Died On This Date (February 21, 2008) Joe Gibbs / Reggae Producer
themusicsover Joe Gibbs (Born Joel Gibson)
1943 – February 21, 2008
Joe Gibbs was a respected Jamaican reggae producer. He first began making records out of the back of his electronics repair shop during the late ’60s. One of his earliest collaborators was Lee Scratch Perry. In 1968, he formed his own record label, Amalgamated Records, home of one of rocksteady’s earliest hits, Roy Shirley’s “Hold Them.” In 1972, he and engineer, Errol Thompson put together a house band that included the great Earl “Chinna” Smith, Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, and together they generated hundreds of records, with over 100 becoming #1 singles in Jamaica. In 1977, Gibbs produced Culture’s Two Sevens Clash, considered to be one of the most influential albums on the growing punk scene. He continued to produce some of reggae’s most successful records well into the later years of his life. Joe Gibbs was 65 when he suffered a fatal heart attack on February 21, 2008.
Lyn Taitt was a reggae guitarist best known for his work on rocksteady recordings. As a child, Taitt first learned to play the steel drum, but by his mid teens he switched over to guitar. His style was percussive and inventive, making him one of the first stand-outs of ska and rocksteady. Over the course of his career, he played on hundreds of records, and worked with producers like the great 
