b. Rainford Hugh Perry, 28 March 1936, Hanover, Jamaica, West Indies, aka Scratch and the Upsetter. Small in stature, but a giant of reggae, Lee Perry began his musical career working for seminal producer Coxsone Dodd during the late 50s and early 60s, acting as a record scout, organizing recording sessions, and later supervising auditions at Dodd's record shop in Orange Street, Kingston. By 1963, as well as handling production and songwriting for Delroy Wilson ("Joe Liges", "Spit In The Sky") and the Maytals, Perry had released the first of his own vocal records through Dodd. Featuring a bluesy, declamatory vocal style over superb backing from the legendary Skatalites, these tracks set a pattern from which Perry, throughout his career, rarely deviated. Social and personal justice, bawdy, sometimes lewd, sexual commentary, and, like the material he wrote for Delroy Wilson, stinging attacks on musical rivals - mainly former Coxsone employee Prince Buster - are all prefigured on these early tracks such as "Prince In The Pack", "Trial And Crosses", "Help The Weak", "Give Me Justice", "Chicken Scratch" (from which he acquired his nickname), "Doctor Dick" with Rita Marley and the Soulettes on backing vocals, and "Madhead", recorded between 1963 and 1966. Incidentally, there was evidently no acrimony between Buster and Perry, as the latter often appeared on Buster's records, including "Ghost Dance" and "Judge Dread". Also during his sojourn with Dodd, he began an association with the Wailers that had repercussions later in the decade.
In 1966, Perry fell out with Dodd and began working with other producers including Sir JJ Johnson, Clancy Eccles and, in 1968, Joe Gibbs, for whom he wrote songs and produced artists such as Errol Dunkley and the Pioneers. With Gibbs, he also voiced a bitter snipe directed at Dodd entitled "The Upsetter", from which he gained his next epithet. On parting with Gibbs, Perry recorded several fine titles, including the big local hit, "People Funny Boy' (1968), a vicious record, featuring a chugging rhythm in the new reggae style given to him by Clancy Eccles, wherein Perry castigated his former employer for allegedly ignoring his role in Gibbs' success, the slight made all the more pointed by his use of the melody from the Pioneers" hit "Long Shot". In 1968, Perry set up his own Upsetter label in Jamaica, again with help from Clancy Eccles. Immediately, he began having hits with David Isaacs ("A Place In The Sun") and the Untouchables ("Tighten Up", which lent its title to the classic series of early 70s reggae compilations on Trojan Records), and, in common with other early reggae producers, secured a contract with Trojan whereby his records were released under his label in the UK.
Perry experienced his first taste of UK chart success with tenor saxophonist Val Bennett's spaghetti western-inspired title, "Return Of Django", which spent three weeks at number 5 in the UK charts during October 1969. At the same time, he began producing the Wailers on a series of records including "Small Axe", "Duppy Conqueror", and "Soul Rebel", mostly available on a number of recent compilations, and which are now considered to be among that group's finest work.
Just over 100 singles were released on Upsetter between 1969 and 1974 by artists such as Dave Barker ("Shocks Of A Mighty", "Upsetting Station"), Dennis Alcapone ("Alpha & Omega"), the Stingers ("Give Me Power"), the Bleechers ("Come Into My Parlour", "Check Him Out"), Neville Hinds ("Blackmans Time"), Leo Graham ("Newsflash"), Big Youth ("Mooving [sic] Version"), and the legendary Junior Byles ("Beat Down Babylon", "Place Called Africa"). He also unleashed a welter of intense, energetic, and just plain barmy instrumentals: "Night Doctor", "Live Injection", "Cold Sweat", "Django Shoots First", "The Vampire" and "Drugs & Poison". Other productions such as "Selassie" by the Reggae Boys, the instrumentals "Dry Acid", "Return Of The Ugly", "Clint Eastwood", and many more, appeared on other B&C and Pama Records labels.
