Toots & The Maytals
Sweet and Dandy

THE REVIEW

I have always had the impression that ska and all its derivatives are among the genres towards which music lovers hold the most prejudices and that are generally taken the most for granted. Leaving aside the actual truth of this statement and the possible causes, I have noticed that here on Debasio there's little or nothing (correct me if I'm wrong), and the same goes for Caribbean music in general. So I'll take it upon myself.

Ignoring the origins of the genre and the Jamaican identity building from the late '50s and especially after the independence in 1962, Toots and the Maytals (initially just The Maytals), are among the greatest, the most prolific, and the most everything in this genre.
Forget Marley's career, the British and European ska wave, and today's gimmicks; here we are in the heart of the Jamaican spirit, of which the Maytals are one of the abundant fertile bellies.

In this album, the third of their career and released in 1969, there are at least 3 of the greatest and most beautiful songs that have come to light on the island. For those familiar, it's enough to mention the frantic "Pressure Drop," the protest song "54-46 (That's My Number)"—which was later recorded in its more famous version the following year with a changed title—and the track that gives the album its name. From nods to skiffle and beat, which were emerging precisely in those years, to the r'n'b reinterpretations and the calypso echoes, this album has an infectious energy and serenity. You'll never hear it spoken of as a milestone, partly because the fetishism for the album as a cultural and value-driven unit isn't typical of this genre. However, on one hand, that's good because the expression "milestone" makes my balls disastrously drop to the ground, but on the other hand, it doesn't do justice to a work of great importance and a genre that is sun, laughter, that is the face of a nation at the peak of a major political and cultural shift, but which also carries within it the seeds of protest, poverty, the rude boy culture and ghettos, and the renewed need for expression.