Lee “Scratch” Perry was one of the giants of reggae music, a singer and producer who pioneered the new genre of dub in the 1970s as he incorporated layered rhythms and samples into remixes of his work.
- Died: August 29, 2021 (Who else died on August 29?)
- Details of death: Died at Noel Holmes Hospital in Jamaica at the age of 85.
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Visionary reggae pioneer
Perry was one of the early reggae singers who helped create the genre in Jamaica and bring it to international attention. He had an early hit with “People Funny Boy” in 1968 and went on to form the band The Upsetters. Perry began producing, and in 1973, he built a recording studio in his back yard. The Black Ark would become legendary, as Perry produced music there for artists including Bob Marley and the Wailers, Junior Byles, and Paul McCartney and Wings.
The Black Ark era wasn’t long – Perry reportedly burned it down in the early 1980s – but it was highly influential. It was there that Perry innovated a new style of remixing that became known as dub. He created weird sounds, trying techniques like burying microphones by a palm tree and pounding its trunk to record a bass beat. Perry layered those sounds with songs and samples to make music like no one had heard before, and he influenced generations as he did it. Perry’s early dub recordings were a profound influence on rap and hip-hop, as well as on the reggae music they were born from.
Perry co-wrote the song “Police and Thieves,” first recorded by Junior Murvin and later made famous by the Clash; he later produced the song “Complete Control” for the Clash. In 1998, Perry was featured on the Beastie Boys song “Dr. Lee, PhD.” He won a Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album for 2002’s “Jamaican E.T.”
Notable quote
“When I left school there was nothing to do except field work. Hard, hard labor. I didn’t fancy that. So I started playing dominoes. Through dominoes I practiced my mind and learned to read the minds of others. This has proved eternally useful to me.” –from a 1984 interview for NME
Tributes to Lee “Scratch” Perry
Full obituary: Rolling Stone
