POX: Lee Scratch Perry

that website (^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^) is great.

I'm listening to Battle for Armagideon (1986) for the first time and... this seems like the beginning of the end in terms of his quality output, no? It's just so sloppy and half-assed. I recall hearing some of his 90s stuff incl something w Mad Professor back when his initial revival was going on and that stuff wasn't v encouraging either. Sad, it does seem like he had some kind of genuine psychotic break and this is just how he is now.

yea the psychotic break does seem like a real thing that happened. i haven't heard "battle" before but i'm listening now, i really dug the opener! but now i am a few tracks in and yea the quality does seem pretty low.

how the preceding albums?

dunno, the main one I'm interested in is the Return of Pipecock Jacxon, which I recall being fairly highly praised in People Funny Boy

ok i made it through all of "battle" nothing really that good except for "introducing myself"

the main one I'm interested in is the Return of Pipecock Jacxon

found it on youtube fwiw

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi5vYbQY_CI

Ah man, he lost his Switzerland studio and archive last night.

http://www.okayplayer.com/news/lee-scratch-perry-studio-burned-down.html

I noticed that the Trojan 2cds that I thought had been deleted were back in HMV. Amazon has a 2015 release date for them.
Dub Triptych is talked about upthread. Though I think by content with a link instead of a name. It's Cloak&Dagger, Blackboard and Revolution dub and pretty great.
Ape-ology has the Jamaican versions of the 2 Super Ape lps alongside Roast Fish, Collie Weed and a few stray singles and session tracks.
Dubstrumentals has Kung Fu meets The Dragon and 2 other 70s lps.
Babylon A Fall is also a 2cd compi but I don't think it's lp related.

Somewhere I have a copy of Grand Royal with a buying guide for him.

interview with Lee and his wife about it here. I didn't realise that dude lives twenty minutes from where I work!

His positivity in the face of this loss (on his FB) is incredible.

I almost always prefer the originals to the dubs of Perry's productions. Are there any instances where someone else created dubs of his tracks? Am I forgetting an obvious collab?

I can't think of any off the top of my head. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy that would just pass Upsetters tracks out to other producers.

Only Jamaican-sourced reporting at present, but it appears he died this morning.

https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Lee_Scratch_Perry_is_dead

Wow if true, though of course that guy lived a life.

I thought he still resided in Switzerland?

Youth has posted about it - he heard via friend who lives in Jamacia.

Ah fuck. :(

RIP

What a life. RIP.

I interviewed him once and it was exactly what you'd expect. One part lucid, one part lunacy that you just kind of went with. The entire time there were parrots squawking in the background.

Modestly disappointed at how he's being presented as a Jamaican music pioneer, which of course he is, but his approach to the studio stretched so much farther than just reggae and dub. The guy really knew how to sculpt space.

absolute legend. among the most innovative of alltime. and prolific — the amount of classic music he's at least partially responsible for, holy hell.

R.I.P., just a titan of sound. Agreed that his influence went way beyond reggae.

Anyone seeking a quick way in should try this compilation from 2007 or so:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/819Id8LOj6L.jpg

This one, which combines Super Ape, Return of the Super Ape, and Roast Fish, Collie Weed & Cornbread on two CDs, is also great.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81FzmyNXPhL.jpg

been blasting out that huge Arkology comp from '97 which was the first LSP thing I ever bought.

Damn RIP to a real one

The “Arkology” three disc set has been in my ancient car’s 6 disc changer for literally years now. I never get tired of it

ha xpost

Yeah, that Arkology compilation was revelatory to me at the time in terms of understanding the scope of his recordings and influence. (And it doesn't even touch on his Wailers and other earlier work.)

I'm a big fan of the full albums he produced for others, Max Romeo, Junior Byles, stuff like that.

Heart of the Congos and War Ina Babylon definitely among his most amazing work.

Yeah, Congos OTM. a high water mark in any context.

THere wasa great article in one o9f the first couple of Beastie Boys magazine Grand Royal that i found very useful.
It may be up online somewhere.

yeah I made a single disc comp of my fav arkology tracks and it’s like the best “album” ever

it simply has to include Errol Walker's In These Times!

plz share if possible, brimstead

Roots Train - Junior Murvin/Dillinger is such a banger

xp

here you go, just one human's opinion but these are all beautiful tracks. yes i do love the police and theives/dreadlock in moonlight riddim
The Meditations - Life Is Not Easy
Junior Murvin - Tedious
The Heptones & Jah Lion - Mr. President
Max Romeo - Chase The Devil
Lee Perry - Dreadlocks In Moonlight
Errol Walker - In These Times
Max Romeo & The Upsetters - Norman
Junior Murvin - Police And Thieves
Upsetters - No Peace Dub
The Upsetters - Party Time (Part 2)
Augustus Pablo Meets The Upsetter - Vibrate On
The Upsetters - Vibrator
The Upsetters - Bird In Hand
The Congoes - Congoman
George Faith - To Be A Lover (Have Some Mercy)
Lee Perry - Curly Locks

oops idk about the formatting there, copied it from another thread

RIP u crazy genius, just put Arkology on at floor-shaking volume

I really love The Super Ape album from '76 as well

thanks, brimstead, looks sick

"stand for the right and mash up the wrong"

