''Got to Be Tough'' is a studio album by Jamaican
reggae band
Toots and the Maytals. It was released through
Trojan Jamaica/
BMG BMG may refer to:
Organizations
* Music publishing companies:
** Bertelsmann Music Group, a 1987–2008 division of Bertelsmann that was purchased by Sony on October 1, 2008
*** Sony BMG, a 2004–2008 joint venture of Bertelsmann and Sony that wa ...
on 28 August 2020
and financed by Trojan Jamaica owner
Zak Starkey, who also played guitar for the recording.
The album is the first studio release from Toots and the Maytals in more than a decade
and the first after an accident wherein bandleader
Toots Hibbert was hit in the head with a glass bottle, leading to his hiatus from performing.
The lyrical content of the album is political, featuring pleas for unity among people.
''Got to Be Tough'' was the band's final studio release before Hibbert's death on 11 September 2020 due to complications from
COVID-19.
After his death, the album won the
Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album at the
63rd Annual Grammy Awards.
Critical reception
''Got to Be Tough'' was met with generally positive reviews. At
Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional critics, the album received an
average score of 74, based on 10 reviews.
Reviewing in his
Substack-published "Consumer Guide" column,
Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
said, "What I like about these
ongs and Starkey must have too, is how conscious they are. Having long favored danceable love songs,
ibbertspends most
fthese 36 minutes looking time tough in its ugly face. 'Just Brutal,' 'Warning Warning,' and 'Got to Be Tough'; bus fares, low wages, invisible pensions, and picking yourself up off the ground. But he's also proud to stand accused for feeding his enemies."
Tom Dibb from ''
Gigwise
''Gigwise'' is a British online music news site that features music news, photos, album reviews, music festivals, concert tickets and video content. Founded in June 2001, the site is based in London, England.
History
Gigwise was launched in 2001 ...
'' wrote that the album "calls the world to task, and has them dancing all the while", describing it as "politically minded, brutally honest but maintaining the heartfelt and soulful nature of
rocksteady
Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor of ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was the dominant style of music in Jamaica for nearly two years, performed by many of the artists who helped establish ...
and
ska".
''
Variety'' magazine's Steve Bloom also applauded Hibbert's messages of optimism on songs that "alternate between
reggae and
R&B".
Track listing
Personnel
* Producer:
Frederick "Toots" Hibbert
* Co-producers: Nigel Burrell,
Zak Starkey,
Martin "Youth" Glover
Martin Glover (born 27 December 1960), better known by his stage name Youth, is a British record producer and musician, best known as a founding member and bassist of the rock band Killing Joke. He is also a member of the Fireman, along with Pa ...
Other - credits taken from
AllMusic:
* Nigel Burrell – drum programming, engineer, harmony
* Tomas Crow – engineer
* Lisa Davis – harmony
*
Sly Dunbar
Lowell Fillmore "Sly" Dunbar (born 10 May 1952, Kingston, Jamaica) is a drummer, best known as one half of the prolific Jamaican rhythm section and reggae production duo Sly and Robbie.
Biography
Dunbar began playing at 15 in a band called ...
– drums
* Latoya Hall-Downer – harmony
*
Carl Harvey
Carl Harvey (born 1 October 1958) is a Jamaican born Canadian guitarist and record producer who recorded as a member of Crack of Dawn and The Aggrovators in the 1970s, and later became guitarist for Toots & the Maytals.
Early life and education
...
– guitar
*
Frederick "Toots" Hibbert – bass, composer, drums, guitar, harmony, keyboards, vocals
* Leba Hibbert – harmony
* Stewart Hurwood – guitar technician
* Sharna Liguz – cover art concept
*
Gavin Lurssen – mastering
*
Bob Marley – composer
*
Ziggy Marley – featured artist, vocals
* Dario Morgan – guitar
*
Cyril Neville – percussion
* Max Noise – engineer
* Conrad Pinnock – saxophone
* Delroy "Fatta" Pottinger – engineer
* Michael Rendall – engineer
* Dwight Richards – trumpet
* Nambo Robinson – trombone
*
Dave Sardy
David Stuart Sardy (born 1967), more commonly known as D. Sardy, is an American composer, musician, songwriter, and multiple Grammy winning record producer. He came to prominence as the leader of 1990s noise rock band Barkmarket before turning mo ...
– mixing
* Sheldon Palmer – saxophone
* Sshh – editing
*
Zak Starkey – editing, guitar
*
Ringo Starr
Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the ...
– tambourine
* Steven Stewart – keyboards
* Bruce Sugar – engineer
*
Toots & the Maytals – primary artist
* Twiggy – harmony
* Dale Voelker – design, illustrations
* Hopeton Williams – trumpet
References
External links
*
2020 albums
Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album
Toots and the Maytals albums
{{reggae-album-stub