/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC: Legendary Reggae Producer Sings His Way to Surprise

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Howard Campbell

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Feb 25 2003 (IPS) - When the name Lee "Scratch" Perry pops up, it is usually for his work as a producer. But on Feb. 23, when the diminutive Perry won the Grammy Award for best reggae album, it was his singing that earned him music’s biggest prize.

Perry, who produced numerous hits in the 1970s including "Punky Reggae Party" by Bob Marley, won the Grammy with ‘Jamaican E.T.’, a title that does justice to his erratic persona.

At 66, Perry’s storied career has come full circle. A drifter from rural Hanover parish in western Jamaica who is regarded by many reggae historians as the finest producer the music has seen, Perry’s records as a vocalist range from the risque (”Pussy Galore”) to the ridiculous (”Roast Fish and Corn Bread”).

‘Jamaican E.T.’, distributed by London’s Trojan/Sanctuary Records, is not well-known in Jamaica but was welcomed throughout Europe where Perry has a fanatical following, as well as on the west coast of the United States where he performs regularly.

The Grammy winner is one of several albums Perry has recorded since the late 1980s, when he resumed his career as a vocalist. Though his eccentric behaviour and production work have overshadowed his recording career, Perry has been singing since the late 1950s when he recorded "Give Me Justice" for producer Cecil "Prince Buster" Campbell. In the 1960s, when he was still trying to break through as a singer, Perry had moderate hits with off-the-cuff songs like "Chicken Scratch".

After stints with Campbell and rival producers Clement Dodd and Arthur "Duke" Reid, Perry started his own ‘Upsetters’ label in the late 1960s and hit it big as a producer with The Wailers, which had recently switched from a rhythm and blues-influenced group to a Rastafarian reggae band.

Led by Marley, The Wailers had hits like "Soul Rebel" and "Duppy Conqueror" for Upsetters, which quickly gained a reputation for releasing cutting-edge songs such as "Beat Down Babylon" by Junior Byles and Max Romeo’s "War Inna Babylon".

William "Bunny Rugs" Clarke, who would go on to a successful career as a member of the Third World band, was a struggling singer hanging out at Perry’s Black Ark studio in Kingston during the early 1970s. He remembers some strange times there.

"For some reason I end up staying a year and a half with Lee Perry. I did an album, ‘To Love Somebody’, and he released it in England (calling me) Bunny Scott," Clarke told David Katz, a Perry biographer. "I asked him why he named me Bunny Scott and he said because the people in England loved Scottish names."

At the peak of his powers in 1976, Perry had his finest moment with singer Junior Murvin’s "Police and Thieves", which made the British Top 20. The song’s unconventional arrangements made an impression with the growing punk scene in the United Kingdom; some of British music’s biggest names, including Paul and Linda McCartney and Robert Palmer, would later work with Perry.

While he was busy as a producer, Perry continued to record. He had minor hits with "Roast Fish and Cornbread" and "Dreadlocks in Moonlight" and found time to release a slew of critically-acclaimed dub (a type of reggae instrumental) albums including ‘Revolution Dub’ and ‘Scratch The Super Ape’.

Boris Gardiner, a bass player who worked on Perry productions such as "Police And Thieves", says he was never impressed by his recordings: "I never rated him as a singer, he was more of a stylist."

While Jamaicans never took to his lack of vocal prowess, Perry soldiered on as a producer. In 1977, he and Marley reunited after a seven-year feud to co-write "Punky Reggae Party", which paid homage to the punk movement’s embrace of reggae in England.

Two years later, the Black Ark was razed to the ground in what police suspected was an arson-related incident. No one was arrested or charged and Perry moved to Europe, producing songs by The Clash and revelling in his persona as a man-of-mystery.

As his mystique grew, Perry married for a second time and moved in 1989 to Zurich, Switzerland where he lives today. In recent years, he has released a cache of vocal and dub albums; in 1997, Island Records distributed the retrospective ‘Arkology’ and in 2000, ‘People Funny Boy’, Katz’ biography, was issued by Scottish publishers, Payback Press.