Saturday Scratch, an occasional series that shines a light on a selection with a Lee 'Scratch' Perry connection.
And so we bid farewell to Jimmy Riley at 61, yet another musical great lost to cancer. His career was a long one,
stretching back to the mid-1960s, during which time he worked with many legendary names in Jamaican music,
including Bunny Lee, Sly & Robbie, Duke Reid and a brief stint with Lee Perry. Here are a couple of tunes produced by
Scratch, who also duets with Jimmy on 'Yagga Yagga'. Rest easy Mr Riley.
The mighty Lee Perry turns 80 tomorrow and to celebrate here's one of my favourite Scratch vocals. 'Jah Jah
Ah Natty Dread', from 1978's 'Return of the Super Ape' LP isn't his best song, production or performance, but it always makes me smile. Musically
it's oddly clunky and primitive. The band sounds as though they might have heard of
reggae at some point, but have never actually played it before - this is The Upsetters though, so one assumes that they're deliberately
trying to sound that way. Then there's Lee's vocal, barked like an irate market trader and barely pausing for a massive
sneeze just short of the two minute mark. It's all reassuringly bonkers - and we wouldn't have him any other way. Happy birthday Scratch!
It's been a while since the last edition of Saturday Scratch and this one comes bearing some bad news. A couple of days ago, part of Lee Perry's Swiss home was destroyed by fire. Thankfully no-one was hurt in the incident and, clearly distraught, Perry himself took to Facebook to explain what happened.
HALLO MY FANSSOMETHNG VERY VERY SAD HAPPENDI FORGOTT TO OUT A CANDLE AND MY WHOLE SECRET LABORATORY BURNED OUT.MY...
Saturday Scratch, an occasional series that
shines a light on a selection with a Lee
'Scratch' Perry connection.
I've been largely absent from Internet
musings over the past seven days, thanks to
a long planned week of decorating. Long
planned by Mrs S that is. Long dreaded by
yours truly. If I don't see another paint
brush for the next couple of years, you won't hear any
complaints from me. Still, we've managed to
tick a few little jobs off of the
very long list of stuff that needs doing in and
around the house, which is all to the good.
And now for something completely different.
Saturday Scratch traditionally deals in
wicked cuts from a bygone age, but on this
occasion the selection is virtually bang up
to date. In April 2015, XL Recordings boss
Richard Russell, trading under the Residence
La Revolution moniker, issued a 12" single,
'I Am Paint' and the tune, a stabbing aural collage, features heavily sampled chunks of Lee Perry vocals high in the mix. Each sleeve of the ridiculously limited run of 250 copies was personally hand (and foot) painted by Russell and Perry themselves in one all
night session, documented in the accompanying
clip. The resulting artifacts weren't distributed through traditional outlets and were only ever obtainable via a bartering
system from the RLR website. Intriguing
stuff. Read more here.
Saturday Scratch, an occasional series that
shines a light on a selection with a Lee
'Scratch' Perry connection.
Mrs S asked me to give her a hand over at the
allotment the other evening. This only ever
happens if she's really up against it - I'm sure that I'm far more of a hindrance than a help. I did my best to follow instructions
though, but for my troubles I got bitten by bugs on my arm, elbow and side of
the face. As you can see, my arm subsequently
blew up into a rather alarming shape. I'm just not cut out for this outdoor lark!
In spite of being munched on various parts of
my body, unlike Dennis Alcapone, I was
untroubled by back biters. On this
beautifully crackly rip of his 1972 single,
Alcapone DJ's over Lee Perry's 'People Funny
Boy' rhythm, with the additional
accompaniment of Ron Wilson on trombone.
Saturday Scratch, an occasional series that
shines a light on a selection with a Lee
'Scratch' Perry connection.
The new laptop still hasn't materialised. 48
hour delivery? Pah! So, to prevent another potential
hard-drive crash on the old one, I'm keeping things brief.
My house isn't much of a home without a
reliable computer and all the music it
contains - there's certainly an air of
tension around the place anyway. So here's
Junior Dan's self-produced debut single, a
dense, atmospheric cover of the Bacharach &
David classic, recorded at The Black Ark in
1973 and released the following year.
Saturday Scratch, an occasional series that
shines a light on a selection with a Lee
'Scratch' Perry connection.
Earlier this week, the venerable 1001 Songs
posted an utterly indispensable Augustus
Pablo classic, which I highly recommend that
you check out here - your week just isn't
complete without it. This got me rummaging
around for a choice Pablo cut to feature back here at my place. When it came down to it, one
tune stuck out above the rest, 'Vibrate Onn',
recorded with The Upsetters at the Black Ark
in the Summer of 1977. There are a number of
subtly different mixes available of this
dense, far-out piece of oddness, but this
particular uploader has kindly extended the blissful experience by appending the equally groovy
flipside, 'Dub Onn'.
