![]() “I spent a lot of time over the years in recording studios and I learned more from watching Scratch than I did from anybody, just watching how he encouraged the musicians, how he operated he created his own sound with the simplest of equipment,” Chris Blackwell told Billboard after Perry’s passing. There were many milestone singles, including “Police and Thieves” by Junior Murvin (later covered by iconic punk band The Clash, who were greatly impacted by Scratch’s work), The Heptones’ “Party Time” and Perry’s “Dreadlocks In Moonlight,” which he originally wrote for Marley, but Island Records founder Chris Blackwell told him to keep for himself. Scratch released several influential roots reggae albums throughout the 1970s including Max Romeo’s acclaimed War Ina Babylon and The Congos’ mystical Heart of the Congos, the latter considered Scratch’s masterpiece of the Black Ark era. Nonetheless, Scratch would go on to collaborate with Marley later in the decade, which included co-writing “Punky Reggae Party,” celebrating London’s punk rock scene, which Scratch strongly identified with as the prototypical Afropunk. When the Wailers left Scratch because the money he promised them was never paid, the Barrett brothers exited too and formed the core of the backing band that would later become Bob Marley and The Wailers. The Wailers’ Perry-produced albums Soul Rebel and Soul Revolution were landmarks Perry’s deft production precisely framed the trio’s exquisite harmonies and the intricate, soulful grooves of the musicians, anchored in the forceful drum and bass, respectively, of brothers Carlton and Aston Barrett. The Wailers’ decision to record with Scratch as a producer - backed by The Upsetters, Scratch’s studio band (also a nickname for Scratch after the title of his diss record aimed at Coxsone) - in 1970 would transform the trio’s sound and, by extension, reggae itself. Scratch first worked with The Wailers (Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston) at Coxsone’s Studio One (in 1966 they sang backup on Perry’s salacious “Pussy Galore”). ![]() ![]() ![]() “People Funny Boy” is one of the first songs to utilize a reggae tempo, as Jamaican music transitioned out of its brief rocksteady period, and is also noteworthy for Scratch’s prescient use of a sample of a crying baby. One of Perry’s earliest hits as a vocalist was “People Funny Boy,” from 1968, which took aim at another producer he worked with, Joe Gibbs. The first song Perry recorded was a ska ditty called “Chicken Scratch,” named after a popular dance of the era. Before long, he was scouting talent, arranging, producing, writing and even singing. Perry’s career began inauspiciously as a handy man/janitor working for three top Kingston producers, Prince Buster, Coxsone Dodd and Duke Reid, in Jamaica’s 1960s ska era. He is supposedly the first person to have recorded a Jamaican emcee, U-Roy, talking over a record, which planted the seed of hip-hop culture right there.” “It’s interesting that Kanye sampled ‘Chase the Devil’ because, in many ways, he’s the realization of a blueprint that existed in Scratch’s work back then,” Emch told Billboard in 2017. Subatomic, a collective of musicians combining roots and dub reggae with electronic music and hip-hop, began touring with Scratch in 2010 in 2017 they reimagined Scratch’s 1976 classic dub album Super Ape as Super Ape Returns to Conquer, adding in a rendition of Max Romeo’s “Chase The Devil,” which Scratch produced and co-wrote with Romeo as an imaginative take on good triumphing over evil. “Scratch did his own writing, producing, ran his own label and studio, was involved in every aspect of his music and in many ways, he shaped the role of a producer that we see today with guys like Kanye West and Timbaland,” observed Emch, co-founder of Subatomic Sound System, in a 2017 interview with Billboard. Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Legendary Jamaican Producer & Dub Pioneer, Dies at 85
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |