Lee Scratch Perry, one of the most charismatic and innovative figures of Reggae music, has died in Kingston, Jamaica, at 85 and with a career over 60 years old behind him.
Perry was, first of all, an advance to his time on the mixer. Without it, the use of sample and sound effects would not have reached the popularity they have in the music of our time. Rap recitation was another cause of it, just as the influence of Jamaican music in electronics and alternative rock have been among the merits of it. Songs like People Funny Boy (1968) marked the cammino from Ska and Rocksteady to Reggae.
Perry was also the producer who accompanied Bob Marley & The Wailers to The Congos and Junior Marvin until global success. He collaborated with The Clash, with Mad Professor and remained active until the second decade of the 21st century.
Actually, Perry was a town boy (he was born in the village of Kendal, in 1936), ridiculed by his short stature, which fell at some point, at the end of the 1950s, in Studio One, the epicenter of the industry From the album in Jamaica to learn the trade of producer. A decade later, he founded the seal of him, Upsetter, the mark with which he popularized the cadence that the world has ever identified with the reggae.
With success, Perry was built an extravagant and hyperbolic character, a kind of delirious sound scientist who invented new effects from a lost corner of Jamaica.
Perry also put the musicians, the sound and support that allowed Bob Marley to launch his career and record some of his classics. The producer, who was not always a loyal or prudent partner, ended up breaking up with the singer, who found refuge in Island Records. Perry then accused the new producer of Marley, the English Chris Blackwell, of "cultural imperialism" and treated him by Vampire. The erratic character was a part of the legend of Perry.
Drugs were another part, although it is difficult to know where reality ended and where exaggeration began. One day, Perry burned his study, probably conditioned by the LSD and for the suspicion that the devil had settled there.
During the next 40 years, Perry's career crossed the ups and downs of such a talent and character. As of the 1990s, the success of electronic music recovered her influence and allowed him to live a second stage of recognition.
Date Of Update: 04 September 2021, 15:39