Don't feel worthy or ready to comment on his passing tbh. 85 is a good age to have reached though!

just put on ape-ology. in terms of reissues, this was probably one of my most anticipated albums of all time.

must concur on heart of the congos, police and thieves, + war ina babylon: all complete and total classics.

if we're repping for personal favorites, i've long had a strong affinity for the late 70s album he produced by seke molenga + kalo kawongolo. very much music of the promised land.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjj0CE5njfc

yeah got to recommend those Trojan 2cd sets by Perry. Apeology, Dub Triptych, Dubstrumentals, Wonderman Years, I think I'm missing a couple but they mopped up a load of the Material that I'd wanted since getting that Grand Royal piece on him

Disco Devil, The Black Ark Years, Babylon A fall & A Live injection were other titles.
Also the early Wailers set Trenchtown Rock is mainly Perry produced I think. does also include some later 70s Marley stuff with him.

'Super Ape Returns to Conquer' which was between a remix/new album with his last touring band and Adrian Sherwood from 2017 is a really good listen. That one was on my CD player for months.

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fsubatomicsound.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F09%2FSuperApe-1200x.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Roots Train - Junior Murvin/Dillinger is such a banger

rip to the only person on this planet who actually knew how to use a computer https://t.co/VPLC1xaERG pic.twitter.com/C8tuSrN0qA

— Kyle McDonald (@kcimc) August 29, 2021

Aw man RIP. The Black Ark stuff is my favorite "sound of a producer" output of any music ever.
2nd the Seke Molenga album.
My favorite unheralded one is Susan Cadogan's Hurt So Good. Prob partially due to featuring female vocals, which is relatively rare for reggae. Just a touch of pop in the tracks but still unmistakably Scratch.
And George Faith for the "Jamaican quiet storm" lazy Sunday afternoon vibe.

Right missed him playing here several times over the last few years. Really should have got it together. Should know it was a possibility that it would be last chance.

Cockamamie proclamation I formed around the turn of the century: you could sum up the changes of 20th century music with two artists: Duke Ellington and Lee Scratch Perry. They get you from stride piano to techno with their genre explorations, and collaborations with Lonnie Johnson, Mingus, the Clash, George Clinton, Beasties, etc will Kevin Bacon you everywhere. Conny Plank is sort of the median. But most of all Ellington exemplifies the idea that with recording you could compose for the timbre and eccentricity of specific musicians, and would compose to the limitations and constraints of specific media, and Perry takes that through to the studio as an instrument and sampling and sequencing.

for the record I am reacting to Tommy McCook & Prophets - Death Trap (prod Yabby You i think?)

I'm not sure about these days but back in the day if you've got someone who produces a track and then someone else does a dub of it then the person who does the dub would be referred to as the engineer right?

So for example that track above the B-side says produced by V Jackson but on the label it says King Tubby's. So even with the dub Yabby You would be the producer and Tubbs would be the engineer if I'm understanding correctly

Live Trap / Death Trap rules like fire. Are there many tracks with flute in the reggae canon? Tommy McCook absolutely kills it.

The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Concentration by Dennis Brown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5Lg2p68yTw

You get more flute action on the dub. Lovely stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hXBOFk_G_Y

Bubble Up by Wayne Jarrett (a Wackies production recently touched on in the Congos poll thread) is a great and thoroughly fluted-up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5Xa9ErqeFM

for the record I am reacting to Tommy McCook & Prophets - Death Trap (prod Yabby You i think?)

rightly, wow

More flute, on-topic for the thread this time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HucNiALhqx0

(for the purposes for a broken-link future, that's Nice and Easy by Susan Cadogan, produced by Scratch)

That Susan Cadogan track is fire. And then youtube algorithm gave me the whole album and it's fantastic, never heard it

(I love it. Minor trivia point: two off the tracks on the LP are covers of songs from the classic Doris Duke LP "I'm a Loser", it seems lock and odd but inspired choice to find songs so suited to SC's rather ethereal vocal style on a full-throated gospelly southern soul vocal record)

Are there different versions of the album? I thought Island just changed the title and cover because they were worried about appearing racist?

Check out these tribute mixes! Over six hours of goodness, mostly focusing on Scratch's more obscure output

http://mikusmusik.blogspot.com/2015/08/rainford-rules-strictly-lee-perry.html

In the blurb it says 'In fact, considering the esteem in which he is now held he supposedly had relatively few big hits in JA, and to some extent it was UK audiences that really clicked with his sound and helped cement his legacy.' Is that correct?

Very cool find. Anyone else have an issue downloading Volume 1? It cuts off after a minute.

And yeah, from the little I've read, that does seem to be a fact about UK audiences, but that was true for a lot of Jamaican artists at that time, none more so than Bob Marley. See also: Mikey Dread

delighted to see The Battle for Armageddon reissued as i could never find a decent recording or streaming version of it (for a long time only had it on cassette taped by a friend at school). not a remaster afaict but it sounds good.

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/lee-scratch-perry-battle-of-armagideon-2cd-expanded-edition/

The I Am A Madman dub is quite a thing iirc, I also recall lots of mediocrity on that LP though. “Grooving” is probably my favourite.