Lee Perry

Lee "Scratch" Perry, also known as The Upsetter, is the most prolific producer, and singer/songwriter in the history of reggae music. In a career spanning 50 years Perry has produced over a hundred albums and is featured on more than a hundred compilations. His music encompasses everything from novelty ska songs via roots reggae to deep dub. Perry started in the business in the mid 1950s as an errand boy delivering records and soon started writing and producing his own songs. He was influential in helping the careers of many reggae artists including Bob Marley, Max Romeo, Junior Byles and Augustus Pablo. Perry opened his own recording studio, the Black Ark in 1974. That same year he produced the first dub album with King Tubby, "Blackboard Jungle Dub". Over the years he has produced vocal albums, instrumental albums, dub albums; albums for other artists such as The Heptones, Junior Murvin, and The Congos as well as numerous solo albums under his own name.
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Where to start? His masterpiece is "Super Ape" (Island), a psychedelic dub classic from 1976. Also highly recommended is "War In A Babylon" with Max Romeo (Island 1976). Two great collections of early material are "The Upsetter Collection" (Trojan 1981) featuring tracks from 1969-73, and "Words Of My Mouth" (Trojan 1996) featuring tracks from 1973-75. Check out "Blackboard Jungle Dub" (Clocktower) for prime early dub and "African Herbsman" (Trojan 1973) for his sublime work with Bob Marley.
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Gary Simons