"DUDE." SAID U ROY, "CHALICE."

Well, you gotta give him credit. When Serge Gainsbourg decided to make a reggae LP, he went to Jamaica. So, with the exception of his vocals, the music is pretty straight forward reggae. It had better be, the rhythm section is Sly and Robbie, the backing vocals are the I-Threes, Mikey Chung on guitar, Ansel Collins on organ, "Sticky" Thompson on percussion, and Robbie Lyn on guitar. All seasoned reggae studio musicians. (If you don't recognize any of the names, for gods sake get with the program.). Anyway, this shit is interesting, not vital but interesting.

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Listen:
Serge Gainsbourg - Daisy Temple mp3 at Internet Archive
Serge Gainsbourg - Vieille canaille (You Rascal You) mp3 at Internet Archive
Serge Gainsbourg - Relax Baby Be Cool mp3 at Internet Archive
Serge Gainsbourg - Marilou Reggae Dub mp3 at Internet Archive

THANKS STRANGER'S T-SHIRT!

Ack! Holiday weekends are challenging when you live near the beach. It's like hosting a completely different community for two or three days. I'm not complaining, I'm lucky to live where I do. And I do get a kick watching people experience the ocean on a rare visit or for the first time. Sincerely. No one can have that experience more than once, so it's nice to see at least that on a holiday weekend. The one thing bad about the crowds though is the omnipresent Bluetooth speakers or whatever the fuck they are. They're always pumping crap with Auto=Tune. Then there's the mega-woofers on wheels, the bass that you can hear two blocks away. I get it. I love bass, I really do. But you don't have to subject everyone in a two block radius. The capper, today's lowlight, was hearing "Freebird" blasting from the Noodle House of all places. A song high on my list of songs I would not miss. Today's silver lining: The one thing that cancels out all of the bad musical crap was seeing a guy at the beach with a Viceroys T-shirt. I came home and listened to the Viceroys and forgot all about Bluetooth speakers, Auto-Tune, loud woofers and fucking "Freebird".

The first two below are on Sly and Robbie's Taxi label. from 1980. Do listen to the version. It's not all that dub-like. Though it gets stripped and rebuilt, there's relatively few electronic gizmos firing.

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Listen:
Viceroys - Heart Made Of Stone mp3 at Marley Discography
Viceroys - Version mp3 at Marley Discography
Viceroys - Ya Ho (Full LP) (streaming) at YouTube

EAT THE TEACHER

T'was a time that Sly and Robbie's shit did not stink. As the rhythm section of the Revolutionaries, the backing band at Channel One studio in the second half of the seventies, they were at the right place at the right time backing the right artists. There were other reggae rhythm duos doing remarkable work, but it was Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare that became reggae's drum and bass marquee names.

Alas, they may have been too good. Too tight. Maybe they got restless. Whatever the reason, though they retained their reggae sensibilities, they started fucking around with digital. They began backing non-reggae acts. It wasn't an overnight change, it happened gradually, so gradually that I never noticed that I had lost interest in their whereabouts until a couple nights ago. I heard them backing the Wailing Souls on "Old Broom", released on their Taxi label about 1980. Ah, man, it felt good to hear the old Sly and Robbie, as they had been around the first time I heard them. I went looking for more of that period and ran into a killer disco mix (extended version) cover of "Rainy Night In Georgia", with them backing Tinga Stewart from 1978. It's awesome, them at the early peak of their reggae game. Though they have stuck with reggae type music (i.e. dancehall), and used reggae rhythms in their playing with non-reggae artists (Grace Jones, Mick Jagger, Simply Red, Ian Dury, Joe Cocker, Sinéad O'Connor, etc.) it just doesn't have the same feel, it's not as earthy.

I checked their discography. By the looks of it the bottom dropped out for me around 1980 and, wouldn't you just know it, that's just about when they started fucking with syn drums and digital bass. They were fucking with the program, and they've continued fucking with the program. Fine, if that's what they wanna do, go for it. Their shit may not stink yet, but I'll be damned if I'm going to wait around until it does. If you want to see what I'm talking about, compare the Wailing Souls' "Old Broom" from around 1980, to their "Live On" from 1994, with Sly and Robbie supplying the backing on both. Rough or polished, I'm taking rough every time.

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Listen:
Wailing Souls - Old Broom mp3 at Bass Shaka (?) 1980-ish
Tinga Stewart - Rainy Night In Georgia (streaming) at Reggaeville 1978
Wailing Souls - Sweet Sugar Plum Plum mp3 at Bass Shaka (?) 1980-ish
Wailing Souls - Live On (streaming) at YouTube 1994

SLY AS SELECTOR

About two or three years ago, my niece and her husband went to Jamaica for a musician friend's wedding. Shortly after she got back, she asked me "Do you know who Robbie and Sly are?" After we determined that it was the Sly and Robbie she was talking about, she told me that she had met them at the wedding and that they were nice. She said that at some point in the reception, Sly had his eyes closed and was rocking back and forth. She asked if he was okay and he replied that he was just "feeling the music". 

That's what I was thinking when I listened to these in succession. These are from a recent list of Sly Dunbar's top five favorite records, recently posted at iCrates. What I found interesting was the contrast of the last two, both of which feature the Sly and Robbie rhythm section. They're separated by only a year, but it was right at that point that they were just starting to play on non-reggae sessions. I gotta say though, I'm not so sure I like how their style has evolved. But, jeez, did they play on a lot of good records. Their complete discography is something to see.

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From Sly Dunbar's Top Five Favorite Records:
Booker T and the MGs - Hip Hug Her mp3 at 8106
Sly and the Family Stone - Family Affair mp3 at Beppers
Tommy McCook - Freedom Sounds (streaming) at YouTube
Black Uhuru - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner mp3 at J'ai Des Amis Shlags 
Grace Jones - Private Lives mp3 at The Couch Sessions
Visit:
Sly Dunbar interviewed at iCrates Not really an interview, but a veery good profile distilled from an interview.
Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare at Wikipedia