Aston 'Family Man' Barrett: 12 Essential Tracks

The visceral melody The pulse heard on the bass of Aston “Family Man” Barrett, who died on February 3, is closely associated with anchoring the messages and providing the audible heartbeat of Bob Marley's music. In 1970, Family Man and his brother, drummer Carlton “Carly” Barrett, began playing with Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, who had formed the Wailers in 1963.

After Tosh and Wailer left the band in 1973, and throughout Marley's rise to global stardom as the decade progressed, the Wailers served as his backing band, with Family Man as their leader. In addition to his incomparable reggae-defining bass lines, Family Man also arranged, co-wrote and produced songs with Marley.

Born Aston Francis Barrett on November 22, 1946, he spent his early childhood in downtown Kingston, growing up just a block from Orange St, a central thoroughfare also known as Beat St., lined with recording studios and record stores. Barrett was heavily influenced by many of the bass players he listened to growing up, especially the late Lloyd Brevett, who played an upright bass with various jazz bands and later as a founding member of the seminal ska outfit the Skatalites. Also essential in shaping his distinctive approach was Barrett's love of singing, especially classic soul (James Brown, Curtis Mayfield.) “When I play bass, it's like singing. I compose a melody line and see myself as singing baritone,” Barrett once said.

Barrett called himself 'Family Man' – or 'Fams' for short – as a teenager because his self-appointed role was as music caretaker. “As band members, we share a name. We are a family and I am responsible for it, so I say, I am the head of the family,” he said. Working as a welder, Family Man built his first guitar using plywood, with strings made of curtain rods and a wooden ashtray as a bridge. he played the improvised instrument like an upright bass.

The Family Man's professional journey began when he and Carly were asked to sit in with the Hippy Boys to support singer Max Romeo. Their playing caught the attention of Lee “Scratch” Perry, aka The Upsetter, who hired them for his Black Ark Studio band, calling them The Upsetters. The brothers first recorded in 1968 for the single “Watch This Sound”. Hearing the song prompted Bob Marley to ask who was playing bass. A meeting was arranged and a genre-changing historical sequence of events began.

Family Man's extensive catalog includes rock steady and early reggae instrumentals, self-produced dub experimentation, reggae collaborations with artists as diverse as Burning Spear, Alpha Blondy and John Denver, and countless contributions to Bob Marley's illustrious legacy, including every album released since reggae. from 1970 to 1983 which was published posthumously Coping.

Here are 12 essential songs from the Family Man's vast, impressive repertoire.

Slim Smith, “Watch This Sound” (1968)

Adapting the Buffalo Springfield band's late-'60s counterculture anthem “For What It's Worth” as sung by The Uniques (Slim Smith, Jimmy Riley and Lloyd Charmers) to a steady rock beat, “Watch This Sound” was the first recording for Family Guy and Carly. It was also an early indicator of their potential that would soon establish an elite standard for reggae rhythm sections. “Watch This Sound” is also the record that introduced Bob Marley to the talents of the Barrett brothers.

The Hippy Boys, “Liquidator” (1969)

The Hippy Boys originally cut this instrumental to support 'What Am I to Do?' by singer Tony Scott. Producer Harry Johnson bought the rights from Scott, credited the song to Harry J All Stars and licensed it to Trojan Records. In November 1969 “Liquidator” reached Number Nine in the UK Singles Chart and the song was certified silver there in April 2022. Winston Wright's irresistibly gliding chords on the Hammond organ dance with Family Man's bass on a swinging, seductive track that Staple adapted for their 1972 US Number 1 hit “I'll take you there.” The Fams, Carly and the other Hippy Boys never received any compensation from the Staple Singers' success. The Fams said all the money went to Harry J.

