Consumer Guide Album

Toots and the Maytals: Toots Live [Mango, 1980]
Toots's spirit and improvisatory verve merit a concert LP, and for a while I thought this one might double as a best-of--I was even ready to hold my fire on the inevitable remake of "Funky Kingston" when offered the first U.S.-album version of his magnificent "5446 Was My Number." But the exigencies of crowd control induce Toots to work that bittersweet ex-con's victory cry as a shoutalong, and when something similar happens to the climactic "Time Tough" I give up. Toots's ability to exult in suffering (cf. the unfortunately omitted "Famine") may be a miracle, but loaves and fishes it ain't. So why should a multitude join in? B+