Remembering Bob Andy: Reggae Legend’s Son Speaks On His Life And Legacy

Four years ago today, the music world lost a giant with the passing of the exceptional Reggae singer-songwriter Bob Andy. To commemorate his legacy, DancehallMag spoke with his son, Godfrey “Bobby” Anderson, who offered a glimpse into the life of the man behind timeless hits such as My Time (I Deserve), You Don’t Know and The Sun Shines For Me.

“I was really young when I realised my dad was famous,” Bobby shared. “All the juke boxes were playing Games People Play…In school, people recognised you because of that. They were like, ‘that’s your father’, and that kinda stuff. I could always hear his music being played and I would always say ‘wow!’”

Bobby, a Jamaica College Old Boy, has one other sibling— Bianca. 

Now based in the United States, he also revealed that the musical icon dabbled in a bit of sports in his downtime. However, he never left his children out.

“He was an avid tennis player. He played a lot of tennis. Swimming was another thing he enjoyed. When we were younger, he used to take us out to Cable Hut Beach [in Bull Bay] and just go out in the water and stay there for maybe an hour or two,” Bobby reminisced.

“You’d look out and you’d see his locs flashing with the birds, ‘cause he used to go way out [in the water] and then come back in and we’d jog on the beach. We all went as children and friends and we did that for about 25 years until he started having health issues. That is what sustained him while he was going through health struggles and all kinda struggles, you know?”

Though Bobby and his sister spent all their lives around music, they did not follow in their dad’s footsteps [or at least not yet]. Instead, Bobby took on the business aspect of his father’s career as he got older— ensuring that things were as smooth as possible while they were on the road together.

“My father already drank all the soup, so there was nothing left for me to do. He wrote all the songs, sang all the songs… if I could do 20 per cent of what he could do, there would be no sense in me going into the business in that sense. So, I went in in the management sense because a lot of times they’d even go way to Europe and perform and don’t collect [payment]. Once you get your advance and went, the promoters would tell you all kinds of stuff,” Bobby said.

“I remember a show from 2005– the ‘Bob and Marcia Young Gifted and Black Reunion’ they’re still trying to collect from that tour. Nineteen years later, they’re still trying to collect. For me, I couldn’t go through that. I’m a different person than my father. My father saved me by keeping me in management because I couldn’t go through all the stuff like him.”

As a songwriter, Andy played a critical role in shaping the sound of Studio One by penning several songs for artists like Gregory Isaacs, Ken Boothe and Delroy Wilson. 

His investment in developing talent expanded when he took on the role of A&R first at the Soundtracs label in the mid-70s, then at Tuff Gong in 1987. The latter saw him serving as A&R and Promotions Director, a capacity which allowed him to not only manifest a longtime vision of pushing for higher standards in the Jamaican music business, but also in production which he did for artists like Nadine Sutherland, Ernest Wilson and Tyrone Taylor. 

Bobby noted that to this day, music lovers haven’t a clue that Bob Andy was behind many classic favourites because he prided himself in humility.

“A lot of people covered his songs, so when you actually saw him up there singing those songs. There was a situation with a DJ at a concert where he saw my father singing one of his songs and he made a comment that my father was ‘covering Barrington Levy, Marcia Griffiths, Ken Boothe… this guy doesn’t have any songs for himself.’ He didn’t know that my father originally wrote and sang all of those songs,” Bobby said.

Andy was among the first Jamaican artists to establish a publishing company [Andisongs], and was one of the advocates for a Caribbean copyright organization. 

He was awarded the national honor of Order of Distinction in 2006 for his indelible contributions to music. 

His son said that he is in the process of paying ode to his father’s legacy, in his own way.

“He started doing his book and never got to finish, so, I’m doing a book and I’m going from his birth to when he transitioned and I will have it published. He deserves it. His songs started a lot of people’s careers. He wrote songs for a lot of people and a lot of people covered his songs.”