The Upsetters, “Return of Django” (1969)

Family Man's impressive bass laid the foundation for several hit records in 1969, including Max Romeo's diabolical “Wet Dream” and another rough instrumental “Return of Django”, which reached Number Five in the UK charts. The song's name comes from a 1967 Italian spaghetti western, but it's actually an instrumental cover of New Orleans R&B legend Fats Domino's “Sick and Tired.” Produced by Lee “Scratch” Perry, with a sax solo from Val Bennett (Perry removed Bennett's vocals from the record) the song's swinging, budding reggae rhythm is driven by Family Man's strong, steady bass beat.

The Wailers, “Small Axe” (1970)

After The Upsetters returned to Jamaica from their UK tour, Marley convinced the Fams and Carly to join the Wailers. Angered by the minimal pay they received from Scratch for the tour, they readily agreed. Scratch reportedly threatened to kill Marley for stealing his band. Somehow, they resolved their differences and collectively created a hit song. “Small Axe” was their warning to the three biggest recording studios in Jamaica at the time, “if you're the big one, we're the little axe” and with the surprise bass Family Man laid down, their competitors were probably quite intimidated.

The Upsetters with Dillinger, “Dub Organizer (aka Cloak and Dagger) V3” (1973)

“I now present to you cloak and dagger, music to make you stagger,” Dillinger animatedly says of the song's intro. Dillinger's rhymes are catchy everywhere, but Dub Organizer aka Cloak and Dagger is all about that bass. Family Man's thunderous grooves fire like an acoustic weapon and almost obliterate everything else recorded on the track.

Family Man and Knotty Roots, “Distant Drums” (1973)

A rudimentary instrumental track produced by Family Man, featuring Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer on drums, the last time the original Wailers would work together in a recording studio. The song is an instrumental recording of Jamaican singer Yabby You's “Love Thy Neighbor” and exemplifies the so-called Far Eastern sound of the era further popularized by melodica master Augustus Pablo.

Bob Marley and The Wailers, “Them Belly Full” (1974)

The Wailers weave a compelling groove, with Carly Barrett's stretched drums and especially Family Man's sonorous bass lines following Marley's melody and influencing the song's narrative like another lead vocal. “It's like singing baritone,” Barrett once said of his bass work. “I create a melodic line at a time.”

Aston “Family Man” Barrett, “Cobra Style” (1974)

Adorned with swirling, spikey synths, this dub-laden instrumental highlights Family Man's booming bassline that wanders with guitars, flaring keys and Fela Kuti-esque horns.

Bunny Wailer, “Dreamland” (1976)

In 1966, Bunny Wailer originally recorded a version of “Dreamland”, a cover of the 1963 release “My Dream Island” by American R&B group El Tempo. The Wailers revisited the song in 1971, and Bunny included a revamped version on his acclaimed 1976 solo album Blackheart Man, turning El Tempo's love lament into a Rasta homecoming anthem. Family Man's steady, shimmering touch enhances the song's mesmerizing soundscape.

Bob Marley and The Wailers, “Exodus” (1977)

After the assassination attempt on Bob Marley in December 1976, he and The Wailers flew to London, where they remained for the next 14 months. While there, Family Man heard the score from the 1960 film Crowd exitwhich tells the story of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. this soundtrack inspired Marley's album of the same name, with its title track secured to an epic bass line with an unrelenting dynamic pulse.

John Denver, “World Game” (1983)

Legendary Jamaican singer Toots Hibbert had a huge hit with an upbeat reggae cover of John Denver's “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” When Denver was ready to record his own reggae song, he reached out to the genre's best rhythm section: the Barrett Brothers. From the 1983 Denver album It was about timeon Marley's lighter fare like “Three Little Birds,” the brothers' galloping beat fuels a melodic tune that features Denver conversing in a Jamaican accent and incorporating renditions of “Jah” and “I and I.”

Alpha Blondy and the Wailers, “Jerusalem” (1986)

African reggae star Alpha Blondy first collaborated with the Wailers on the single “Cocody Rock” in 1983. Three years later, they collaborated on a hit album Jerusalem, with its title sung in French, English and Hebrew. Family Man's pounding bass ripples through the song with the force of a seismic terror.