Sly and Robbie may well be the most prolific recording artists ever. One staggering estimate is that they have played on or produced some 200,000 songs.
Sly and Robbie are reggae’s longest lasting production team. The rhythm section of drummer Lowell Dunbar (nicknamed Sly after Sly Stone, one of his favorite musicians) and bass guitarist Robert Shakespeare started working together in the mid 1970s, after having established themselves separately on the Jamaican music scene.
They changed the face of Reggae several times: in 1976, they introduced a harder beat called “Rockers”, which quickly replaced the then prevalent “One drop” style, then introduced the “rub a dub” sound in the early 1980s. Sly and Robbie were important in developing the trend towards computer assisted music and programmming in the mid 1980s.
They produced three of Grace Jones' albums: Living my Life, Nightclubbing and Warm Leatherette.
Boops is their sole UK hit.
Hi Paul
ReplyDeleteI saw Sly & the Family Stone in 1970 at Bath - not really my bag at the time but you reminded me what a f***ing brilliant performance it was!
Not as good as Janis Joplin, though.
Mick