Library Rock's Backpages

Lee "Scratch" Perry

Lee "Scratch" Perry

32 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By writer | Most recently added

Reggae Part 2: Black Punks On 'Erb

Report and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 23 October 1976

We've got wars and rumours of war...('Armagedon' by Bunny Wailer) ...

New Musick: Dub

Overview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 3 December 1977

Dub = Surprise Dub = Strobe (it flash your eyes/hypnotise) Dub = Pulse Dub = Frontier When you listen to dub:- ...

Jamaica: The Young Lion Roars, part 1

Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 27 May 1978

"WELCOME TO REMA," reads the spray-can graffiti down by 7th Street in Trenchtown. "Peace, Love And Unity". Over on the other side of the Calamite ...

Lee "Scratch" Perry: Bed Jamming Is A Must!

Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, 16 February 1980

While the great "Is Lee Perry Nuts?" debate rages on in JA, ol' Scratch is jiving away in Amsterdam, houseguest of Black Star Liner Records, busy with plans to recreate the universe and hijack the Earth with ...

Lee Perry comes in for a landing

Interview by Richard Grabel, New York Rocker, July 1981

HE GOES by many names. Scratch, the Upsetter, Super Ape, Pipecock Jackson. Lee Perry is one of the (some would say the) foremost producers of ...

Lee 'Scratch' Perry: Curse of the Vampires

Interview by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, July 1981

Legendary Jamaican producer Lee "Scratch" Perry raps and rants in New York. Richard Grabel listens to his method and madness. ...

Lee Perry: Presents Megaton Dub 2 (Seven Leaves)

Review by Sean O'Hagan, New Musical Express, 22 September 1984

PUT THIS IN YOUR PIPE, COCK! ...

Lee "Scratch" Perry: Reggae's Mad Scientist

Profile and Interview by Chris Salewicz, Spin, May 1985

WHEN PEOPLE said to Bob Marley that his friend Lee "Scratch" Perry was mad, Marley would reply, "Him not mad, him just Scratch." ...

Lee "Scratch" Perry: Time Boom or De Devil Dead (On-U)

Review by Richard Gehr, The Village Voice, 23 June 1987

History. It started as a stripping-down process concocted to provide Jamaican reggae with skanky instrumentals over which crooners might croon and toasters might toast. ...

Lee "Scratch" Perry: Town & Country Club, London

Live Review by Push, Melody Maker, 3 October 1987

PRESIDENT Abraham Perry appears in full ceremonial dress. Long red socks, stars upon his breeches, fairy lights around his head, a mirror strapped to his ...

Lee Perry: Revenge Of The Totally Bananas

Interview by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 3 October 1987

Dub President LEE SCRATCH PERRY holds court with DELE FADELE, and predicts the apocalypse. ...

Lee 'Scratch' Perry: The 30 Year Itch

Interview by Push, Melody Maker, 3 October 1987

"I AM the first black Jew you've ever seen," he says. Later he declares, "I am Hitler! I rule the swastika!" ...

Lee 'Scratch' Perry: Dingwalls, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 16 January 1988

SOMETIMES there are concerts that leave your mind so thoroughly evacuated, that the only way to galvanise your diminished sense of being is to work ...

Lee Perry: Man, myth and magician

Profile and Interview by David Toop, The Times, 13 April 1990

Jamaican musician Lee Perry, re-emerging after a long period of semi-retirement, talks to David Toop ...

Lee Perry: From the Secret Laboratory (Mango)/Maxi Priest: Bonafide (Charisma)

Review by Carol Cooper, The Village Voice, 13 November 1990

THIS YEAR'S New Music Seminar featured a panel called ‘Reggae in the ‘90s: Does Dancehall Rule?’ Both Jamaican and New York’s regional enthusiasm for dancehall ...

