A farewell to Sly Dunbar, half of one of the finest reggae rhythm sections. Sly and Robbie - Dunbar and Shakespeare - were a vital force in the work they did, whether with international stars like Grace Jones, Bob Dylan, or as the musicians at Studio One playing with Black Uhuru and countless others. But it's the work they did with Serge Gainsbourg that brings them to the attention of this blog.
Gainsbourg wasn't the first white Western artist to play reggae by any means, there was something of a trend among by-then established artists to embrace the style. Often with limited success or with what seemed to be little more than opportunistic appropriation.
Gainsbourg was different in his approach. he went at it not like a new trend or the adoption of a passing dance craze, he sought out the best musicians: Sly and Robbie, the I Threes and others and he recorded in Jamaica. Although many of the songs on his first reggae album was material he had previously recorded, it was in a radically different style, opening up new possibilities in his work, and his version of the French national anthem, re-titled Aux armes et cætera caused a genuine culture shock in France on its release.
There were two studio albums, 1979's Aux armes et cætera,and 1981's Mauvaises Nouvelles des Etoiles as well as a live album, Enregistrement public au Théâtre Le Palace in 1980. All have been re-issued, re-mixed, extended, dub versioned and gainsbourg's reggae work rightly celebrated.
Gainsbourg didn't just do reggae. He did the best reggae and Sly and Robbie were it's backbone.
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