Lee 'Scratch' Perry is famous for producing Bob Marley & the Wailers and for going shopping at his local Swiss grocery in a king's robe. Here are several good reasons why he is Jamaica's 'Grandmaster of Reggae'.
There’s a credo a few of us could stand to live by – and the main philosophy of a man who’s spent the majority of his life in the studio, either behind the production board or behind the microphone.
While 'Grandmaster of Reggae' may seem a dubious moniker for those of us who believe the genre lives and dies with The Wailers and Jimmy Cliff, it’s hard to argue with tracks like Dreadlocks in Moonlight– songs that, while tongue-in-cheek, are overflowing with the man’s pure and honest love for a genre he helped revolutionise.
And if you don’t find your head bobbing in slow motion to at least some of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s stuff, you could at least agree that he managed to come up with the greatest name for a reggae song ever in Rejoice In Skank.
He flew under many music fans' radar for quite a while, and it’s almost bizarre that he is listed by a certain well-established music site as number 10 among the most influential reggae artists of all time – after all, you can only listen to Yellowman’s ZunggaZunngaZung so many times.
Here is a fascinating insight into Perry’s recording process in the late 1970s, which was a congregation of friends and instruments, good vibes and weed, held in makeshift home studios, and a far cry from the uber Pro-Tooled studio sessions of nowadays.
You get a taste of exactly how influential he was in developing and pioneering dub reggae, something that still reaches younger audiences and musicians around the world, and which even earned him a guest spot on The Beastie Boys’ record Hello Nasty…
Inject your souls with some of the original dub of old and rejoice in skank now at Red Bull Music Academy Radio in a Fireside Chat with the 74-year-old Swiss resident, who redefined the science of Jamaican and worldwide music:
Playlist:
Lee Perry - People Funny Boy - Heartbeat
Lee Perry - Roast Fish & Cornbread - Island
Prince Buster - Judge Dread - Blue Beat
Lee Perry - I Am The Upsetter - Trojan
The Upsetters - Man From M.I.5. - Trojan
Lee Perry & Dennis Alcapone - Alpha & Omega
Lee Perry - Cloak & Dagger - Trojan
Max Romeo - One Step Forward - Island
Junior Murvin - Police And Thieves - Island
The Congos - Feast Of Passover - Blood And Fire
Bob Marley - Kaya - Comet
The Upsetters - Return Of Django - Trojan
Lee Perry/Mad Professor - Two Mad Men in Dub - Ariwa
Lee Perry - Chicken Scratch - Heartbeat
Lee Perry - Kimble - Trojan
Lee Perry - Baffling Smoke Signal - Unknown
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