- “The studio must be like a living thing, a life itself. The machine must be live and intelligent. Then I put my mind into the machine and the machine performs reality.”
- — Lee “Scratch” Perry on his legendary Live Ark studio
He died at the age of 84.
Don’t feel bad if you don’t know his name. One of the progenitors of what is called “dub music,” a stripped-down, permutated, reverb-heavy, remixed instrumental sound that started out as a subgenre of reggae, was a famous record producer, identified as one of the key figures in the evolution of ska into
Even though he was a cultural hero to some, and a mentor to Bob Marley, you can still be alert to the fact that you don’t know a lot about him. He was called one of the most important creative forces in Jamaican music by the LA Times.
A producer’s influence should surpass their celebrity.
Trojan Records, a 53-year-old British label that specializes in reggae, dub, ska and rocksteady music, has just released a collection of his work called “King Scratch (Musical Masterpieces from the Up Setter Ark-ive).”
“People Funny Boy,” a 1968 single that codified the chugging Afro-Jamaican beat we would come to recognize as Reggae, is included in the greatest-hits package. Junior Murvin’s “Police and Thieves” is one of the tracks he produced for other artists, as well as “Three Blind Mice” and “Hurt”.
A variety of formats is available, ranging from a two-CD, 36-track bare-bone version to a $96 deluxe edition with 116 tracks that combines vinyl records and CDs and throws in a photo essay book with photos by Adrian Boot.
I’m not a big fan of boxed sets, but it’s not hard to recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the genre.
Go to arkansasonline.com/918upsetter to check out the list.
There’s a documentary on the life and music of Lee ScratchPerry on the Criterion Channel.
He positioned himself as “The Prophet,” the visionary behind the power, even though he thought of Marley as “The King”. When it came to his musical career, he tended to combine it with something bigger.
“My father worked on the road, my mother in the fields when I was a child,” he once said. We weren’t very well off. I attended school. I didn’t learn anything at all. I’ve learned everything from nature.
He told an interviewer that he didn’t like working because he didn’t want anyone to be a slave. I want to be focused on the task at hand. There’s a big spirit behind me who wants me to do something.
Lee earned the nickname “The Neat Little Thing” or “Neat Little Man” after winning dance contests and becoming a member of the dance and music scene. He was playing a game. He said he was able to read minds.
He was working at a construction site. The stones were banged by him.
“When the stones clash, I hear thunder, and I hear lightning, and I hear words, but I don’t know where the words are coming from,” he said. The words sent me to Kingston.
He was working with Clement “Coxsone” Dodd at studio one. Dodd was said to have brought Toots and the Maytals to his attention.
He took his nickname from the seminal ska album he produced in 1965, “Chicken Scratch,” which featured The Skatalites, the early Wailers, The Soulettes, and a number of others. He once said he was the creator of the alien race globally.
He was upset because he wasn’t getting the money and recognition he deserved. He worked with an electrician who had trained in Cuba and had a two-track tape machine in his shop.
The Amalgamated Records had just been launched. One of the label’s first singles was a warning to his old boss that began “Why are you so gravelicious?” Why do you care so much about something?
The video isn’t showing above. If you want to watch, click here.
ERRY IS A HITMAKER.
In 1967, he was hired by Gibbs to run the label. The Pioneers’ “Long Shot (Kick De Bucket)” was one of the first songs to use what became known as the reggae beat.
The rhythm didn’t have a name, but in 1968 Toots and the Maytals released a single called “Do the Reggay” which means “raggedy” in Jamaica. I eavesdropped on a bar conversation about a musician in the Eagles’ “Hotel California” playing the “reggae” guitar. A nearby Eagles fan said that he wished he could play guitar that raggedy.
Perry has a legitimate claim to being the inventor of the genre.
Even though he didn’t get along with the other man, he split from him and started his own label. The first single from that label was a broadside against his former partner.
The sound of a crying baby was threading through the track as the studio was being used as an instrument byPerry.
