Track Listing

1. Sit Right Down
2. Pomp & Pride
3. Louie Louie
4. I Can't Believe
5. Redemption Song
6. Daddy's Home
7. Funky Kingston
8. It Was Written Down

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24943 in Music
• Released on: 1990-11-27
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 36 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
By 1975, rock audiences were finally getting heavily into reggae, thanks to the success of Bob Marley's first two albums and Jimmy Cliff's soundtrack for The Harder They Come. Funky Kingston, a collection of early 1970s Maytals singles, was released to capitalise on the newfound demand for Jamaican sounds, and it did not disappoint--nor will it disappoint anyone who comes across it today. With Toots Hibbert's gritty vocals at the fore, this is the closest reggae ever got to American soul music. If sublimely funky tracks such as "Time Tough", "Got To Be There" and "Pressure Drop" don't make you smile, then their ganja-laced cover of John Denver's "Country Roads" (complete with a shout-out to "West Jamaica") should definitely do the trick. --Dan Epstein

Customer Reviews

Powerful and rough!
This album explores the rougher edge of the band in classic tracks like the gripping Pomp and Pride and the hypnotic Louie Louie. There’s a joyous party atmosphere in the rousing choruses and the swaying beats. Daddy is a jazzy, bluesy song and doesn’t sound like reggae at all, while the title track is a tour de force of funky reggae. Toots vocalises a lot throughout, whith “la la’s” and “da da’s” to take the groove beyond words. Rough and rootsy, this album ranks among this legendary band’s finest moments.