The Abyssinians (JM)

About

Also known as: Abysinians, Abyssinians, Bernard Collins & the Abyssinians, Bernard Collins and the Abyssinians, The Abbysinians, The Abysinians

Few reggae songs have had the staying power of "Satta Massagana", the Rastafarian hymn that Bernard Collins and the Manning brothers recorded partly in Ethiopian Amharic. When producer Coxsone Dodd passed on it in 1969, seeing no commercial future in what he called cultural subversion, the group bought back the master tapes for £90 and released it themselves. It became a massive hit, and Dodd ended up putting out his own versions anyway. Their follow up, "Declaration of Rights", was another huge Jamaican smash with Leroy Sibbles on backing vocals, and the two tracks set the template for the close harmony roots reggae the Abyssinians would spend decades refining. The group's story is one of splits and reunions, with Collins and the Manning brothers going their separate ways more than once. Their debut album Forward on to Zion came out in 1976, followed by Arise in 1978 under notoriously tense internal conditions. They fractured, regrouped, and fractured again, with Collins at various points leading his own version of the act. They even turn up on Sade's 2002 album Lovers Live, where "Slave Song" opens with a sample from their track "African Race".