James Brown and Sly & Robbie

[Alhazred]

I just watched a Sly & Robbie interview from '82 where they say they recorded five tracks with James Brown but did not know whether these would ever be released. Does anyone know? I'd be curious to hear them...

[manreggae]

In 82 James Brown flew to Nassau , Compass Point Studios to record a few demos, Sly & Robbie didnt get along with him,
only a few demos were recorded, 3 or 4 tracks , the tapes are nowhere to found, it seems one track appeared on a JB album a few years later, but nobody knows exactly and probably it is re- recorded and no riddim twins backing on it.

[kalcidis]

Interesting. I've never heard of this. Where can one find more information on the subject?

[robt c]

I first heard about this in an interview with JB in Musician magazine about 85/86..I think the track that released was So Tired of Standing Still..but I think it was rerecorded..another track was called ESP

[informer]

another lost opportunity - like gregory isaacs at studio one or dennis brown at black ark.

[joffy]

One song did sneak out as the second track on the B-side of "National Anthem" by Beat Freaks (Supreme International Editions label - EDITION 86-11). It's not listed anywhere on the release, but from JB's spoken intro the track is called "You Got The Best Thing In The World".

[Dave Kingston]

James fired them after commenting that they couldn't play. A steady metronome beat just ain't Papa's bag.

At the time Sly & Robbie were kind of the "hired guns" everyone wanted, they cut an LP with Dylan ("Infidels"), tracks for Cindy Lauper, Joe Cocker, etc etc etc.

James wanted some of that magic but it didn't work out as they just weren't musically sympatico.

[aabey]

Hi guys, I found this in http://www.exclaim.ca/articles/timeline.aspx?csid1=85


The 1980s will see Sly and Robbie burst onto the international scene with everyone from Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones to Carly Simon and Joe Cocker queuing up for their services. There is even an ill pairing with James Brown where the godfather of soul gets bluntly scolded by Robbie, irate over Brown’s megalomaniacal behaviour.

“I told James to fuck off because James was handling people like dog,” the gregarious Robbie would later say. “He was a bully. We were supposed to reach the studio for a 2 o’clock session but James never come til 6 or 7 in the evening. And when he come he want everything to be now, now, now. So when I tell him “look James, I don’t know how you handle people in the States but fuck you don’t come and handle us like this. I tell him he must have respect for people. I stop the session and tell we play no more.”

[2 cents]

ã nice comp of sly&rob doing work for others is ' late night sesions'