‘My father’s biggest fear was being forgotten’

Talent was the defining hallmark of singer, songwriter, producer, actor and dancer, Keith ‘Bob Andy’ Anderson, a visionary who has left behind a rich and enduring legacy. In honour of what would have been his 81st birthday, on Tuesday, October 28, his son, Godfrey Anderson, plans to stage a tribute to his beloved father, who passed away on March 27, 2020. He was 75.

This is the first official tribute to Bob Andy, who was concerned that his legacy would somehow be erased.

“In his latter days, my father wasn’t afraid of dying. My father’s biggest fear was being forgotten when he’s gone,” Godfrey told The Gleaner. “So, it’s very important to me that something is done in his memory this year.”

The first child for Bob Andy, Godfrey’s reason for not doing something sooner is tangled up in the web of politics and ongoing legal issues that so often beset too many artistes in the music business.

“I was discouraged from doing anything, but I think that the time has come to move forward ... regardless of the background noise. I realise that it was the same kind of discouragement that kept my father’s career down,” stated Godfrey in reference to the disillusionment that saw Bob Andy opt out of music for a few years while he pursued theatre.

He has already contacted his cousin, Singer J, who runs the popular Rub-a-dub Tuesdays platform, to partner with him on October 28. Godfrey plans to have some of the artistes who have sung his songs perform them live at the event. Also high on his agenda is playing the Bob Andy tunes that many people perhaps didn’t even know that he had recorded.

“Many of the songs that my father did in the ‘80s were released in the UK only. So it’s important that those songs are heard by everybody. It’s time to celebrate these songs,” Godfrey said.

Bob Andy, one of the founding members of The Paragons, made his mark with the group before going solo and releasing his first solo hit in 1967, I’ve Got to Go Back Home, a song which remains a reggae anthem. Hits such as Desperate Lover, Feeling Soul, Unchained, Too Experienced, Feeling Soul, My Time, and Feel the Feeling, are all included in his early catalogue.

An extraordinarily gifted songwriter, Bob Andy wrote songs for his peers, and was one of the first Jamaicans to establish his own publishing company, Andisongs. He penned I Don’t Want to See You Cry, for Ken Boothe, and Feel Like Jumping, Truly, and Melody Life for Marcia Griffiths. In the early 1970s, he recorded with Griffiths as Bob and Marcia, and they enjoyed a major hit in the UK with Young, Gifted and Black, which led to their touring with Elton John and Gilbert O’Sullivan. Bob Andy also made his name on the stage as a dancer with the National Dance Theatre Company and as an actor, starring in Children of Babylon in 1980, and The Mighty Quinn, in 1989.

This year marks 20 years since he first toured Africa, performing at the Bob Marley 60th birthday concert in Addis Ababa. While in Ethiopia, he also sang at the President’s Palace. In October 2006, the Jamaican Government conferred the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander on Bob Andy for his contributions to the development of Jamaican music.

“The concert will be free to the public. My cousin usually charges a nominal fee on a Tuesday just to partially cover expenses but, on October 28, there will be no cover charge. It’s all about celebrating the life and work of one of Jamaica’s greatest singers and songwriters,” Godfrey said of his father whose song, Fire Burning, was named Song of the Year by the JAMI Awards in 1997.

yasmine.peru@gleanerjm.com