Roots Archives Forum

I was told last week that George Phang was given a handful of rhythms by Sly and Robbie as a favour or as payment for something, and never recorded any of his own.

is this true?

From what I recall he got some rhythms from Sly when he started producing. Even the Powerhouse label was Sly & Robbies at first. That was just his initial productions though.

I really have a hard time thinking he didn't produce anything in his career. There's an interview with Phang in the fifth issue of Reggae Quarterly. I'll pull it out when I get home later today.

Perhaps the person who told you this just got the facts mixed up a bit.

Many producers were just the people who had the money to put the session together,some put there name to writing credits and were nowhere near the studio at the time.

Sly and Robbie sound like Sly and Robbie regardless of which producer they record for.Same for Roots Radics.So what did the producers actually do?

Cheers kalcidis, thanks for considering the question, I agree it seems unlikely that he didn't oversee a session or have any creative input into his output, other than recording vocals.

donstrumental wrote:So what did the producers actually do?

I'm sure some were purely money men, but the majority knew what they wanted, understood the market and had creative ideas themselves, why else would they be in the business?

Maxi Trojan wrote:donstrumental wrote :So what did the producers actually do?

I'm sure some were purely money men, but the majority knew what they wanted, understood the market and had creative ideas themselves, why else would they be in the business?

Jamaica is a place where the title producer carries nuff Respect and power,more than the priminister if you are producer of the moment.Nuff man put musicians together and pay for studio time and call it production.

Linval Thompson,Junjo lawes sound the same as long as the tune is recorded by Roots Radics at Channel one and mixed at King Tubbys by Scientist,Put Sly and Robbie in the same studios and the sound change.

Not disrespecting any of the producers above but the musicians and engineers played a bigger part than they got credit for.

Raspect

Hi,

I just stumbled upon this thread by accident and thought it raised some interesting questions. I had the opportinity to speask with George Phang the other day and had the opportunity to clarify some things. Yes, Phang was absolutely there in the studio when the rhythms were being made and voiced. In fact, many of the rhythms were built using ideas he had, maybe an old Studio One or Treasure Isle tune he remembered from his youth. I think George really enjoyed being present in all the excitement of the studio etc.
That said, many other producers were not present and often the band members worked out their own rhythms, an extra service they were highly underpaid for.
I hope this helps.
Beth Lesser

Good to see you on the forum Beth and thanks for clearing up the confusion.

And yes, too often the session members got too little recognition than they deserved.

We've had a long discussion on here before about this subject.

If I remember right the conclusion was that some were more artistically involved than others.