Following yesterday's humidity-fest and
little of the predicted overnight rain to cool things down, this morning dawned thick, mild and muggy. We had a coffee crisis looming in the house. We were almost out of paper filters and would never have made it through the weekend, so I dashed off across the marsh to pick up fresh supplies from town. It took me a little under an hour to walk there and back and I returned soaked in sweat, looking like the proverbial drowned rat, but after a refreshing shower and with a brew in hand, I'm ready to face the day.
Here are Sonny & Debby from 1978 with 'Sweat
Suit', which, depending on your point of
view, is either a parody of, or an homage to
the contemporary hit 'Uptown Top Ranking'. A
particular tip of the hat to the uploader of
this one, for creating a custom discomix of
the tune by segueing into Scratch's echo-laden dub version.
It's been one of those weeks. A ton of great looking posts have turned up on my sidebar in the past seven days and i've barely had a spare moment to glance at any of them. I'll try to rectify that to some extent after the weekend, though by then of course, the backlog will have become even greater. One post I did find time to enjoy was over at 27 Leggies (here) and featured several fascinating covers of the old Jim Reeves hit, 'He'll Have to Go'. My own favourite version of the song wasn't among them though. David Isaacs' 1969 single, produced by Lee Perry, can be found on the splendid 1998 compilation 'The Complete UK Upsetter Singles Collection Volume 1'. Check out those otherworldly backing vocals.
Hear another unlikely country cover by David Isaacs in an earlier edition of Saturday Scratch (here).
I can tell you very little about Winston
Heywood, other than the fact that he was
accompanied on his slim catalogue of 1970's
singles by, at various times, The Hombres,
The Soul Hombres and The Shoemakers. Two of
Heywood's singles were recorded at the Black
Ark in 1976 under the supervision of Lee
Scratch Perry and, as it's been a fair while since
the last Saturday Scratch, this one is the
appropriately titled 'Long Long Time'.
In addition to the vacuuming duties that I
detailed in a recent post, my other key role
in this house is, much like Keith Flint, as a firestarter. That is to say I bring
in logs, saw up the scrap, chop the kindling
and generally prep the wood-burner for action.
Thus it was that last night I diligently
screwed up several sheets of newspaper,
liberally sprinkled some finely chopped
kindling, applied a match and then added
scrap wood to get the flames really burning.
It was only when I sat back to bask in the
warming glow that I sensed something was
amiss. What was it? Then it hit me. As I've
already mentioned, any fire in our house is
traditionally located within the confines of
a wood-burner, this one though, was roaring
away on the sofa. I'd accidentally lit a fire
on the sofa! Panicking, I ran into the garden,
grabbed a spade and lifted the whole blazing,
popping pile of scrap as one, throwing it
into the wood-burner and slamming the doors to
seal it in. Needless to say, the room was
full of smoke by this point, making me cough, splutter and retch. And it was coughing and
spluttering that I jolted awoke to find that,
thankfully, I'd been having another particularly vivid dream. So vivid in fact,
I swear I could taste the smoke and feel the
heat of the flames. It was a weird one.
A fire on our allotment a couple years ago, far from any household furniture.
Hence today's trio of Fire related tunes taken from the vaults of the Black Ark. First up, Truth
Fact And Correct's 'Babylon Deh Pon Fire'
from 1976, written and produced by Lee
Perry.
Next, Jah Stitch, who definitely taped 'Burning Fire' at
the Black Ark, though I can't confirm if Scratch was behind the desk for this
session.
Finally, from 1975, Phil Pratt handles
production duties at the Black Ark for Roman Stewart's 'Fire
at Your Heel' (also known as 'Run Come Feel').
The ska original of
'Artibella' appeared on Studio One in 1965, credited to Ken Booth & Stranger Cole (here). Boothe released his hit solo version of the song,
produced by Phil Pratt, in 1970 (here).
In 1972 Lee 'Scratch' Perry produced his own
interpretation of the 'Artibella' rhythm with The
Upsetters, initially bringing in Milton Henry
and Junior Byles to voice 'This World' over
it and releasing the results under the moniker
King Medious. Several further adaptations of the rhythm would follow.
Hot on the heels of the duet, Byles was back
behind the vocal mic alone, creating his
classic reading of 'Fever'. At around the same time, the song
was also voiced to good effect by Susan Cadogan.
The versions poured out of the Black Ark.
Here's Jah Lion with 'Hay Fever'.
Jah T voiced 'Lick the Pipe Peter', with
Augustus Pablo's melodica accompaniment,
though I prefer Pablo's instrumental 'Hot and
Cold'.
