cried, "Every time I have seen your shows for the past 32 years, you sing that song." "No, mon, I hate it. Dem nevah pay me." By this point his tag line was becoming almost a call-and-response with the increasingly amused audience. "Okay, then tell me about 54-46, which was your prison number when you were put behind bars for a year on phony ganja charges." "Well, first of all - it wasn't my number." "It wasn't!?" "No, mon, I nevah have no number. I just made it up." The crowd howled. And by the time someone on the side of the stage held up a sign saying "ten minutes left" we had only come to 1972. But, heck, the evening was filled with incredible stories and great music, and some people waited in line for an hour after just to shake his hand. It was a night on which he was shown enormous respect, admiration and love, and he clearly deserved it all. And it was one of the most unforgettable events of my life.
His work has largely been in the ska vein, but when he sings a ballad, such as the title track of his album Just Like That, with which he ended our presentation, (it's his "Waiting in Vain," and my favorite song of his) he can make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. Sitting just a few feet away from him, experiencing the power of that magnificent voice at such close range, my whole body was vibrating. He's as funky as James Brown, at 61 he can still do the splits, and he's got the body of a weight-lifter combined with the gentleness of a teddy bear. I put him in the same class as Marley, Tosh and Cliff, a true Reggae immortal, and if you love soul music, let Toots be your connection to its Jamaican cousin.
His 2005 Grammy winning duets collection, True Love, is a nice place to start, as he recasts much of his major catalog with folks like Bonnie Raitt and Willie Nelson. We're going to be together again at Hollywood's House of Blues on April 11, and already there have been increasing calls from folks who were at the Rock Hall that night to have part two, and finish up the 35 years of his life that we didn’t get to cover on that magic evening.
You can find links to Dadmogs #1-4 on my MOG page.
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"We’re going to be together again at Hollywood’s House of Blues on April 11"...I'M THERE! I opened for Toots about 20 years ago and it's nice to see him getting the respect he deserves...where would labels like Trojan Records be w/o Roots acts like his...hit 'em one more time toots!!
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Woohoo! I will let my Dad know to look out for you.
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Big Up --Toots! The man who cut the 'first reggae song' Do the Reggae....is still such a badass. Everytime I see him live, I am amazed at how vibrant he still is. The timing of this post is perfect because I just happend to put Toots in my car stereo just before. I'll be holding down the Toots admiration society Saturday, April 14th @ The Warfield when the Jamacians roll through San Francisco.
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Great, great post. Thanks for shooting it our way. By the way, "Toots In Memphis" is one of the underappreciated masterpieces of the '90s. Toots is the only one who could record a version of "Love And Happiness" that compares with Al Green's.
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There seem to be people bowing to Toots - that is only appropriate.
Roger was one of the highlights of living in LA in the 80s. It's great to see that his enthusiasm remains undiminished.
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Your Pops is tops in putting into words a vivid portrait of Toots.
Listen to this excerpt of "I Can't Believe," which has been out of print for a long time. It's a way superior cover of an older Ike & Tina Turner cut, written by Ike Turner.
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Here's an excerpt of my favorite cut from my favorite album of my favorite reggae act.
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I said "Yeah!"
[echo] I said "Yeah!"
I said "Yea-ah"
[echo] I said "Yeah!"
I love me some Toots & The Maytals.
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Spike, thanks for putting those great tracks up!
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My absolute favorite reggae singer. (Bob me no Marleys. I'm all abut Toots.) Great stuff from the pater familias.
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wow , nice post. your dad is great , you too!
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Kate,
That is so cool of your Dad to share his words. Love that "True Love" album. This time around...I hope that Toots is getting paid.
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I love Dadmogs! I need to be in the presence of Toots soon...I haven't been to a good reggae show in ages.
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Thank you for sharing!
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Great article! Tell dad I said HI. I like his writings. Toots is a demigod. L
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yay dad, thank you!
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another fine entry, to this most interesting dadmog series. luv the photo, too.
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holy wow! your dad is so lucky! great post! toots was one of my first reggae influences, my mum liked the maytals a bunch. if you want, maybe let your dad know that johnny clarke will be co-hosting a BBC show on wednesday night. you can stream it live on BBC, or, they archive the shows for one week. i did a post about it, if you need more info : http://mog.com/dj_ivi/blog_post/52377
johnny clarke (for moggers who aren't familiar) was one of the top voices in the dancehalls and studios in the 70's alongside dennis brown and gregory isaacs. he is not as well known as toots, but had a similar influence on reggae music and the directions it takes.
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Yea, your dad pretty much rules. Toots, too. Cool stuff.
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Can you make Dadmogs a weekly feature?
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I wish! My dad is too busy traveling the world, spreading the gospel of Marley for there to be any regular Dadmogs. I can only get him to write these every once in a while.
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toots is truly a living legend. thanks for such a fantastic insight.
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wow, great post. thank your dad! i love hearing/reading about stories from the artist themselves, it gives you a better perspective on the "why" of the music. invaluable stuff.
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ROFLMAO!!!! He made up the number!!! That's fantastic!
Oh man, I need to make my way there on the 11th!
And I need to stop using so many exclamations points!
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I hope they paid him for this one.
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thanks for adding me to your trusted mogs so i had the chance to go thru this post. I really enjoyed it. I posted myself my fave maytals song in an old post http://mog.com/soulrocket/blog_post/48873
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Great story once again Roger! I too have been fortunate to work with Toots through my radio gig at KCSB. The first time we met was in the late 80's. I was waiting for him to get off the bus and as he came down I walked up and introduced myself and offered a stick of some prime herb from I yard. He accepted with his beautiful smile and as he put it away he looked up at me and said, "We've met before", and I said no sir this is the first time. I told him that I had seen him two years before at the Ventura Theater supporting the Toots in Memphis record, which is a classic and a must have for any music fan. He said no, I believe we've met. I said nah man, this is the first time. Then he stared at me the way a rude boy do and then he said "What part of Jamaica ya from". I just laughed and said I'm not from Jamaica, I'm from here Santa Barbara. After a couple of ras clats and mumblings I could not understand, he said "you need to go to Jamaica".