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Was Lee \u201cScratch\u201d Perry \u2013 reggae\u2019s wildest producer, alchemist of sound and \u201cGod\u2019s Scientist\u201d \u2013 authentically mad? Or was it an act to deflect gangsters and journos? A vibration from a higher plane of existence? And would Perry deign to explain himself to MOJO? \u201cSerious joke, that\u2019s what it is,\u201d he told Ian Harrison.<\/p>\n
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Revolution Dub: Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry in the studio c.1980.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAre you fuckin\u2019 mad?\u201d reggae legend Lee \u2018Scratch\u2019 Perry asks MOJO, coldly displeased at an attempt to communicate. \u201cI\u2019m trying to get ready for a show. Fuckin\u2019 behave yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
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It’s 2019 and we\u2019re in a black Toyota Verso, running late and speeding down the darkened motorway from Bristol. This March 14 gig at the Gloucester Guildhall is the opening date of a UK tour taking in such off-piste reggae hotspots as Perranporth, Holmfirth and Kingsbridge\u2019s Pig\u2019s Nose Inn, and the pressure\u2019s getting hot.<\/p>\n
The lengthy in-car summit promised by Scratch\u2019s press handlers has not gone to plan, and the near-two-hour first leg of the journey from Heathrow finds him in taciturn mood. Resplendent in a regal ermine robe\/ dressing gown, crystal and badge-encrusted baseball cap and dyed crimson beard, the producer, vocaliser and omni-trickster landed late on a flight from Z\u00fcrich. On arriving at our transport, he occupies the backseat with a large suitcase on wheels which is reputed to hold certain spiritual stones and other special items.<\/p>\n
All attempts at conversation flop and wink out of existence. As the car descends the circular ramp from the airport carpark, and the 285 bus to Kingston rolls past, the silence deepens and solidifies.<\/p>\n
After an hour of sitting up front, listening to Scratch breathe and tap on his gold iPhone, MOJO asks again if we can speak. \u201cI was dreaming when you just tell me you want to talk to me,\u201d says Scratch, who would turn 83 in six days\u2019 time. \u201cI dream when I am awake, life itself is a dream. I\u2019m writing what I dream, I have them all on computer (h<\/em>olds up phone<\/i>)\u2026 the music always come from dream. The invisible being that talk, you hear words from nowhere. The Father God, him touch you sometime and say, Look at that, in order that you can make a story, and become a teacher, that people can learn and clear their mind and think about a future.\u201d<\/p>\n The legend of Perry the riddler and madman has been established for 40 years now \u2013 being told you\u2019re cracked by him is a badge of courage MOJO will wear with pride \u2013 but his gaze is steady as he bats away enquiries of mere earthly import and gets on explaining his divinely inspired cosmology. Meanwhile, there\u2019s a services stop for the artist to pick up the Daily Mail and the National Enquirer (Scratch-appropriate stories, respectively: \u2018Hurrah For The Budget Big Bras\u2019 and \u201812-Year-Old Creates Fusion Reactor At Home\u2019). Yet he\u2019s disinclined to talk for long.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/02\/GettyImages-959966580.jpg” title_text=”Lee Scratch Perry 2018″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Mystic Warrior: <\/span>Perry performs at Poppodium De Flux, Netherlands, in 2018.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n When our somewhat subdued party finally arrives at Gloucester Guildhall, there\u2019s only minutes to spare before the 9pm showtime and we find Scratch\u2019s band – Strasbourg reggae three-piece Easy Riddim Maker \u2013 locked out of the dressing room. Before being guided away from the backstage area, MOJO sees the Mighty Upsetter fist-bump his group in turn, though nervous first night grimaces are seen.