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Lee Scratch Perry RIP

i know i can sometimes be a bit hyperbolic about music, but it is no exaggeration at all to say that if the whole human race was wiped out tomorrow and the only thing left behind was one copy of "blackboard jungle dub" then that would be the best possible representation of human achievement you could make from one object.
 
Johnny Vodka said:
www.theguardian.com

Those we lost in 2021: Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry remembered by Neil ‘Mad Professor’ Fraser

The British dub artist recalls the craft and eccentricity of the pioneering reggae producer
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
Click to expand...
It's remarkable how much the descriptions of Lee Perry's personality there would fit Don Van Vliet. The story about him suddenly moving a few feet away and then complaining about the musicians standing on his shadow could be from the reminiscences of one of the Magic Band and the bit about the madness as performance for the press is extremely similar to John French talking about Beefheart.
 
bananaquit said:
It's remarkable how much the descriptions of Lee Perry's personality there would fit Don Van Vliet. The story about him suddenly moving a few feet away and then complaining about the musicians standing on his shadow could be from the reminiscences of one of the Magic Band and the bit about the madness as performance for the press is extremely similar to John French talking about Beefheart.
Click to expand...
Yes, I generally thought his 'madness' was an act, a performance - especially, as Mad Professor says, for white interviewers. It's what people had come to expect from 'crazy Scratch' and who was he to disappoint? However I believe it had its origins in Jamaica when he was trying to distance himself from some of the hangers-on at his studio, dodgy criminal elements trying to put the squeeze on him. The ultimate expression of his exasperation and despair prior to moving to Europe was burning down the Black Ark, but I don't believe it was the act of an insane man, more that of someone driven to extremes. There's a also a certain logic to the stories of him driving around with a leg of pork hanging off the back of the car (to alienate Rasta) while shouting "I am a battyman" (to alienate many Jamaicans) :D
 
Really interesting article from Neil Kulkarni here about Scratch and the 'Lunatic Genius' black artist. Plenty to chew on.

thequietus.com

Reissue Of The Week: Lee Perry & The Upsetters' Battle Of Armagideon | The Quietus

Let’s be wary of ‘madness’, of the ‘loon’ or the ‘lunatic genius’ motif in popcrit. Beyond its insensitivity to the nuances and complexities of mental illness it’s notable how it’s so often used as a power game that gets played when white male critics talk about female artists, or Black artists...
thequietus.com thequietus.com
 
killer b said:
Really interesting article from Neil Kulkarni here about Scratch and the 'Lunatic Genius' black artist. Plenty to chew on.

thequietus.com

Reissue Of The Week: Lee Perry & The Upsetters' Battle Of Armagideon | The Quietus

Let’s be wary of ‘madness’, of the ‘loon’ or the ‘lunatic genius’ motif in popcrit. Beyond its insensitivity to the nuances and complexities of mental illness it’s notable how it’s so often used as a power game that gets played when white male critics talk about female artists, or Black artists...
thequietus.com thequietus.com
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Nice - thanks for posting this.
Interesting how coherent he could be when directly asked about his 'craziness':

Q: "About two years ago, when you took apart the Black Ark, people started to say you were crazy."

A: "In the past the people I have dealt with are thieves, criminals, parasites and vampires. Not one is there that I can say 'This is a good one'. None. All I see in this business is singing parasites, singing lies, singing something which they don't mean. It really bothers me, man. It really get me mad. Of course, I am the maddest ... If people think you're mad they stay out of your way"

Clever play on the two meanings of the word 'mad' - "It really get me mad" as in 'angry', which he was, at the thieves and vampires, then, "of course, I am the maddest"...
"If people think you're mad they stay out of your way" - this was my understanding of his 'craziness' - as a ploy, initially to keep at bay the hangers-on, gangsters and grifters that habitually hung around JA recording studios. Then finding it useful when interviewed by non-comprehending journalists. 'Madness' as defensive armour.
 
Hmmm im not sure about all this

"The idea of Perry as a cogent, coherent artist who used drugs and spirituality to inform his music simply doesn’t appeal to a music press hungry for titillating glimpses into some supposed ongoing exotic derangement. "

I've no idea what "the music press" as a mass think - I thought people generally regard him as a genius? And yes one that drew on spiritual and drug highs? Theres a long line of musical shamans who do that - he fits right in the mould no? Who says otherwise?

He definitely did overdo the drink and smoke (and whatever else i dont know) and his mental health did suffer.... someone else suggested upthread it was all an act.....I dont think so....I've met someone who was with Scratch in the last days of the ark for a time up to 1980 for the release of The Return Of Pipecock Jackxon and he said it was an "upsetting" scene...he really had lost it somewhat.
Id imagine he sobered up to some degree over time, but hell Ive had two friends who have severe mental health problems that at least partially resulted from too much skunk. Its not uncommon.

ultimately only people close to him know how he has held up over different periods - I dont hold much weight to journalists speculating
 
The guy I met was Hank Tarkowski - he used to work in a head shop type spot on Ladbroke Grove, might even still be there - this is some text ahead of a talk he gave - I think it begins to paint a picture - and his personal account was all the more vivid. He was there for some months IIRC:

"In April 1979, Perry received a visit from Henk Targowski, an impresario and owner of Black Star Liner distribution, a record company based in the Netherlands. Targowski wanted to distribute Perry’s material, but was not prepared for the madness he would encounter at the Black Ark – reels of master tapes lay strewn on the floor, and the recording equipment was next to useless due to water damage from a leaky roof. The once proud studio was now little more than a junkyard.