From 1972-74 Perry slowed down the rhythm and consolidated his position as one of the leading innovators in Jamaican music. He released instrumentals including "French Connection" and "Black Ipa", and DJ tracks by artists such as U-Roy (who had recorded two of his earliest records, "Earth's Rightful Ruler" and the demented "OK Corral", for Perry in the late 60s), Dillinger, Dr. Alimantado, I. Roy and Charlie Ace (on the unique and bizarre cut-and-mix extravaganza, "Cow Thief Skank'). Perry was also one of the first producers to utilize the talents of King Tubby, then just starting his own operations, and released important early dub albums such as Rhythm Shower (1973) and the glorious Blackboard Jungle (1973). Perry's productions from this period - the Gatherers" monolithic "Words Of My Mouth", Milton Henry's "This World', whose rhythm also served Junior Byles" reading of Little Willie John's "Fever" and Augustus Pablo's melodic workout "Hot & Cold", Perry's own "Jungle Lion', the Classics" "Civilisation", and many others - are among the heaviest and most exciting reggae records of their day.
In 1974, Perry opened his own studio, dubbed the Black Ark, situated in his backyard at 5 Cardiff Crescent, Kingston. Almost immediately, he achieved a big Jamaican hit with Junior Byles' hugely influential "Curly Locks". In 1975 his production of Susan Cadogan's seminal lovers rock tune, "Hurt So Good", reached number 4 in the UK charts. He also released the overlooked but innovative dub album Revolution Dub (1975), featuring some of his heaviest contemporary productions such as Bunny And Rickey's "Bushweed Corntrash', Junior Byles" "The Long Way", and Jimmy Riley's "Womans Gotta Have It", all garnished with Perry's crazy singalong rhymes and bursts of dialogue "sampled" from the television. From 1975 he began to employ studio technology, notably phase shifters and rudimentary drum machines, to produce a dense, multi-layered mixing style that is instantly recognizable, and eminently inimitable. It is all the more remarkable for the fact that all this was achieved in a four-track studio. By 1976, Island Records had begun to release the fruits of this latest phase, including music by the Heptones (Party Time), Max Romeo (War Inna Babylon), Bob Marley And The Wailers ("Jah Live", "Punky Reggae Party"), George Faith (To Be A Lover), Junior Murvin (Police & Thieves, the single of the same title being very popular in Jamaica at the time, and becoming a belated chart hit in the UK in May 1980), Prince Jazzbo (Natty Passing Through, released on Black Wax), and the Upsetters (the classic Super Ape). However, Island rejected his own vocal album, Roast Fish, Collie Weed & Corn Bread (1978), and missed out on the Congos classic, Heart Of The Congos, which finally gained a UK release some years later on the Beat's Go Feet label.
With commercial success now coming infrequently, Perry's frustrations and personal problems began to increase. He was still making wonderful records - "Mr Money Man" by Danny Hensworth, "Open The Gate" by Watty Burnett, "Garden Of Life" by Leroy Sibbles, and many others - but his style was now so far removed from the reggae mainstream that they met with little success either in Jamaica or abroad. Perry's behaviour became increasingly strange and bewildering, and in 1980 he destroyed his studio and left for Britain, where he conducted a number of puzzling interviews that seemed to add credence to reports of his mental decline. Since then, he has made a long series of eccentric, often self-indulgent solo albums with a variety of different collaborators, including Adrian Sherwood, Lloyd Barnes, and Mad Professor, completely outside the mainstream of Jamaican music. Simultaneously, his earlier work began to receive significant critical and cult attention as well as commanding high prices in the collector's market. After living in the Netherlands in the mid-80s, he moved back to London, occasionally performing live. In 1990, he went to Switzerland, worked with a new management team, and married a Swiss millionairess. He also returned to Jamaica to rebuild the trashed and burnt-out Black Ark.
Whatever the future holds, Lee "Scratch" Perry, the Upsetter, the man Bob Marley once described as a "genius", has already made one of the most individual contributions to the development of Jamaican music, as a producer, arranger and writer, and also simply as a singularly powerful guiding force during several crucial phases. The lovingly prepared three-CD box set Arkology is indispensable for anyone interested in reggae. It presents some of the most vital music ever to have come from Jamaica - all the more remarkable on seeing the Black Ark and realizing that this incredible music emanated from a tatty wooden shack.
