Lee “Scratch” Perry, one of the most prolific artists in reggae has been creating

music and evolving with the times since the 1950s.  This summer, Perry is coming

to Los Angeles to share his soul and his energy on stage in the streets of Los

Angeles.  In anticipation of his arrival, I caught up with Perry over the phone to

exchange a few words with him.

CP        You began your music career back in the 50s.  Where and how did you get your start?

LSP        Where did I get my start?  Well actually, I was a countryman growing up and I go to Kingston because I wanted to get involved with the music.  I went to Duke Reid [soundsystem] and he didn’t think I have a good voice to sing, so he didn’t take me.  And then I went to Coxsone [soundsystem].  For a couple years we writing songs together like Lion of Judah and other songs for other artists.  But he still didn’t think I had a good voice either.  So after a while there was a guy named JJ Johnson and he wanted me to do a session for him because he knew I was working with Coxsone and he wanted to get into the business so he came to me.  And so I do a song for the guy and it was funny.  People liked it as well.

CP        Reggae didn’t really exist at that time.  What was this type of music?

LSP         No, that was the music they call “Ska.”

CP        So at those early stages, the soundsystems were already in existence in Jamaica, but “Reggae” was not what it is today.  I’ve noticed that early Ska and Rocksteady in Jamaica were influenced by Black American music and Rock and Roll in general.  Did you wear the matching suits and cover those types of songs in the beginning of your career as well?

LSP         Yeah you’re right, they were making over American Jazz as well.  But no, not really… I never really liked to do repeating of other people’s songs.  I like to do my things in my own way, and if the people think it’s okay… then it’s okay.  I did a compilation called Chicken Scratch.  I did the Chicken Scratch for Coxsone and this was ska.

CP        Considering the long span of your career in music, where you started with ska, how do think Jamaican music has evolved?  Do you think it has changed drastically from the 50s ska to reggae today?

LSP        Well after a while when things started to change, I decided to do things for myself.  I went out and make a song named People Funny because of all the things I do for them, they don’t remember I do for them… so I wrote a song about them.  With this song I changed the music.  I changed the music with People Funny Boy.

CP        People Funny Boy was your first single on your label, The Upsetter.  Was it at this point that you started fiddling around with the dub sound on your mixing board?

LSP        At that time Duke Reid was doing rocksteady.  But right, I started making the dub sound.

CP        You also used a sample of a crying baby on People Funny.  No one was really doing that at the time, what inspired this?

LSP        Well People Funny Boy went straight to the top.  It wasn’t ska and it wasn’t rocksteady.  See, God chose that in creation you start as baby.  And if you don’t start to crawl, you won’t walk.  And if you don’t scratch you won’t reach anywhere.  At the time when I was doing the Chicken Scratch for Coxsone, they didn’t understand that I was saying so.  My songs did not appease them because they didn’t know how things start, how things move on.  So I did Chicken Scratch for Coxsone, but I couldn’t take his rage anymore and his type of music, so I went away and started to make my type of music and so I did People Funny Boy.

CP        I notice that unlike other reggae artists, you don’t just make up lyrics to version tracks, you actually create original songs.  Have you always worked with a band?

LSP        You’re right.  Yep, original tracks given to me by God.  Coxsone had musicians, I did not use them.  Duke Reid had some musicians, I did not use them.  I go over and select my own type of musician and called them “The Upsetter’s.”  I am The Upsetter, and all the musicians that we put together are apostrophe “s,” The Upsetter’s.  I do not use any of the ska musicians, Coxsone having The Skatalites.  I did not use any of Reid’s rocksteady musicians.  I got my own and called them The Upsetter’s.

CP         People say that you created the dub sound and helped create the foundation of reggae.  Do you think that this is due to the fact that you gathered your own musicians, and that you didn’t use version tracks or The Skatalites or anyone else from the established soundsystems?

LSP        Well, there’s this saying, “The voice of the people are the voice of God.  And the people who are looking to be chosen, look into the bag and the see the frog.  And after the people look into the bag and see the frog, they know that the frog in the bag is the king of all the kings.”  So what people say are great truths, the people say I created… and if I did not create the people would say so.  People say I created reggae and people say I created dub, and if I did not create reggae and I did not create dub, then the people would not say so.  And I did not tell the people to say so.

CP        In addition to creating the reggae sound and the dub sound, you’ve also produced a great many records.  Are there any that stand out to you as exceptional or a highlight in your career?

LSP        I created a lot of sounds and I make a lot of artists famous, but I do not really have a favorite.  But I write Punky Reggae Party for Bob, having a party.  Yeah, and because of The Clash and The Jam I really mix Bob Marley energy and the really punk energy and I create another vibration for another generation.

CP       By the 80s Reggae was a global.  It began to influence rock and roll, punk music and even hip-hop.  Unlike other Jamaican artists who want to stay “cultural,” you seem to be happy to work with other people; you don’t really discriminate between genres.

LSP        Right, I create a new vibration, another creation and it’s love and it’s full of energy; it’s full of magic, it’s full of miracle and its full of science.  And the people who love to share in my vibration, I’m willing to help them.

CP        What about your home recording studio, The Black Ark?  You recorded Bob Marley there at your home in Kingston?

LSP        It was in my backyard.  I built another house back there and called it the Black Ark Studio.  I recorded Bob, Congo, Max Romeo…

CP        But the Black Ark burned down to the ground, correct?

LSP        It did not burn down to the ground, but after a while everybody was working there and there was suffering, so when you take away the suffering away from a patient, it is with you.  When you take away the sin or the bad luck from others, it is with you.  So because of all that pressure, the pressure from the Marley, and the pressure from the Congo and from Max and Junior Byles… it’s like I take away their jinx and give them my good energy.  So the jinx was still there in the Ark.  To get rid of the jinx you have to burn it down with fire.  It was not the case that I wished to burn it.  It was because of the jinx that I did it.  Otherwise the jinx would get me.

CP        After The Black Ark, you left Jamaica?  Did you move to England?

LSP        I leave Jamaica 25 years ago now.  After I leave Jamaica, I went four years in London and after London; I go here and there.  Spent some time in Jamaica and then go back to Switzerland.

CP         Switzerland is where you live now.  What made you move there?  Was it your wife or did you just take a liking to Switzerland?

LSP        Well she met me in London, and we talked and she planned to come to Jamaica.  I leave London about three weeks after I met her, back to Jamaica… and she come to Jamaica and spend a couple weeks in Jamaica; then go back to Switzerland.  But then I come to Switzerland and that’s it.  But I still go back to Jamaica sometime… twice a year sometimes.

CP        Your discography spans the last 50 years.  Though you’ve recorded so much, do you have any favorites?  For example, one of my favorite songs of yours is Solid As A Rock.  That one is kind of like the ska sound.  Then there’s Soul Fire, which has a heavy bass and the dubbed out “Scratch” sound.

LSP        Solid As A Rock we didn’t write, it’s an old Jamaican song but I made it have the Scratch sound.  I made because I change the song to my style and I am sold as rock.  Soul Fire is soul music.  And that song is talking about my soul and my soul is fire.  Fire in your heart.  Boom boom boom, your heart is the drum and my heart is the drum.  Without the poom, poom you cannot live on this earth, this is the mind.

Lee “Scratch” Perry has just completed yet another record entitled, “Revelation,” and is

performing in Los Angeles at this year’s Sunset Junction Festival in Silverlake on

Sunday, August 22nd at 8:00 pm.

For more information about the Sunset Junction Festival, visit:

www.sunsetjunction.org