<\/p>\n Yet the show is triumphant. ERM are solid and well-versed in Scratch\u2019s oeuvre: bubbling, grooving and extrapolating in all the right places, with sound-expanding dubular extras delivered via laptop. We get spirited versions of such Perry-produced prime cuts as Police & Thieves, Ketch Vampire, Roast Fish & Cornbread and War Ina Babylon, as Scratch speak-sings reordered lyrics, stands on one leg and touches his toes, manically grins at the sell-out crowd and accepts shiny gifts from fans, including a watch, a mirror and a spoon, which he pretends to eat with while crying like a baby. An adapted version of Max Romeo\u2019s Chase The Devil is addressed to the former head of Island records: \u201cSend Chris Blackwell down to hell!\u201d The suitcase on wheels stays close to him throughout.<\/p>\n \u201cI dub you because I love you!\u201d he tells the audience in farewell. But there are limits to Perry\u2019s emanations of affection, and an attempt to reboot MOJO\u2019s interview after the show is thwarted when he disappears quickly into the West Country night.\n<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cHim just come on brave and say what him want to say and no care who vexed,\u201d says Lee \u2018Scratch\u2019 Perry, who produced the Wailers\u2019 Tosh-led 400 Years and Downpressor. \u201cPeter didn\u2019t see himself as an artist to sing harmony; he have a star quality, but it did need somebody else to put out Peter\u2019s message, because if I promote the two of them, Peter and Bob, it would be a big jealousy.\u201d<\/p>\n Disgruntled with the increasing spotlight on Marley and fatigued by the band\u2019s touring schedule, Tosh left the Wailers in 1973, shortly after Livingston. Seeking to extricate himself from the group\u2019s Island Records contract, Tosh is said to have threatened label staffer Benjamin Foot (also the son of former governor, Sir Hugh) with a machete.<\/p>\n \u201cI was a huge fan of Peter and respected him a lot, because he was truly brave \u2014 brave and crazy.\u201d says Island boss Chris Blackwell. \u201cBut he never cared for me too much and called me Chris Whiteworst, and as soon as Don Taylor came in, he was managing Bob Marley and didn\u2019t want Peter and Bunny around.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n One place where Lee Perry reveals himself more willingly is on his new album Rainford<\/I>. Produced by On-U Sound mainman Adrian Sherwood, it presents vivid, electro-acoustic dubs peppered with biographical detail, past achievements, warnings, parables, philosophies and other ciphers for Scratch\u2019s five decades-plus life in music. Recorded from 2017 in Negril in Jamaica and Ramsgate, it\u2019s also the most consistent Perry transmission since his \u201970s golden period.<\/p>\n \u201cMy right name is Rain \u2013 Rain-ford Hugh Perry,\u201d Scratch reasons, in a much friendlier chat a few days after our M4 impasse<\/I>. \u201cI think this album could be a good education for the people. It\u2019s about telling a story about my past life, and my present life, and I think it has a good vibration, a real good peaceful vibration.\u201d<\/p>\n It culminates in closing track The Autobiography Of The Upsetter. A rolling, morphing rumination that echoes classic Perry productions, this uncommonly lucid sketch of his life details his birth in poor, rural Hanover Parish, Jamaica on March 20, 1936 and his parents Henry Perry (\u201ca freemason\u201d) and Ina Davis, \u201can Ettu queen\u201d whose spirit- and ancestor-communing dances can be traced back to the African Yoruba presence on the island. Mum and dad, the song tells, \u201cshare a drink together, say them gonna make a godly being.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI used that Johnny Cash\/Rick Rubin album, *American Recordings, a very intimate record, as the model for it,\u201d says Sherwood. \u201cA lot of the records Lee\u2019s made have him as this jovial, funny ha-ha figure, and he has got that eccentric side and childlike humour, but there\u2019s also the very serious side that\u2019s produced all these great records. I thought, Tell a story and give a bit of yourself, which is something he tends not to do all the time. He\u2019s at a certain age now. Let\u2019s see the real Lee.