Niney the Observer

Producer Niney the Observer was among the chief architects behind the classic reggae sound of the early 1970s. Born Winston Holness in Montego Bay, Jamaica in 1951, he acquired the Niney moniker when he lost a thumb in a workshop mishap; he entered the music industry during the late '60s as a protégé of producer Bunny Lee, later working with Lee "Scratch" Perry. Upon establishing his own Observer label, Niney's first hit was the 1970 Dennis Alcapone single "Mr. Brown"; later that year he unleashed the seminal "Blood and Fire," which sold some 30,000 copies in Jamaica alone whi...