The first call musicians in Nashville, the Wrecking Crew in Los Angeles, and the Swampers in Muscle Shoals were all reformed by him. The core of the band, which was formerly known as The Hippy Boys, was made up of Carlton Barrett on drums and his brother, “Family Man”, on guitar.
The band was interested in the sounds of “Long Shot” and “People be funny” and the idea of slowing down their music and bringing out something sinister in it.
They supported the vocal group Wailers and Junior Byles, who supported themes of Black self-determination, political resistance and spiritualism, and released instrumentals under their own names.
One of these songs became a Top 10 hit in the UK and the first Jamaican band to tour Britain.
He was the sort of impresario that the Upsetters and theWailers disliked because he had become such a household name. They made a lot of money from their tours and recordings.
“I stole their music to expose them,” she says in the film.
To be kind, he had to be cruel.
It’s RUM, GANJA, and SEX.
After working with a few less innovative producers, including Dodd, it was Marley and the Wailers who first sought outPerry. He wasn’t sure if a vocal group was necessary. He was making music and doing well at it.
After the Upsetters were persuaded to leave and join the Wailers, they were willing to talk with him. When the two men met face to face, many thought there would be violence. But somehow they were able to work it out, which was good for the relationship.
The Upsetters were part of the band that became the touring band for Bob Marley. They worked together even though they had disagreements over financial matters. He told an English journalist that he felt like he’d been “set free.”
Murvin’s ” Police & Thieves” can be heard on theERRY PRODUCTION.
If they were to have any impact on the world beyond Jamaica, they would need to at least nod to the fashions of the time.
The horns and pianos that had adorned much ska music in favor of Family Man’s sinuous bass and Marley’s stabby rhythm guitar, vocals and personal-as-political lyrics were downplayed.
They were formed into a rock band by him, abandoning the falsetto gymnastics that marked some of their earlier work. They didn’t need to be the Beach Boys, but they did need to be authentic like The Band.
The band was pushed in the direction of Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix by him. The band’s best work is the two albums he produced for them, 1970’s “soul rebels” and 1971’s “soul revolution”
The center couldn’t hold on because of the distrust between the two men, so TheWailers signed with Island in 1973. After releasing bootlegs of their work together, he kept the money and maintained that he loved and respected the artist.
One of the first dub albums to be released was “Blackboard Jungle Dub” by the Up Setters. After 1974, he worked out of his Black Ark studio, which was built in his backyard, and was open to everyone, including police and thieves, extortionists and con artists. Rum and ganja were present.
Even though he only had four tracks, he pioneered unusual techniques and engaged in an early form of sampling. He was hit by gunfire and tape on his tracks. He said he used marijuana smoke and whiskey to douse the tapes.
Black Ark wasn’t state of the art, but it was a master of intuitive tweaking and knob twisting. He produced albums such as Max Romeo’s “War Ina Babylon” and The Heptones’ “Party Time”. Normally, a single would be on the street three days after it was recorded.
His productions went mainstream after he secured a worldwide distribution deal with Island Records.
The video isn’t showing above. You can watch the show at arkansasonline.com/ 928thieves.
Remove the lock on the devil.
In 1979 his wife left him and took his kids. He drew crosses and glyphs on the walls of his studio. He lit the place on fire. He destroyed his studio because someone stole a rubber ball.
The first half of the ’80s seemed to be the end of his problem. He was reported to have drank gasoline and black currant juice. What work he did was not good. In 1984 he moved to London and started working more steadily.
He was married to a Swiss businesswoman in 1989 and she moved him to Zurich. They produced two albums together after Dodd gave him a break. “From the Secret Laboratory” was the best album of his career and was released with Adrian and Dub Syndicate.
He kept going. It’s reasonable to ask what extent his image was cultivated to intimidate and discourage people from taking advantage of him. He was presented as smart and naive, but he might have acted like a madman.
Maybe not. Genius is sometimes a hair’s breadth from madness. It’s not a question that he was the latter.
Pmartin@adgnewsroom.com is the email address.