\u201d<\/p>\n Since he arrived in Kingston in 1961, there have been several Lee Perrys, all playing different roles. Famed early on as an exceptional dancer, he was first turned onto music by the sounds of American R&B. \u201cFats Domino was my favourite artist, my number one,\u201d Scratch recalls. \u201cOtis Redding was my favourite singer \u2013 \u2018I\u2019ve got dreams to remember,\u2019 ha ha! It was the soul of the music, you are getting the spirit\u2026 it is fire, a flame of fire, and you are caught up in it.\u201d<\/p>\n Working as factotum to Studio One production heavyweight Clement \u2018Sir Coxsone\u2019 Dodd, he hawked his songs in the cutthroat music business centred around downtown Kingston\u2019s Orange Street. His mid-\u201960s output as a singer included ebullient ska smut-fests including Doctor Dick and Roast Duck, though even here there was an emerging idiosyncrasy and particular intensity. After leaving Coxsone, frustrated at his musical ideas going unrecognised, Scratch set up as a player in his own right. Attempts to move forward with producer Joe Gibbs having floundered, the first Lee Perry hit would be 1968\u2019s People Funny Boy, an attack on Gibbs\u2019 lack of generosity that featured the sound of a crying, hungry baby and an early appearance of the beat that would become known worldwide as reggae.<\/p>\n \u201cThey wasn\u2019t nice people who wanted to teach people,\u201d reflects Scratch on those days of producer rivalry. \u201cCoxsone wasn\u2019t such a nice guy. He was all about stupid, he want to rule other people, to be a big bully and a top man. They love to fight and beat up people.\u201d<\/p>\n Did Scratch ever fight?<\/p>\n \u201cNot really. Me is here to heal people, not to destroy them\u2026 unless they deserve to be destroyed. Because even God destroy people, if they are ungrateful and unrighteous.\u201d<\/P>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”%22default%22″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” hover_enabled=”%220%22″ global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cRonnie Wood was a really good friend of mine and I introduced Ronnie and Keith to Peter,\u201d claims Al Anderson. \u201cThey fell in love with the guy and wanted to help.\u201d<\/p>\n Jagger and Richards had been fans of Jamaican music since the early 1960s. More recently, The Stones had recorded Goat\u2019s Head Soup<\/I> in Jamaica in 1971 and Richards was spending more and more time there, having purchased a home in Ocho Rios. Signing Tosh made sense, but Ahmet Ertegun, head of Rolling Stones Records\u2019 parent label, Atlantic, was hesitant; meanwhile, Virgin also had their eye on Tosh.<\/p>\n \u201cI see a lot of misrepresentation on how we ended up with The Stones,\u201d suggests longtime Tosh manager Herbie Miller. \u201cArma Andon was a Tosh fan at Columbia who hooked us up. We began negotiating with Earl McGrath [President of Rolling Stones Records], having sit-down conversations in New York, but Richard Branson wanted to sign Peter too. One day we drove over to Peter\u2019s home on the outskirts of Spanish Town; Branson is barefoot with a leather bag, khaki shorts and a short-sleeved jacket like he was on safari. We sit on the ledge of Peter\u2019s veranda and Branson said, \u2018The only thing The Stones can offer you that I can\u2019t is a tour with The Rolling Stones.\u2019 And the rest is history: in April, Mick and Keith came to Jamaica on our invitation to see Peter perform, as they had not seen him previously: \u2018Peter will be doing the Peace Concert, so why not come down?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/02\/12-Lee-Scratch-Perry-And-The-Upsetters-Super-Ape.png” title_text=”12 Lee Scratch Perry And The Upsetters – Super Ape” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The Upsetter’s Super Ape, 1976.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n This steely instinct informed the next, extraordinary decade of Perry\u2019s production career. The Hippy Boys, soon renamed The Upsetters, were the ace house band who would build on the success of 1968\u2019s gleeful Return Of Django \u2013 actually recorded by Gladdy\u2019s All-Stars, and a Number 5 UK hit in November 1969 \u2013 playing on a series of albums with loose western themes which presented cockeyed, chugging organ instrumentals and vocal R&B covers. The Jamaican public had started taking notice.