Biography of Lee "Scratch" Perry

The "bumpity riddim" of Lee Scratch Perry, Jamaica's most outrageous producer, percolates like an aural gallop through a minefield in a hailstorm. Why is he named "Scratch"? "Because," he cackles, "all things start from Scratch. So check it out -- who am I?" Whenever a dub track is shattered by an earthshaking shriek from the ninth dimension, whenever a glossolalia-quick burst of word salad blurts over an acid-tinged assault of bass and drums, whenever a "Croaking Lizard" grunts toward some "Roast Fish and Cornbread" -- chances are great that the diminutive Mr. Perry has had his flexible fingers in it. Starting as an assistant to Coxsone Dodd as he struggled to begin his seminal Studio One in the mid 50s, Perry soon was mixing, arranging, and engineering sessions. Shortly after, he was producing and singing as well. By the late '60s he had established a series of labels under the Upsetter umbrella and forged one of the most critical links in the chain of reggae's worldwide successes by joining his studio band with Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Livingston (the Wailers). The result was a pair of crucial albums that have never stopped selling since 1970 -- Soul Rebels and African Herbsman -- re-released all over the world in dozens of different titles, most notably Trojan's recent vocal and dub triumph called Soul Revolution, Vols. I and II, an absolutely essential Wailers compilation and a triumph of early reggae minimalism.Perry suffers from a combination of glossolalia (speaking in tongues) with phrases like "wizzy wizzy" for "wisdom," and "graphalalia" (filling every available surface with writing). He's a beat poet times ten, the original speed-rapper whose Black Ark studio became home to a myriad of noteworthy '70s artists who were discovered by, or whose careers were revivified by, Perry's take-no-prisoners production techniques. These singers included The Heptones (the essential "Party Time" album), Big Youth, the Mighty Diamonds, Max Romeo ("War Ina Babylon"), Gregory Isaacs, Delroy Wilson, U-Roy, I Roy, Junior Murvin ("Police and Thieves"), and Dillinger, to name a tiny fraction. As the '80s dawned, artists from Paul McCartney to The Clash beat a path to the graffiti-scrawled door of Perry's Black Ark in Kingston. During periods of controlled madness in the past decade, Perry toured Europe with a stage lineup similar to Marley's, right down to the three female backup singers. Recently, he married an allegedly titled Swiss woman and began spending half of each year in the Alps. His music is unmistakable still: wacky, wondrously histrionic, and persistent as a jackhammer to the brain. Long may he rave! ~ Roger Steffens