Tell me baby, what wrong have I done?

I grew up listening to the Maytals and own an awful lot of their records. Something like five or six Jamaican and English albums never released in the U.S. [at least initially], every album issued in the U.S. from "Reggae Got Soul" up to "Toots in Memphis", several comps on CD.....

And then there are the Jamaican pressed singles, some of which are different versions than what appeared on albums. Even well known songs often show up with a different mix on 45 [sometimes with an instrumental version as well].

Anyway, even after all that exposure to the Maytals I still occasionally find stuff on 45 that I've never heard before. But not in this case. Actually, I thought it was a "personal unknown" when I picked it out of a box of unsleeved 45s, but jeeze was I ever surprised when I gave it a listen. The record is mislabeled, it's actually a copy of "Treating Me Bad", one of the groups early great ones. Not a bad score for less than a buck.

Just so happens there's even footage from 1962 of the Maytals singing this song, which makes the post even sweeter. Check the clip below.

In case ya'll are wondering about the scratchy records I've been posting lately, I'm not really doing it on purpose. I'm just having fun digging through a pile of interesting 45s that don't normally get spins....often because they're too beat up for polite company.

I'll get back to the cleaner 45s soon enough. Truth is, this rip doesn't sound all that much worse than the copy I have from a legitimately issued comp.

Hope ya'll enjoy.....

I ain't got no lover...

I don't see a lot of older Jamaican 45's, but when I do, I mostly grab 'em. Unfortunately, they're often pretty beat up...seems to come with the territory.

This cut is the flip-side of The Maytals' 1967 Festival song, and it's an odd one because Toots Hibbert doesn't sing on it. Toots was in jail for pot possession at the time.

What I find interesting about this is that the other members of the Maytals supposedly waited for Toots to get out of jail and did not try to replace him. Which really only made good sense, because Toots' lead vocal was by that time totally defining the group's sound.

But ya know, this 45 gives some lie to that story....the festival song itself, I'm A Big Man, is obviously a duet....and the cut I'm offering up here either has three singers on it, or the lead vocal was overdubbed over the background singing. As I said above, there's no Toots on the record.

So much for waiting for your friend to get out of jail.

Ultimately, Toots and the Maytals won the Festival song competition three out of the first seven years of it's existence. But only with Toots singing the lead.

Still, this is a great cut....or I wouldn't be posting it, would I?