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SLICKERS

BREAK THROUGH

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1975-1980 - Makasound - studio - discs:1

The Slickers' "Johnny Too Bad" single from 1970 is an evergreen, especially for being included in the stellar soundtrack of the movie "The Harder They Come" from 1972. But their story is quite puzzling. The Slickers were Winston Bailey, Roy Beckford and Derrick "Joe" Crooks. In 1975 Bailey was replaced by Abraham Green. Later in 1980 Green left the group to form The Survivors with Bailey. The Slickers started their career in 1966 when they cut some singles at Duke Reid's Treasure Isle Studio and later for Clement "Coxsone" Dodd and Joe Gibbs. The Slickers' history is linked with The Pioneers' one. Between 1967 and 1968 The Pioneers worked extensively at Joe Gibbs'. Derrick Crook's brother, Sydney Crooks, was a member of The Pioneers, but also Derrick played with them between 1962 and 1965. Some tracks recorded by The Pioneers were issued by Joe Gibbs credited as Slickers material, but in the meantime the Slickers were also cutting singles for Gibbs. This confusing situation went on for several years. Both groups' sounds seem quite similar, and sometimes it is difficult to understand who cut that particular song. Things got even more complicated when in 1976 The Pioneers' "Many Rivers To Cross" album was released in the U.K. and attributed to the Slickers. In any case the Slickers cut some successful tracks over their career but even their probably major hit "Johnny Too Bad" is surrounded by mistery when it is time to attribute its writer. Bunny Wailer, Winston "Pipe" Matthews (Wailing Souls), Earl "Chinna" Smith, Niney The Observer and Delroy Wilson stated that the song was wrote by Wilson's brother Trevor Wilson, a rudeboy from Kingston. Elsewhere I found out that his name was Errol "Batman" Wilson. On the other side, the three original members of the Slickers claim the authorship. The present set recorded between 1976 and 1978 contains the original seven tracks plus five bonus ("Zion Calling", "People In The Neighbourhood", and three untitled instrumentals). The original seven are: "Give Us A Break", "Every Wolf", "Johnny Too Bad", "Marcus", "Run Come", "Black And White" (aka "Black People") and "African Children". "Johnny Too Bad" was cut at Lee Perry's Black Ark, and the other tracks were recorded at Harry J's Studio. The original set was mixed by Geoffrey Chung. Sylvan Morris engineered. The players employed were Horsemouth Wallace (drums), Robbie Shakespeare (bass), Michael Chung (guitar), Earl "Chinna" Smith (lead guitar), Augustus Pablo, Geoffrey Chung and Robert Lynn (keyboards), Augustus Pablo (melodica), Earl Chin and Geoffrey Chung (percussions). The set was produced by Tad Dawkins and Earl Chin. Early Roots. Not particularly impressive, but with a couple of interesting peaks.