<\/p>\n \u201cScratch was like the new generation,\u201d says Dennis Alcapone, DJ and eyewitness. \u201cBefore him the top producers monopolised the scene, people like Sir Coxsone, Duke Reid, Prince Buster, all those people. He came with a different genre, actually – Scratch\u2019s type of riddims, they were different from the norm, and that sound started to dominate.\u201d<\/p>\n In 1970, a fellow unreimbursed Coxsone refugee called Bob Marley called at Scratch\u2019s Charles Street premises. Their collaboration would result in The Wailers\u2019 seismic first two LPs, as well as the anthemic, Coxsone-bashing Small Axe. Yet history would repeat itself, after a fashion, when Marley split with Perry, his international ambitions leading him to Chris Blackwell\u2019s Island label in 1972. Scratch was so incensed \u2013 Marley added insult to injury by taking The Upsetters with him to be the full-time Wailers band \u2013 that he would, Dennis Alcapone says, throw darts at pictures of Jamaica\u2019s future superstar. Yet the two reggae titans would work together again on occasion, as on 1977\u2019s JA-UK hat-tip Punky Reggae Party.<\/p>\n \u201cMy job was to tell him what the spirit want me to tell him,\u201d says Scratch today of Marley. \u201cIt was very great doing that, for a young man, to show him the way to have a family and an education and to become a king. I think he learned a lot from me, and he\u2019s somebody that I love very much, to the heart (touches chest<\/I>).\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n While Marley\u2019s departure must have stung, 1973 saw Perry\u2019s creativity shift into high gear. That year\u2019s Double Seven, where I-Roy, U-Roy and various squiggling analogue synthesizers met in a grooving fug of increasing sonic confusion, was followed before the year\u2019s end by one of Perry\u2019s most satisfying, game-changing shots to the head. Released on an estimated edition of just 300 copies and mixed at King Tubby\u2019s studio using existing Scratch-produced rhythms, Upsetters 14 Dub Blackboard Jungle played wildly with stereo, foregrounded planet-sized sound effects and transported listeners into phantom zones of drum and bass. \u201cJapanese made equipment and I love to use it,\u201d says Scratch of the inexpensive studio kit he favoured at the time. \u201cJapanese always on my shoulder. That\u2019s why I\u2019m not getting any older\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Its location revealed to him in a vision, Scratch would build his storied Black Ark studio in the grounds of his home in Kingston\u2019s Washington Gardens neighbourhood. The four-track facility would be fully operational in early 1974.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Black Ark was another education,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was a museum, a museum study about God\u2019s creation. God make the Ark of The Covenant to control the universe, so me just called it Black Ark, because the Ark is black, and the art is black and the heart is black. It\u2019s all about the shadow of a man. Even if you are white, your shadow\u2019s black. You are two people walking, you are the day and the night\u2026 it was a positive vibration there.\u201d<\/p>\n In 1976 and 1977, such spiritually charged reggae classics as Max Romeo\u2019s War Ina Babylon<\/I>, Junior Murvin\u2019s Police & Thieves<\/I>, The Heptones\u2019 Party Time<\/I>, Scratch\u2019s own Super Ape<\/I> and The Congos\u2019 Heart Of The Congos<\/I> would be recorded there (all but the latter would be licensed by Chris Blackwell\u2019s Island for European release). \u201cThey were the best of days,\u201d remembers Max Romeo. \u201cThe Black Ark was a very small space, very clean, the equipment was very miniature. Scratch didn\u2019t like to rent it out a lot unless it was to people that he knows. He was what I\u2019d call a professional, and a musical genius – he\u2019d keep bouncing from track to track [ie. mixing four tracks down to one to make room for more overdubs]. He worked fast, and he danced while he mixed. One of his phrases was, he had four tracks on the board and eight tracks in his head. And he\u2019s very inspirational, very comic. He\u2019d make you laugh \u2013 in those days, there was never a sad moment around Scratch, man.