Page 34 - Reggae Festival Guide Magazine 2018

better, but in those days, once you have a style and its accompanying dance, distinguishing
good voice, you just do it.”
Hibbert explains that the name Maytals
comes from a colloquial phrase (essentially
synonymous with “ital”) that defines his
personal philosophy. “It means ‘stick together
in one love.’ It means ‘natural, organic.’
Everyone who is Rasta have to be maytal, once
you say you is Rasta you have to do the right
thing, maytal. It call fe a work, not just hair
[dreadlocks] alone, you haffe maytal, doing
the right thing. Treat people good when you
can. Rasta have to be like a lamb…slow to
anger – charity, love, freehearted, you always
have that light shining.”
One of the Maytals’ best known songs was
recorded for the island’s annual festival song
competition in 1966, a government sponsored
program to encourage use of traditional
themes in the creation of popular music and
celebration of national heritage. The Maytals
won with “Bam Bam” at the same time that ska
had made a transition into a slower style called
rocksteady, the precursor to reggae. “Bam Bam”
was built on neo-African percussive elements,
consistent with the festival concept.
“When people believe in you, you have to try to oppression. “Pressure have to drop in order to
to do things very very very nice, in mind of make the people survive. The people need the
what the audience might say,” he told Barrow. pressure to drop, through all the world.”
“This festival thing was very important. A lot of
good artists entered at that time: Bob Marley,
Clancy Eccles, Lord Creator, the Jamaicans,
Derrick Morgan…Desmond Dekker. I came
out as the number one, because my song
was short and it made sense.”
As Hibbert told Barrow, the word “reggae”
developed as another colloquialism in Kingston
in the late ‘60s. Reflecting the fluid nature of new
words, it was applied to an emerging musical
34 Reggae Festival guide 2018
these from rocksteady. The Maytals took the
street lingo, a derogatory slang term, and made
it into a song. “One day [in Trench Town] myself,
Raleigh and Jerry was sitting down, rehearsing,
and there was a guy next door talking to a girl,
a nice girl, but just for argument sake, we always
say ‘streggay.’ Just a little vibe. If someone is
going on and you don’t feel to talk to [her], you
just say [s]he’s streggay. So we just say, come on,
let’s do the reggay.”
Among other highly recognizable hits in the
Maytals catalog is, of course, “54-46 (Was My
Number),” Hibbert’s narrative of his prison
experience resulting from a ganja frame-
up. While the song’s reference to marijuana
is oblique, it has become a resistance
anthem with dozens of covers and derivative
versions. “They told a lie on me, and I went
to prison, [but] they hurt [from it] more than
me, because I wrote about it.”
Due in part to its inclusion on The Harder They
Come soundtrack, “Pressure Drop” has also
become one of Toots’ most enduring songs,
ever present in his live sets. As he explains, the
“pressure drop” implied in the song is not literally
in reference to barometric pressure, but rather
Hibbert is always quick to acknowledge the
remarkable run he’s had with members of
his backing band, who were with him since
recording for Beverley’s (Leslie Kong) and
on many subsequent recordings, as well as
decades of touring. Guitarist Hux Brown,
bassist Jackie Jackson, drummer Paul Douglas
and organist Winston Wright gave the tracks
recorded at Dynamic Sounds a professional
musical arrangement and studio clarity that