Along with some associates, Targowski decided to attempt a salvage operation, trying to refurbish and restore the studio to working order. Financed by Black Star Liner, construction work progressed throughout 1980, and new equipment was ordered and installed. Along with a motley crew of European studio musicians, Scratch erratically recorded what would eventually become the ‘Return Of Pipecock Jacxson’ album – the last album to be recorded at the Ark.

By the spring of 1980, however, the restoration project was abandoned, and Black Star Liner’s crew left Jamaica for good. What had been painstakingly rebuilt in the past year was dismantled and destroyed by Perry. Worse was to come: one morning in 1983, the Black Ark burned down. Fire raged through the concrete structure, the temperature inside becoming so intense that it eventually blew the roof off. The studio, the source of some of the most powerful music ever recorded, lay in ruins.

“The Black Ark was too black and too dread,” Perry explains. “Even though I am black, I have to burn it down, to save my brain. It was too black. It want to eat me up!”"

--

eta: The Return of Pipecock Jackxon was the first of his freestyling over a beat albums - its not the most comfortable listen IMO - a significant shift from what had gone before - rambling
 
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ska invita said:
Hmmm im not sure about all this

"The idea of Perry as a cogent, coherent artist who used drugs and spirituality to inform his music simply doesn’t appeal to a music press hungry for titillating glimpses into some supposed ongoing exotic derangement. "

I've no idea what "the music press" as a mass think - I thought people generally regard him as a genius? And yes one that drew on spiritual and drug highs? Theres a long line of musical shamans who do that - he fits right in the mould no? Who says otherwise?

He definitely did overdo the drink and smoke (and whatever else i dont know) and his mental health did suffer.... someone else suggested upthread it was all an act.....I dont think so....I've met someone who was with Scratch in the last days of the ark for a time up to 1980 for the release of The Return Of Pipecock Jackxon and he said it was an "upsetting" scene...he really had lost it somewhat.
Id imagine he sobered up to some degree over time, but hell Ive had two friends who have severe mental health problems that at least partially resulted from too much skunk. Its not uncommon.

ultimately only people close to him know how he has held up over different periods - I dont hold much weight to journalists speculating
Click to expand...
I know what you mean ska and ultimately unless someone actually knew the man it is all speculation.

I understood the piece - and particularly the ‘cogent, coherent’ bit to be an (albeit clumsy) way of refuting the notion of Perry (and other Black visionary artists like Sun Ra) having some kind of “natural genius”, a variant on the ‘noble savage’ trope, a mysterious & inexplicable talent beyond rationality & sanity that bypasses the usual need for musicians or other artists to study, practice & rehearse.

In fact, and as is attested by people who’ve observed him at work in the studio, Perry was a hard-working, disciplined perfectionist who could work 12-16 hours a day and would repeat take after take before he felt it was right.
I imagine many of his trademark production sound effects were achieved through hours of trial & error.

I don’t doubt he was genuinely mentally disturbed at the time of the destruction of the Black Ark; I just question whether that mental disturbance continued for 40 years, or whether he subsequently found it useful to mimic or exaggerate what had at one point been the symptoms of actual mental illness and distress.

In later interviews he seems mostly to be in a happy & playful mood whereas in 1980 I don’t doubt he was experiencing real trauma.

But having never met him, I admit this is merely guesswork on my part.
 
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scalyboy said:
I know what you mean ska and ultimately unless someone actually knew the man it is all speculation.

I understood the piece - and particularly the ‘cogent, coherent’ bit to be an (albeit clumsy) way of refuting the notion of Perry (and other Black visionary artists like Sun Ra) having some kind of “natural genius”, a variant on the ‘noble savage’ trope, a mysterious & inexplicable talent beyond rationality & sanity that bypasses the usual need for musicians or other artists to study, practice & rehearse.

In fact, and as is attested by people who’ve observed him at work in the studio, Perry was a hard-working, disciplined perfectionist who could work 12-16 hours a day and would repeat take after take before he felt it was right.
I imagine many of his trademark production sound effects were achieved through hours of trial & error.

I don’t doubt he was genuinely mentally disturbed at the time of the destruction of the Black Ark; I just question whether that mental disturbance continued for 40 years, or whether he subsequently found it useful to mimic or exaggerate what had at one point been the symptoms of actual mental illness and distress.

In later interviews he seems mostly to be in a happy & playful mood whereas in 1980 I don’t doubt he was experiencing real trauma.

But having never met him, I admit this is merely guesswork on my part.
Click to expand...
Agree with that.
Any music journalist who goes down some noble savage route can definitely do one, though I haven't come across this( not that I read music journalism tbh). Feels a little straw man to me, but maybe this nonsense is out there?

As you say there are years upon years of hard work in Lees career and arguably the most impactful works are the early Wailers productions which well predate any signs of unusual behaviour...The two Soul Revolution albums are masterpieces IMO (especially pt2).

There are many people who have swaggered along the musical genius/drug use/mental health line, though I don't see a racist or sexist trope there that the article does, in fact at the top of the list I tend to think of lots of white men from the 60s and 70s, acid being a particularly volatile drug on that score.
 
Strange Facebook post tonight from his wife... Looks like she's still seeking an answer. There's an appeal to Chris Blackwell, who I'm sure LSP had a beef with...
 
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