\u201d<\/p>\n Romeo also attests to the producer\u2019s ability to pick a hit. Initially, the singer disliked Chase The Devil, the screwy 1976 roots exorcism that would prove to be his most celebrated recording. \u201cScratch said, You\u2019ve got to be kidding, this is what you call original, it\u2019s the best track on the album. And it\u2019s true. He\u2019s got vision.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/02\/7.-%EF%BF%BC-Upsetters-14-Dub-Blackboard-Jungle.png” title_text=”7. \ufffc Upsetters – 14 Dub Blackboard Jungle” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n 1973’s Blackboard Jungle Dub<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The vision was spreading. In 1977 Scratch produced The Clash\u2019s Complete Control, and Paul McCartney sent for backing tracks for Linda to re-voice: soon after, Robert Palmer came to record at the Black Ark. In Cologne, krautrock superpower Can were also listening. \u201cThis music was really new, but also what was so fascinating was the way he used the studio as an instrument,\u201d says Can keyboardist Irmin Schmidt. \u201cPlaying the mixing console like it was a keyboard, moving the faders with the rhythm\u2026 that means you pick up the atmosphere and the acoustics in the room and explore them with whatever you have, technically. If Can had been produced by Lee Perry? That would have been wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet for the Black Ark, destruction was approaching. After Island declined to release 1978 Perry albums Roast Fish Collie Weed & Corn Bread<\/I> and Return Of The Super Ape<\/I>, output slowed and inspiration faltered. YouTube footage of a lively mid-\u201970s Junior Murvin session compares unhappily with its murky and debris-strewn 1982 incarnation. Then in mid-1983, the disintegrating studio was consumed by fire.<\/p>\n \u201cGod burned it down with fire because God want me to come to the world,\u201d is Scratch\u2019s explanation today. He has previously declared that he burned the Ark himself. \u201cI think he was sick of being hustled, gangster people coming round trying to screw him for money all the time,\u201d is Sherwood\u2019s understanding of why the Ark fell. \u201cThat and personal issues, and a combination of spliff and too much rum\u2026 he cracked up a bit, and decided to let everyone think he was mad.\u201d<\/p>\n Max Romeo agrees that reports of Scratch\u2019s mental instability have been exaggerated: \u201cHe started acting a certain way to get guys away from him. Finally, everybody did scatter. Then everybody starts saying he\u2019s mad, pay no mind. I always say, he\u2019s eccentric to a dimension, but I think it\u2019s all an act, a gimmick. When I see him he always talks to me normally. Scratch is not mad.\u201d<\/p>\n But, with Scratch declaring \u201cdivine madness is the greatest power\u201d, calling fire his father and being seen sipping petrol at an \u201980s UK studio date, it certainly seemed that he was in the grip of some psychic turmoil in the years that followed. At times of great stress, has he ever lost touch with who he is, MOJO wonders?<\/p>\n \u201cI cannot forget who I am,\u201d says Scratch. \u201cBecause the thing that I do, people believe in it. So I have to live with what I do, and make it manifest and come to life. If a rough time come along, I go through the rough time until the time right to be God-time, and when it God-time, nobody can stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n Having moved to London in 1984, since 1989 Scratch has resided in Switzerland with his wife and manager Mireille Campbell. The last 35 years have seen him record 40-odd post-Ark albums with the likes of the Mad Professor, The Orb and Sherwood\u2019s On-U set up. Standouts include the latter\u2019s 1987 Dub Syndicate team-up Time Boom X De Devil Dead<\/I> and 2008\u2019s The Mighty Upsetter<\/I>, though almost all have a spark of the old fire about them.