A memorable sufferers track, Ration is done over Money
In My Pocket, one of Joe Gibbs hottest and most enduring rhythms,
good enough to issue twice (see below). Joel Gibson a.k.a. Joe Gibbs, was born Montego Bay, Jamaica in 1945, he studied as an
electronics engineer in the USA, and on his return to Jamaica opened a TV repair
shop at 32 Beeston Street, Kingston. He began selling records there as a
sideline, and while helping producer Ken Lack he got to know the music business
from the production side. Eventually Joe Gibbs built a two-track studio in the
back of his shop and brought in the expertise of Lee Perry to manage sessions,
and in 1967, with Roy Shirley's Hold Them - which some claim to be the first Rock Steady
song - Gibbs launched his own
Amalgamated label. The following year after Lee Perry's departure Gibbs, now one of the
island's most popular producers, employed Winston 'Niney' Holness to take
over from him. Lee Perry had left Gibbs in acrimonious circumstances and after
setting up his own Upsetters label, he released People Funny Boy, a
grudge record aimed at his ex employer Gibbs, who responded with People
Grudgeful Boy. In 197O Gibbs opened his New York Record Mart at 11
South Parade, Kingston and engaging the expertise of engineer Errol
Thompson from Leslie Kong, he set up another two-track studio in the
Duhaney Park; on later recordings Gibbs and Thompson become known as the Mighty
Two. Many of the island's top musicians worked for Gibbs at one time or another
including: Lloyd Parks,
Sly & Robbie, Bingy Bunny, Bopeep, Sticky, Ruddy Thomas, saxophonists
Carl "Cannonball" Bryan, Bobby Ellis, Tommy McCook, Herman Marquis,
Vin Gordon, Lyn Taitt and the Jets bassist Jackie Jackson drummer Hugh Malcom,
organists Aubrey Adams and Ansell Collins, pianist Gladstone Anderson, and
guitarists Hux Brown and Lloyd Willis, trumpeters Johnny "Dizzy"
Moore, and the Hippy Boys, which featured the Barrett Brothers rhythm tandem,
guitarist Alva Lewis, and organist Lloyd Charmers.
RATION * BONGO HERMAN AND BINGY BUNNY * SMASH 2331 * UK