There are more, but let's conclude this brief
whistle-stop tour with a typically bonkers dubwise
excursion on the 'Artibella' rhythm, 'Fever Grass Dub'.
Did someone put together a compilation of
tunes from the Amalgamated label for Mark E
Smith in the early 1990s? If so it would
help to explain The Fall's brief foray into
the fine art of the reggae cover version.
Best known is 'Why Are People Grudgeful'
issued as a single in 1993 and based on a
fantastic 1968 Joe Gibbs 7", released on
Amalgamated, which was itself a reply in
song to Lee Perry's scathing, 'People Funny
Boy'.
Less familiar is 'Kimble', originally issued
on Amalgamated by Perry (under the
pseudonym, The Creators) as the b-side to
Stranger Cole & Gladdy's, 'Seeing is
Knowing', also in 1968. The Fall recorded
their version of this obscurity in 1992 for
a John Peel session - and it's a corker.
Even in the often confusing world of Lee
Perry's huge supporting cast of characters,
the contribution of Burt Walters would surely
be seen as a minor one, were it not for a
typically inspired slice of Upsetter madness.
Discovered while singing barefoot on a street
corner in early 1968, Walters was quickly
whisked into the studio to voice a couple of
covers with Scratch at the controls. A re-written 'Blowin' in the Wind' (credited to
Bob Dillon), complete with low budget sound
effects, eventually appeared on the flip of
Perry's own classic, 'People Funny Boy'.
The only single to be issued under Burt
Walters' own name was a cover of the 1954
Drifters hit, 'Honey Love', which initially
released as a Jamaican only white label 7". It's
pleasant enough, I'm sure you'll agree.
At this point, though, either the money ran
out or perhaps Scratch just lost faith in
Burt's abilities, because instead of
recording another tune to put on the flip-side
of 'Honey Love', Perry simply plucked the
original vocal out of the mix, reversed it
and laid it back onto the rhythm, titling it
'Evol Yenoh'. This straight forward act
transformed a sweet little pop song into an
unhinged thing of disturbing weirdness,
featuring Walters appearing to speak in
tongues. Unsurprisingly, Trojan in the UK
passed on 'Evol Yenoh', only allowing 'Honey
Love' to sneak out as the b-side to an
unrelated instrumental cut, 'Thunderstorm',
by King Cannon Ball in December 1968.
If the family bathroom was ever out of action
when I was a wee nipper, I would have to
endure what Mum would call 'a wash down'.
This involved standing in a washing-up bowl
on the kitchen floor, while she poured
lukewarm water over my head and scrubbed me
with a rough flannel. We're experiencing an
uncannily similar, if slightly more grown-up, version of the same thing at the moment. The
bathroom is currently a building site as
walls are insulated, windows replaced, tiles
laid and, hopefully sometime late next week,
a new suite is installed. To be honest, I'm a
a bit long in the tooth for all this wash
down malarkey (dousing oneself in water at the
kitchen sink ain't what it's cracked up to
be), but I know it'll all be worth it in the
end.
Have I mentioned that I hate flying? Over the
years I've tried it drunk, sleep deprived and
otherwise subdued, but the result is always
the same - abject fear. Actually, that's not
quite true. In the early 1990s, following my
first few ventures skyward, I gained an
unexpected measure of confidence. The flights
thus far had been remarkably smooth, the
on board entertainment distracting and terror
minimal. Then, on perhaps my third or fourth
trip out to visit my cousin in New York, I
experienced one of those flights. Constant,
violent, turbulence, akin to driving in a
car, without suspension, over endless
sleeping policemen, at full pelt, for about
seven hours. There were tears, there was
screaming, there was upchucking a gogo - and
that was just the cabin crew.
Two weeks later, I was all set to fly home
alone and found myself sitting next to a
lovely old lady who was heading back to
blighty after visiting her Daughter and
meeting her Grandchild for the first time. We
got chatting as the plane queued for a take-
off slot and she told me how she'd
experienced a new lease of life since the sad
death of her husband, who hadn't really liked
to travel. She'd flown to several European
destinations over the previous couple of
years, before taking on the long haul to
America and found that she absolutely loved
it. In fact she'd actually been flying around
the States alone for over a month, before
stopping in on her Daughter for the last ten
days of her trip. She was 75 if she was a day
and a quite remarkable lady.
I expressed my admiration for her
achievements and somewhat shamefacedly
mentioned the flight from hell that I'd
endured two weeks earlier, which had left me
an emotionally drained wreck for the first
few days of my holiday. At this very moment
the Captain's voice came over the intercom to
inform us that we'd been cleared for take-off
and the plane began to roll forwards. 'I just
don't like flying...', I said '...and I
particularly hate this bit' I muttered. As
the engines roared and we began to hurtle
down the runway, the old lady smiled and gave me a reassuring tap on the back of my hand, which
clenched the arm rest with a vice like grip
of pure fear. She then uttered the most ill-timed and least helpful phrase it's ever been
my misfortune to hear. 'Don't worry young
man, there's nothing we can do about it. If
it's your time to go, it's your time to go'.
