The visceral melodic pulse heard in the bass playing of Aston “Family Man” Barrett, who died on February 3, is most closely associated with anchoring the messages and providing the sonic heartbeat within Bob Marley’s music. In 1970, Family Man and his brother, drummer Carlton “Carly” Barrett, began playing with Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, who had formed the Wailers in 1963.
Following the departure of Tosh and Wailer from the group in 1973 and throughout Marley’s rise to global stardom as the decade progressed, the Wailers served as his backing band,...
Following the departure of Tosh and Wailer from the group in 1973 and throughout Marley’s rise to global stardom as the decade progressed, the Wailers served as his backing band,...
- 2/4/2024
- by Patricia Meschino
- Rollingstone.com
Aston Barrett, the Jamaican bassist known as “Family Man” who served as the rhythmic architect for reggae legends like Bob Marley and the Wailers, Burning Spear, and Augustus Pablo, has died at the age of 77.
Barrett’s death was announced on social media Saturday by his son Aston Barrett Jr. “With the heaviest of hearts, we share the news of the passing of our beloved Aston ‘Familyman’ Barrett after a long medical battle,” Barrett Jr. wrote. “This morning, the world lost not just an iconic musician and the backbone of...
Barrett’s death was announced on social media Saturday by his son Aston Barrett Jr. “With the heaviest of hearts, we share the news of the passing of our beloved Aston ‘Familyman’ Barrett after a long medical battle,” Barrett Jr. wrote. “This morning, the world lost not just an iconic musician and the backbone of...
- 2/3/2024
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
Lee “Scratch” Perry, the pioneering dub producer and musician who tore open the sound of reggae, died at the age of 85 on August 29th, 2021. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Perry returned to his home of Negril, a beach town in western Jamaica, from Switzerland, where he had lived since 1989. Rolling Stone visited Perry in Negril just weeks before he passed away.
“What’s next is, we’re gonna make different music. We’re gonna make different beats,” Perry told Rolling Stone on a sandy Negril beach, at sunset, near his house.
“What’s next is, we’re gonna make different music. We’re gonna make different beats,” Perry told Rolling Stone on a sandy Negril beach, at sunset, near his house.
- 9/18/2021
- by Reed Dunlea
- Rollingstone.com
Ziggy Marley remembered late reggae and dub great Lee “Scratch” Perry’s “genius, uniqueness, courage and freedom,” in a tribute following the musician’s death Sunday, August 29th, at 85.
In a tribute shared with Rolling Stone, Marley said Perry’s death brought memories of venturing to his home studio in Kingston, Jamaica with his father, Bob Marley. “It was always a unique experience being around him,” Marley said. “He opened minds with his creativity and his personality. Some people thought it was madness, but I recognized it was genius, uniqueness,...
In a tribute shared with Rolling Stone, Marley said Perry’s death brought memories of venturing to his home studio in Kingston, Jamaica with his father, Bob Marley. “It was always a unique experience being around him,” Marley said. “He opened minds with his creativity and his personality. Some people thought it was madness, but I recognized it was genius, uniqueness,...
- 8/31/2021
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
It was a sunny Saturday afternoon in 1977 London when I popped in to visit the already-legendary dub creator Lee “Scratch” Perry to get his reaction to a new version by the Clash of his song about corruption “Police and Thieves.” I was curious – Joe Strummer’s rasp was so different from the angelic falsetto of the original singer, a policeman from Port Antonio named Junior Murvin. How would Scratch react?
I was surprised to find Bob Marley sitting with him; Scratch was staying in an apartment over the studio where Marley,...
I was surprised to find Bob Marley sitting with him; Scratch was staying in an apartment over the studio where Marley,...
- 8/30/2021
- by Vivien Goldman
- Rollingstone.com
Reggae legend Lee “Scratch” Perry is best known as the architect of reggae and dub, his mind-bending solo productions and his work with everyone from Bob Marley and the Wailers to the Clash to Beastie Boys. Less known by the general public, though, is the role he played in trying to extract Paul McCartney from a Japanese prison following a marijuana bust.
