In honour of Bob Andy’s 79th birthday today, VP Records has released Tarrus Riley’s live performance of the late veteran reggae singer’s classic song, Desperate Lover.
It is excerpted from We Remember Bob Andy – Live, a Reggae Month 2023 culminating concert to celebrate the work of the late Jamaican singer/songwriter and the Dean Fraser-produced album, We Remember Bob Andy.
Released February 10, the album features 15 songs from the Bob Andy catalogue re-recorded by Tarrus Riley, Beres Hammond, Sanchez, Romain Virgo, Luciano, Richie Spice, Nadine Sutherland, and others.
“You can maybe find yourself in a Bob Andy song, or you know somebody whose been the subject of the song, so maybe I can relate to the Desperate Lover,” Tarrus Riley said of the project.
Born Keith Anderson on October 28, 1944, Bob Andy was one of the founding members of The Paragons, along with Tyrone Evans and Howard Barrett, with John Holt later joining briefly before being replaced by Vic Taylor. Andy left after Holt rejoined and worked for Studio One delivering records and songwriting before embarking upon a solo career.
His first solo hit record, I’ve Got to Go Back Home, in 1967, was followed by Desperate Lover, Feeling Soul, Unchained, and Too Experienced. He also composed songs for other reggae artistes, including I Don’t Want to See You Cry for Ken Boothe, and Feel Like Jumping, Truly, and Melody Life for Marcia Griffiths.
He had several hits in the late 1960s, including Going Home, Unchained, Feeling Soul, My Time, The Ghetto Stays in the Mind, and Feel the Feeling. Some of these, and his 1992 hit, Fire Burning, have come to be regarded as reggae standards and several have been covered several times by other artistes
A key figure in the development of Jamaican music, he helped to bring reggae to international mainstream acceptance via his smash hit duet with Marcia Griffiths, Young Gifted And Black.
Songs from the Bob Andy catalogue have been covered or adapted hundreds of times over the decades and form a key part of the greater Jamaican cannon of original songwriting and recordings. Whether through popular interpretations like Barrington Levy’s version of Too Experienced or through the rhythmic framework of tracks like Desperate Lover, Bob Andy’s melodies, lyrics, and rhythms are woven through the entire fabric of Jamaican popular music across more than five decades.