The wheels left the ground. We were on our
way home.
Here, from the 1975 LP 'Musical Bones', are
The Upsetters, featuring the mighty trombone
of Vin Gordon, with 'Fly Away'.
Shaumark and Robinson, a mysterious duo. The
Robinson in question is Lloyd, who handles
lead vocal duties on their only known Black
Ark recordings, 'Peace and Love' and 'Weak
Heart Feel It', ably backed by The Upsetters.
The identity, or even existence, of Shaumark is seemingly lost in the mists of time.
Yesterday, I journeyed East. East of the River
Waveney. I ventured as far East as the road
would take me, to the most Easterly point of
the British Isles in fact. I travelled to see
the legendary Lee Scratch Perry in concert,
on the eve of his 78th birthday....in a
nightclub....on a pier...in Lowestoft. You
couldn't make it up.
Aided and abetted by the current incarnation
of The Upsetter Band, Scratch was on
sparkling form throughout and considerably
more focussed than when I last saw him 11
years ago. Between songs he exchanged
greetings, words of wisdom and fist-pumps
with the audience, before turning to the band
and asking,'What now?' They responded by
kicking in the next rhythm (sometimes
familiar, sometimes not), over which Perry
intertwined freeform ideas and phrases with
occasional snatches of the song's original
lyrics.
We were treated to smatterings from Scratch's
association with Bob Marley, 'Sun is
Shining', 'Jah Live' and 'Crazy Baldhead',
the latter featuring shoutouts to individual
members of the Royal Family, as well as other
rhythms from his vast catalogue such as
George Faith's 'To Be a Lover (Have Mercy)'
and his own 'Roast Fish and Cornbread'.
Scratch seemed unconcerned at the abysmal
turnout (around 150 in a venue with a near
900 capacity), obligingly grinning everytime
he spotted a camera pointed at him and
complimenting individual audience members
left and right - 'I like your hair', 'I like
your hat'. Finally, after 90 minutes, he sang
'Goodbye, bye, bye, bye, I got to go...'
before leaving us with perhaps a little too
much information '...I got to take a piss'.
Here's George Faith's original 1977 Jamaican
12" version of William Bell's 'To Be a
Lover', featuring a brief cameo from Scratch
himself towards the end.
The LP might sonically seem a little dated
now, but on its release in 1987, 'Time Boom X
De Devil Dead' was by some way the strongest
material to have been released by Lee Perry
since the glory days of The Black Ark.
Produced by Scratch and Adrian Sherwood and
featuring the On-U Sound house band The Dub
Syndicate, the albums imminent arrival
created a noticeable frisson of excitement in
the music business at the time, enhanced by a
last minute distribution deal with EMI. As a
consequence of this major label support, the
first single from the LP, 'Jungle', was issued
in three formats (7", 10" and 12") all with
slightly different mixes. Here though is the
original LP version - what a lot of coughing.
If the family bathroom was ever out of action
when I was a wee nipper, I would have to
endure what Mum would call 'a wash down'.
This involved standing in a washing-up bowl
on the kitchen floor, while she poured
lukewarm water over my head and scrubbed me
with a rough flannel. We're experiencing an
uncannily similar, if slightly more grown-up, version of the same thing at the moment. The
bathroom is currently a building site as
walls are insulated, windows replaced, tiles
laid and, hopefully sometime late next week,
a new suite is installed. To be honest, I'm a
a bit long in the tooth for all this wash
down malarkey (dousing oneself in water at the
kitchen sink ain't what it's cracked up to
be), but I know it'll all be worth it in the
end.
I expressed my admiration for her
achievements and somewhat shamefacedly
mentioned the flight from hell that I'd
endured two weeks earlier, which had left me
an emotionally drained wreck for the first
few days of my holiday. At this very moment
the Captain's voice came over the intercom to
inform us that we'd been cleared for take-off
and the plane began to roll forwards. 'I just
don't like flying...', I said '...and I
particularly hate this bit' I muttered. As
the engines roared and we began to hurtle
down the runway, the old lady smiled and gave me a reassuring tap on the back of my hand, which
clenched the arm rest with a vice like grip
of pure fear. She then uttered the most ill-timed and least helpful phrase it's ever been
my misfortune to hear. 'Don't worry young
man, there's nothing we can do about it. If
it's your time to go, it's your time to go'.
The wheels left the ground. We were on our
way home.