On January 16th, 1980, McCartney flew into Tokyo’s Narita International Airport with his wife Linda and their four children. He was five days early for Wings’ tour of Japan,...
On January 16th, 1980, McCartney flew into Tokyo’s Narita International Airport with his wife Linda and their four children. He was five days early for Wings’ tour of Japan,...
- 8/30/2021
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
For 85 years, Lee Perry was many things: raconteur, sonic wizard, rhythmic innovator, talent scout, shit-stirrer, ladies’ man, boaster-on-the-mic, and by most accounts, the greatest record producer in Jamaican history. His discography as producer and guest star includes such titans as Bob Marley and the Wailers, the Clash, Beastie Boys, the Heptones, Junior Byles, the Congos, Max Romeo, and dozens more. But Perry was a recording artist foremost, so with a couple of crucial exceptions, we’ve concentrated on the work he released under his own name or, interchangeably, that of the Upsetters.
- 8/30/2021
- by Michaelangelo Matos
- Rollingstone.com
Max Romeo, the reggae singer who worked with Lee “Scratch” Perry on their classic 1976 album War Ina Babylon, spoke to Rolling Stone to pay tribute to his friend and collaborator following Perry’s death Sunday at the age of 85.
“The first thing is, he was truly a producer; he didn’t just a sit in a chair in the studio and listen to what you got and record it. He joined in in the building of the thing,” Romeo tells Rolling Stone from his farm in Jamaica.
“He’s a...
“The first thing is, he was truly a producer; he didn’t just a sit in a chair in the studio and listen to what you got and record it. He joined in in the building of the thing,” Romeo tells Rolling Stone from his farm in Jamaica.
“He’s a...
- 8/29/2021
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
Edward “Bunny” Lee — the influential producer who both expanded reggae’s sound and helped proliferate the genre’s audience worldwide — has died at the age of 79.
Trojan Records, which licensed Lee’s Jamaican productions in the U.K., confirmed the producer’s death. While Lee’s exact cause of death is unknown, he battled health issues in recent years.
“Jamaican music giant, Bunny Lee, has very sadly passed away,” Trojan Records tweeted. “Bunny was massively influential in shaping Jamaican music, starting as a record plugger in the Sixties, then, as a pioneering producer,...
Trojan Records, which licensed Lee’s Jamaican productions in the U.K., confirmed the producer’s death. While Lee’s exact cause of death is unknown, he battled health issues in recent years.
“Jamaican music giant, Bunny Lee, has very sadly passed away,” Trojan Records tweeted. “Bunny was massively influential in shaping Jamaican music, starting as a record plugger in the Sixties, then, as a pioneering producer,...
- 10/7/2020
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
In June 1964, a country music fan in Jamaica who regularly listened to Nashville’s 50,000-watt radio station Wsm sent a letter to the editor of Billboard, who proclaimed it the first such correspondence they had ever received from someone tuning into the country station from the Caribbean island nation. Yet with two Tennessee stations carrying a powerful clear-channel signal over thousands of miles — the other being Nashville’s Wlac, which programmed country music mainly on Saturdays in the early Forties — the hillbilly and early Countrypolitan sounds most associated with Music City had been available to,...
- 7/2/2019
- by Stephen L. Betts and Jon Freeman
- Rollingstone.com
“People: repent ” intones Lee “Scratch” Perry to begin what might be his gazillionth LP, Rainford — and his signature spacey West Indian storefront-preacher steez feels perfectly-suited to a cultural moment defined both by widespread institutional criminality and high-grade legal weed. As a founding father of dub reggae and arguably its greatest first-gen practitioner, Perry is by definition an architect of modern pop, rock, r&b, Edm and hip-hop sonics. His most legendary productions date to the ‘70s, and remain timeless: the Congos’ Heart of the Congos, Junior Murvin’s Police and Thieves,...
- 5/31/2019
- by Will Hermes
- Rollingstone.com
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