Lee “Scratch” Perry
Perry’s importance in musical history is indisputable. One of reggae’s most skilled producers and talent scouts in the 60s and 70s, he shaped some of Marley and the Wailers’ best music and ushered lesser talents like Max Romeo and Junior Byles to stardom. He revolutionized the art of dub and prompted a seismic shift in the way reggae was made. But Perry’s as well-known for being a nut as anything else. He decorated the gates to his Black Ark studio with old electric toasters; he hollowed out a portion of the floor to make a duck pond, then put a drum riser on a bridge above it. In 1980, shortly after he was seen walking through Kingston backward, striking the ground with a hammer, the studio mysteriously burned down. At the time he blamed it on faulty wiring; he was held on arson charges for three days before being released for lack of evidence. But he’s claimed in subsequent interviews, including one I conducted in 1997, that he was indeed the culprit.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
As dub has resurfaced as an important influence on avant-garde pop music, Perry’s career–and his crazy history–have reemerged with it. He’s been lionized by the Beastie Boys, who lent him a load of new credibility with a feature in their Grand Royal magazine and a cameo on Hello Nasty, and by the mainstream press, who dutifully pushed him into the spotlight following the high-profile release of his Arkology box set two years ago.
Perry felt undercompensated and misunderstood throughout his early career, which made him difficult to work with on one level. But at other times he was just plain quarrelsome. Members of the Clash hired him to produce an album, but found him so impossible that they left after completing only one track, “Complete Control,” which was released as a single in 1977 and added to the U.S. version of The Clash in 1979. Dodd and Perry’s subsequent collaborator Joe Gibbs became the targets of scathing musical diatribes, including “People Funny Boy,” a knock on Gibbs, and “The Upsetter,” a signature swipe at Dodd. Ironically, “People Funny Boy” became a success more for Perry’s innovative use of African rhythms than for his vocals–even the liner notes to Arkology say as much.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Lee Perry photo by Marty Perez.
