Toots Hibbert RIP

EricTheWeary

Aged 77, complications due to Covid19.

I was aware that he’d been ill for a couple of weeks as he is a massive figure in the history of reggae so lots of references to it on my social media. I seem to think that he’s even credited with coining the word reggae. Toots took Jamaican ska and added US soul and funk influences and gave us something more, well, funky and the birth of reggae. 

Even if you have no interest in Toots, ska and reggae he has been covered by many artists including The Clash and The Specials and Sublime as well as umpteen reggae artists and Toots worked with non reggae artists such as Willie Nelson and Bonnie Raitt. 

Sad, RIP. 

JezWynd

Robert Palmer did a very good cover of Pressure Drop. I knew Toots and the Maytals by reputation more than by hearing their music but he paved the way for Marley, Tosh, Burning Spear and a dozen other great seventies artists. 

Sassafras

Great music, hugely influential.