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Kingston. — Lee “Scratch’’ Perry, the reggae legend and master of dub, has died aged 85.
According to the Jamaica Observer, Perry (real name Rainford Hugh Perry) died at the Noel Holmes Hospital in Western Jamaica after battling illness.
No cause of death has yet been revealed.
Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, confirmed the dub pioneer’s passing.
“My deep condolences to the family, friends, and fans of legendary record producer and singer, Rainford Hugh Perry OD, affectionately known as “Lee Scratch’ Perry,’’ Holness said in tweet.
He added: “Undoubtedly, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry will always be remembered for his sterling contribution to the music fraternity. May his soul Rest In Peace.”
Born in rural Jamaica in 1936, Perry — also known as The Upsetter — moved to Kingston in the early 1960s.
He described his upbringing in an interview with NME in 1984: “My father worked on the road, my mother in the fields. We were very poor. I went to school . . . I learned nothing at all. Everything I have learned has come from nature.
“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 practiced my mind and learned to read the minds of others. This has proved eternally useful to me.”
His career in music started in the late 1950s when he was hired by Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, head of reggae studio and label Studio One, as an assistant.
He later became a talent scout, DJ, store manager and eventually a recording artiste for the label. He earned his “Scratch” nickname from an early recording, “The Chicken Scratch”, in 1965.
He left Studio One in the mid-’60s, following a fall out with Dodd. “Coxsone never wanted to give a country boy a chance. No way.
He took my songs and gave them to people like Delroy Wilson. I got no credit, certainly no money. I was being screwed,” he said in the same NME interview.
From there, Perry joined Joe Gibbs’ rival label Amalgamated Records, where he continued to produce in addition to building on his own recording career.
Disagreements between Perry and Gibbs resulted in “Scratch” finally founding his own label Upsetter Records — a nod to Perry’s proclamation “I am the Upsetter” — in 1968.
Things began to take off for Perry after he built his own recording studio, the renowned Black Ark. Here, he pushed boundaries and experimented with drum machines and other studio equipment; he recorded the firing of guns, broken glass and he sampled animal noises.
He is also said to have blown marijuana smoke on to master tapes to supposedly enhance the recordings.
He pioneered the technique of dub versions of reggae tracks, with the bass emphasised, vocals sometimes removed, and reverb added to create an eerie, echoing sonic space.
Perry and his backing band, The Upsetters, used the dub sound on numerous acclaimed mid-1970s reggae records, including Max Romeo’s War Ina Babylon, the Heptones’ Party Time, and Junior Murvin’s Police & Thieves.
— Uncut.co.uk.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter