Who is lee scratch perry

Beyond the magic spell he wove for other artists, it is Perry's own solo albums that remain his most engaging, mysterious offerings to music, reggae and beyond. While many of Perry's most mesmerizing moments were in his creepy, soul-strewn instrumental workouts like 's "Return of Django" and his haunting, hypnotic dub efforts 's "Revolution Dub" , Perry's vocal recordings are often doubly intriguing.

Moving into the 21st century and albums such as "Techno Party," the dub master found a fresh way to vocalize over trip-hop and jungle-based rhythms. By the time, Perry got to 's "Must Be Free," he saw himself as much as a healer as artist. They want a cure and I cure them," he told Amorosi while touring behind that album. God went to my mother and made it rain and sent her the Holy Spirit for me to know dub - the Holy Dove. Have you ever heard a bird coo? Make Holy Dub. He saw working with computers as an almost spiritual enterprise.

I blow ganja into the computer. Why not? Though Perry's ultimate relocation to semi-permanent quarters in Switzerland in the '80s and his marriage to Campbell in brought a modicum of peace to the musician's tempestuous life, it was not free of calamity, some of it chillingly familiar.

In , he left a candle burning in his home studio, the Secret Laboratory, and it was gutted by fire, destroying his unreleased masters and stage wardrobe. Ask five years ago what it meant to be 80, Perry told Amorosi that he considered himself "Jesus' black brother. Perry was an eccentric to the end, telling Tapeop.

I'm sure the music is perfect. I am a mystic. I am a fish. I am a chicken. Perry is survived by his wife, their two children and five children from previous relationships. IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Politics Covid U. News World Opinion Business. Share this —. Follow NBC News. By Variety.

The news was confirmed in a tweet from Jamaica's prime minister, Andrew Holness. Despite the considerable lows in his career, Perry remained busy. Even the Beastie Boys gave Perry props in a rhyme on their release Ill Communication and later added him to the bill of performers at a concert for Tibetan freedom, in addition to featuring him on Hello Nasty deep cut "Dr. Lee, PhD. That same year, a collaboration with Dieter Meier of the Swiss electronica duo Yello called Technomajikal , arrived on the Roir label.

The project was made geographically possible by Scratch 's move to Switzerland. Perry reunited with Trojan in , when the new album Jamaican E.

The release Upsetters 14 Dub Blackboard Jungle -- sometimes referred to as Blackboard Jungle Dub -- saw its definitive reissue appear in when Perry biographer David Katz helmed its release for the Auralux imprint. The label was also responsible for 's I Am the Upsetter , a well-chosen and well-annotated four-CD set. He collaborated with Andrew W. A dub version of the latter, Dub Setter , followed in Perry also collaborated with ambient techno pioneers the Orb for an album titled The Orbserver in the Star House , which was eventually followed by More Tales from the Orbservatory , recorded during the same sessions.

Perry was recognized by the Jamaican honors system in when he was elected to Commander class in the Order of Distinction. Shortly thereafter, Perry began working with producer Daniel Boyle at London's Rolling Lion Studio, aiming to re-create the sound and vibe of Black Ark Studios' rudimentary audio magic. The result was the surprisingly accurate throwback dub album Back on the Controls , which surfaced in with help from a fan-funded online campaign.

The album was subsequently nominated for a Grammy. In , Perry 's studio in Switzerland where he resided with his wife and two children burned down, this time by accident, destroying numerous unreleased recordings and stage costumes. Also that year, Perry and Brooklyn's Subatomic Sound System , who had regularly collaborated since the late s, toured together in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Perry 's classic Super Ape.

COM has chosen English as your language setting. COM in 30 languages. Deutsche Welle. Audiotrainer Deutschtrainer Die Bienenretter. Music Lee 'Scratch' Perry: Reggae and dub pioneer dies at 85 After six decades of groundbreaking musical innovation, the "mad genius" of dub music and self-styled Upsetter has passed away in a Jamaican hospital.

Lee 'Scratch' Perry, performing in Manchester in , was still touring well into his 80s. Lee 'Scratch' Perry generating 'positive feelings' during a performance. Meet Ghana's reggae artist Blakk Rasta. Jamaica - Music and violence. The truth about reggae. During the extended period of erratic behaviour that led to the burning of the Ark and the breakup of the relationship with the mother of four of his children, Pauline Morrison, he took to walking backwards in the street, daubing the studio and his house with arcane graffiti and pounding the ground repeatedly with a hammer.

Though he was arrested for arson after the fire, he was released due to lack of evidence, and the exact circumstances of the incident were never determined. Perry was not about to enlighten anyone, for he always preferred to talk in rhymes and riddles. He made several albums of variable quality, appeared live on many occasions, and produced various artists in the late 80s, all the while stalked by wild stories of his odd behaviour.

There had been a half-hearted attempt to rebuild the Ark, during which Perry constructed a duck pond in the drum booth, but it came to nothing. Instead, during the 90s, his old material found favour among a new generation of fans and he benefited financially and critically from a plethora of reissues and compilations, including the comprehensive Arkology While much of his later work was a disappointment to his followers, he continued on his unconventional and unpredictable path to the very end.