“Who is that man? Where’s he from?”
The closest we’ll ever get as reggae-lovers to a biography of the man behind the lion, Lloyd “Bullwackies” Barnes, comes courtesy of Sonia Abel and Claudette Brown, a.k.a. the Love Joys. Arriving at Wackies studio by way of Brixton, London, the Lovejoys duo recorded two blazing LPs “Reggae Vibes” and “Lovers Rock (Reggae Style)” and a handful of deadly singles for the New York label.
Our particular favourite has to be the enigmatic “Studio Man”, which is by far the creepiest Lovers tune we’ve ever heard! Serpent-like harmonies from the two vocalists intertwine with layers of instrumentation, lost in the thick fog that characterizes all Wackies releases. This is a song for all studio heads, those who give every last drop of coin to the music, those who bed down underneath the mixing desk, those for whom music is life…