No Pressure

Toots and the Maytals - Pressure Drop



After some pretty maudlin songs recently, the rootsy ska of Pressure Drop is like a breath of fresh air, lightening the mood and bringing smiles to glum faces. It's also one of the first songs to introduce reggae to a global audience, thanks to its appearance on The Harder They Come, and has been covered by everyone from The Clash, The Specials, Keith Richards, The Oppressed and.. erm.. Robert Palmer and Izzy Stradlin and the Juju Hounds.

Nevertheless, it's a great song - all bouncy ska and vocal harmonies courtesy of the Maytals with Toots Hibberts' toasting riding the surging wave of pressure. It's easy to imagine this song sounding like a breath of fresh air to a world caught in the tense, confrontational late 60s, listening to Pinball Wizard and Whole Lotta Love. Added to this, imagine the impact of this song in those areas of London where Jamaican immigrants lived, often in terrible conditions, feeling cut off from their homeland. This song's implications are gigantic, both on the British ska movement, typified by the Specials and Selector, and on the wider UK punk movement, which identified with reggae and disenfranchised Jamaicans long before The Clash discovered Junior Murvin's back catalog and wrote White Man (In Hammersmith Palais).

This song makes me feel happy. I don't know what the hell Toots is singing about. It's not clear whether Toots do either - he was a man known to appreciate Jamaica's other big export, to the extent of spending 18 months in jail for possession - but the results are a great reggae song. It's probably a little raw to appeal to trustafarians the world over but, as one of the archetypes for the ska movement that would spawn some of my favourite bands and music, it stands as a testament to reggae's ability to uplift.

Verdict: Happy cornerstone(d)

Tomorrow: Nirvana - Come As You Are