Toots & the Maytals - Reggae got Soul

Finaly, iv'e seen the "Toots & The Maytals" documentary from BBC after some delays (i got stuck watching this silly Swedish street gang documentary) and im ready to give y'all a rundown on whether it's good or not. I was slightly disappointed after "Reggae Britannia" as it did not satisfy my apetite for details and coverage of obscure acts & anecdotes.

Let's start this review with saying that this is a much better documentary than the previous "Reggae Britannia" and i definitely liked it. I guess you could say it is loosely based on the time-line approach to documentaries, it kinda starts from the beginning but it's not strictly from point A to point B to point C and so on, we get a multitude of interviews and input from folks close to Toots as well as other musicians who admire him and music industry fans in general. This is a very loving documentary and no one has one single negative word to say about him.

I gotta admit, i don't claim myself as the biggest Toots fan in the world, I do like him and his music, got some of his songs on compilations but I've never been one of the huge fans. This documentary kinda reveals that Toots have played a bigger part in my Reggae fandom than i was aware of, I've been enjoying far more of his music than I thought i did. That's the major thing this documentary did for me, making me realize how much i dig his music.

There's plenty of interviews with big names such as Marcia Griffiths, Eric Clapton,Keith Richards, Ziggy Marley, Willie Nelson, Jimmy Cliff, Sly & Robbie and of course Toots Hibberts himself. There's been talk about how a generation of classic Reggae artists are dying of so it was nice to see how healthy and young some of these folks look. Toots was in good shape, so was Jimmy Cliff and i can't believe how Marcia Griffiths just keep looking better the older she gets. Im sure she's in her 60ies by now but she's still hot (in a classy way). It was kinda funny seing this guy Wayne Jobson who looks like a long lost member from Aerosmith but who speaks with a mild but obvious Jamaican accent (shows how diverse the population of Jamaica really is)

BBC certainly got it right this time around, it's not the ultimate "single artist" music documentary (like i think "Stepping Razor" is) but there's plenty to like about "Reggae got soul". There's so many legendary artists in Jamaica that deserves their own documentaries, im glad that we can cross out "Toots Hibbert" from the list. Now someone needs to do one on "Burning Spear" before it's too late.

Hopefully this documentary will result in plenty of album sales for Toots and an re-assurance that he is still valid as an artist. This documentary shows that he's very much still active and it seem as if he does good music and isn't only living of of past merits. I will have to buy me some of his releases in the future. Well, im sure there will be plenty of places online to download this from, i got mine at "Uk-Nova" (as always when it comes to British television.).