<reposting from an old thread>
Genius eccentric producer - widely seen as the person who coached Bob Marley to develop beyond one of the run of the mill local Kingstonian singers to the style that made him a superstar - plus, producing some of the best Bob Marley recordings.
Album & single productions must number in the 1000's (of this most would be 45 singles).
After his late 70's meltdown in which he torched his own studio, (brought on in part by economic pressures, lack of appreciation by Island Records, marriage breakup, paying weekly 'collection' fees to the local mob, daily 12 hr ganja and rum fuelled sessions) - LP didn't produce anymore, moved to Switzerland married a wealthy business woman & occasionally performs a freeform spew live in concert - until his wife drags him offstage,signalling the end of the gig...
For an essential BIO and tips on interesting studio techniques like setting it on fire, well placed bottles of excrement, duck ponds, mooing cows, blowing ganja smoke on the tapes etc check out 'People Funny Boy' by Davis Katz..
Recommended productions:
Lee Perry 'Super Ape'
Congos "Heart of the Congos'
Bob Marley 'African Herbsman'
Lee Perry 'Arkology' - Island Records compilation.
Lee Perry 'Blackboard Jungle'
(Best online source for LP discs:
http://www.ebreggae.com)
In the words of Lee Perry
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Q: How did you first become involved with doing production work in Kingston?
To discuss my original force of like is totally impossible for me to tell you how I got involved. I'm not a man who has kept memory of anything I've done. I'm a miracle man, things happen which I don't plan, I've never planned anything. Like I say, I never try, I never plan. And if there is a day that come that I have to try, I will ax the Almighty to let me die. A hate trying.
Q: You just like doing?
Instant. Whatsoever I do, I want it to be a instant action object, instant reaction subject. Instant input, instant output. If it's not the way it gonna work, well kiss my rass; if it even God, God would have to kiss my rass because we never work to a God that I don't get paid instantly. I believe in getting pay instantly.
Q: What albums are you producing now?
Albums!! Zillion and million and trillion and billion records. I art de camera, I art de future. I art de worlds without end, I don't think to talk, man, do y'understand? So if I want albums, I hatch them because I art Scratch the beginning.
Q: Did you start from scratch?
All de time. If you don't start from scratch, then your in trouble, you don't start nowhere.
Q: Can you explain the unique sound you get on all the records you produce?
Would you give away your secret? If you give away your secret, you may be a very stupid man. I will keep mine. Because I want to live.
Q: Why are most of your recordings in mono?
Well mono mean one heart, one thought, one love, one destiny, one aim, one alternative. So I defend only the one; anytime is a split personality I know then can be problem and danger and I don't support it. I support all-in-one, one communication, one Itation, one Iration, one faith, one human destiny. Anytime you come out with that, then I don't think you're parallel. You're confused, you're a mascot! And I don't defend mascot.
Q: Which musicians are you particularly fond of?
At this moment? Well, most of the good thing always pass away, cos sometime I say to myself, "How come de good t'ing die?" Thinkin' of all this, I wish the spirit of Otis Redding could come back alive, a vibration that can never die. I wish the spirit of Fats Domino would come back alive. I wish the spirit of King Cole would come back alive. I wish the spirit of King Solomon Burke, I wish those spirit could come back alive. I not in for the madness, because I can't take it. I don't defend f**keries. Dig!
(Stephen Davis -
http://home.swipnet.se/~w-26153/perry.htm)
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"Good evening and greetings to you people of the Universe - this is Lee "Scratch" Perry, the mighty Upsetter, madder than mad, dreader than dread, redder than red, dis ya one heavier than lead. We are here at the turntable terranova, it means we are taking over..."
"When I sh*t my enemies cry, when I speak they die."
"I am on top. With roots records, double music, dub revolution, black arkology. And I am the black monarchy."
"I am the first scientist to mix the reggae and find out what the reggae really is."
"When I left school there was nothing to do except field work. Hard, hard labour. I didn't fancy that. So I started playing dominoes. Through dominoes I learned to read the minds of others. This has proved eternally useful to me."
"It was only four tracks on the machine, but I was picking up twenty from the extra terrestrial squad."
"Why I am so happy is because the people who want to hear the truth are hearing it. And one of these days all of these record companies are going to kaput, and they are going to be liquidated, and run out of money and run out of good luck and run into bad luck, and that will serve them right for stealing Lee 'Scratch' Perry, sir!"
"I am the Upsetter, and I can put my upsetting power into any musician and they become Upsetters."
"If you look into the alphabet from A - Z, you will see L is for Lee, L is for light, and L is for love, and L is for the Lord. S is for the sky, and S is for sh*t, and for ships. P is for power and the pyramids, and I am the pyramid and the power."
"This is my brand new song: lightning and thunder, hailstone, brimstone and fire, music, hurricane and tidal wave judgement. Mixed by earthquake, produced by flood."
"I discovered that teachers could teach me nothing. I refused to waste my time listening. I go to trees and flowers in the jungle and have them show I what I should know, learn what I should learn