<\/p>\n \u201cScratch still has an incredible creative drive,\u201d says Emch of New York bass merchants Subatomic Sound System, who\u2019ve replicated the Blackboard Jungle<\/I> and Super Ape<\/I> albums for collaborative live performances with Perry in recent years. \u201cWhen we were recording with him, if there was 10 minutes downtime, he\u2019d start drawing or doing something else. He\u2019ll give you directions that have to be interpreted and decoded, but you can\u2019t tell him what to do. \u2018Cos his name is Rainford, he\u2019ll say, \u2018You can\u2019t control the rain, fuck you!\u2019 And he\u2019ll destroy things as quickly as he\u2019ll create them. You can talk about how he was the first producer to be considered a musician, or his influence on hip hop \u2013 Kanye West is a cheap knock-off of Lee Perry, in a way \u2013 or how he\u2019s the unsung godfather of exactly what\u2019s going on in music today, but actually, he\u2019s transcended his own genres. He has no fear, basically.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n In 2019, Lee \u201cScratch\u201d Perry knows exactly what he\u2019s doing, he says. \u201cGod send me to destroy the Queen, the Duke, the Presidents, the governments, the police and the soldiers. I am God lightning and God\u2019s scientist, I do God magic and I do God miracles\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n In 2012 he was also awarded the Jamaican Order Of Distinction. \u201cUh-huh,\u201d he says. \u201cEverything is alright in Jamaica.\u201d There is method in his madness, clearly. \u201cSerious joke, that\u2019s what it is,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m glad for serious jokes. But I don\u2019t support the Joker. Superman, Batman and Robin and Spiderman are my favourites. I love comic, most of my music are comic. Superman X-Ray vision, he see you when you go to bed, he sees you\u2019re asleep, when you dream a dream, that\u2019s super-vision, I have it. This is where the music come from, from dream, from super-hero, from man named Stan Lee. I am Stan Lee\u2019s number one fan. He is still with us, all the time, not for a moment, but forever. Stan Lee and Lee Scratch Perry, forever!\u201d<\/p>\n Intoxicated by his singular company, it\u2019s not such a stretch to equate Scratch\u2019s eternal battle with evil with the archetypes of the Marvel universe. Eighty-three years forever young, off the booze and ganja and eating healthily, Rainford Hugh Perry is still throwing words of power at his enemies.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not running down money and riches or silver and gold,\u201d he says, our audience approaching an end. \u201dThe Holy Spirit want me to never sell my soul to the devil for money, nothing like that. I am working for God. The people who don\u2019t work for god are devil-people\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n And who is a good person, Scratch?<\/p>\n \u201cI am a good man, I am sure of that.\u201d<\/p>\n This article originally appeared in MOJO 307<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-names” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”14px” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Images:<\/strong> Getty<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Madness Of King DubWas Lee \u201cScratch\u201d Perry \u2013 reggae\u2019s wildest producer, alchemist of sound and \u201cGod\u2019s Scientist\u201d \u2013 authentically mad? Or was it an act to deflect gangsters and journos? A vibration from a higher plane of existence? And would Perry deign to explain himself to MOJO? \u201cSerious joke, that\u2019s what it is,\u201d he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mojo-presents"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"akindell","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1024,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904\/revisions\/1024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u201cGod send me to destroy the Queen, the Duke, the Presidents, the governments, the police.\u201d<\/h2>\n
Lee \u201cScratch\u201d Perry<\/h3>\n
\u201cHe worked fast, and he danced while he mixed. He had four tracks on the board and eight tracks in his head.\u201d<\/h2>\n
Max Romeo<\/h3>\n
\u201cGod burned it down with fire because God want me to come to the world,\u201d<\/h2>\n
Lee “Scratch” Perry<\/h3>\n
“The Holy Spirit want me to never sell my soul to the devil for money, nothing like that. I am working for God.”<\/h2>\n
Lee “Scratch” Perry”<\/b><\/h3>\n