Lee "Scratch" Perry: Scratch'n'mix

Retrospective by Sean O'Hagan, The Guardian, 18 April 1997

Lee "Scratch" Perry may not have invented dub, but, says Sean O'Hagan, he is its one auteur — his influence can be heard from trip-hop ...

Lee Scratch Perry: Arkology, Volumes 1-3; Augustus Pablo and Junior Delgado CDs

Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, August 1997

Junior Delgado: Dance A Dub (Big Cat); Augustus Pablo: Augustus Pablo Presents DJs From 70s-80s (Big Cat) ...

Blood And Fire Records: Simply Dread

Report and Interview by Sean O'Hagan, The Guardian, 7 November 1997

Mick Hucknall's devotion to the pioneers of dub and lovers' rock led him to form Blood And Fire records. Sean O'Hagan salutes them ...

Lee Perry: Lost Treasures Of The Ark (Jet Star)

Review by Andy Crysell, New Musical Express, 2 January 1999

BOOTY RECALL ...

Ska: Fascinating rhythm

Retrospective by Sean O'Hagan, The Guardian, 29 October 1999

Fresh out of young Jamaica in the 60s, ska became the defining sound of a vibrant music scene — in turn it influenced 70s reggae, ...

A Bluffer's Guide To Dub

Guide by John McCready, Jockey Slut, 2000

Note: This piece originally featured in Jockey Slut magazine and was written to serve as an introduction to those who had heard the word Dub ...

David Katz: People Funny Boy — The Genius Of Lee "Scratch" Perry (Canongate Pbk)

Book Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, June 2000

THIS BOOK — a book I was avid to read, whose subject I revere; whose life is a gift to any halfway capable biographer — ...

Reggae: Back to the Roots

Essay by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, September 2000

According to the remixologists' gospel, the dub virus was so successful, it took out the word and eradicated its reggae song hosts. Simon Reynolds rediscovers ...

Into the Heart of the Ark: An Audience with Lee

Book Excerpt by Chris Salewicz, Rock's Backpages, November 2000

In an excerpt from his book Rude Boy: Once Upon a Time in Jamaica, Chris Salewicz recounts his February 1978 meeting with legendary reggae producer ...

Lee "Scratch" Perry: Madman or Genius?

Interview by John Lewis, Time Out, June 2002

As the Jamaican dub pioneer curates his Meltdown Festival at the South Bank, John Lewis travelled to deepest Switzerland to ask him about Prince Charles, ...

Working Like Trojans

Report and Interview by Mike Atherton, Record Collector, July 2003

Mike Atherton delves into the revitalised world of the renowned reggae label Trojan. ...

Tricky, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, The Mad Professor: Meltdown Festival, Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by David Stubbs, The Wire, August 2003

ON PAPER, what a line-up, what a dub melding of nonconformist minds: The Mad Professor (aka Neil Fraser), who through his remixes of Primal Scream ...

The RC INTERVIEW: Lee "Scratch" Perry

Interview by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, 2004

LET NO ONE tell you otherwise. An hour with reggae maverick Lee "Scratch" Perry is a wondrous thing. His "madness", however stage-managed, is there, almost ...

Caribbean Shaman: Lee "Scratch" Perry

Retrospective by Vivien Goldman, New Statesman, 12 June 2006

ON THE NIGHT Lee "Scratch" Perry performed at the New York venue B B King's last month, the news came through that the 1960s ska ...

African Roots

Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 15 June 2006

Lee Perry's lost Congolese album and other global grooves.  ...

George Faith: Super Eight (Trojan)

Review by Mike Atherton, Echoes, May 2012

TROJAN RECORDS' resolution for 2012 was obviously to make all fans of creative, forward-looking, barmy producer Lee "Scratch" Perry very happy indeed, and so far ...

Who was that masked man?

Retrospective by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, June 2015

The Lone Ranger, Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef ride again as dancehall deejays.  ...

see also Max Romeo and the Upsetters

RSS

back to LIBRARY

COPYRIGHT NOTICE