But when it came time for their second album, they
parted company with Penn. On hind sight Bodie realized that Penn with
his own ideas of what hits were, this young and upcoming group that he
led had their own ideas on what they wanted to do. Bodie said he had
songs that he wanted to put on the album. Penn wanted more Bahamian music, and they allowed some
of it, but not all. Looking back, it was this Bahamian touch that added to the
band's growing popularity in Freeport.
Later Bodie later
went on his own and in the early 90’s moved to Nassau at the invitation
of Rudy Grant where he made his debut appearance at The Family Island
Lounge, on Soldier Road. During this period, he achieved
his greatest hit to date, "She Fat” recorded by Fred Ferguson (formerly of High
Voltage which later became Baha-Men) at his home studio.
At
this stage his solo performances took off and he added such hits as
"All The Meat", "Start Me Up", "Bush Mechanic" and "Annie." These are some of the tales he tell in his book. As that
story goes, approximately two years of success had gone by at The
Family Island Lounge when Bodie met manager Gary Burnstein. Bodie said
Gary had heard some of his music while on vacation in The Bahamas and
sought him out.
At his invitation, Bodie made a move to
Boston where he performed for audiences all over the New England area.
He said it was quite an adventure to learn about the integration of so
many West Indian & Caribbean people.
This, he said,
lasted for the best of four years before Bodie got homesick and
returned. During those many years, Bodie attributes his success locally
to Rudy Grant who continued to promote his music.
In his own
studio which he has in Eight Mile Rock, Bodie has been putting out
projects regularly with his hits and new work as well as a regularly
produced line up of Bahamian hits featuring other Bahamian recording
artists.
Bodie says his present music is influenced by such
greats as Ronnie Butler, Eddie Minnis, Dr. Offff, and T-Connection. He
said in particular Ronnie Butler was very instrumental in encouraging
him to continue on when he felt like giving it all up.
He
said like Frank Penn once said to him, there were times when local
musicians had to wage war with the Government owned ZNS just to get our
music played.
Today however, with private radio stations in
the mix, particularly 102.9 Island FM and Love 97, the future of
Bahamian music seems a little brighter said Bodie
Becoming an
author does not mean that that work has stopped. Just months ago he
released his latest album which features many new songs and an
instrumental called ‘The Greasy Man’. From this selection of upcoming
hits.... with the first song “Facebook” already making shock waves in
the community, he recently produced four videos from the songs on this
album.
