Reasoning with Lee “Scratch” Perry: “The Black Ark Preserve Life and It Kill”

Posted on: September 17th, 2014 by Boomshots 2 Comments Tags: Coxsone Dodd, Dub, Duke Reid, Lee "Scratch" Perry, The Black Ark, The Wailers
Posted in Dub, Interview, Jamaica, Outernational, Reasoning, Reggae, UK, Uncategorized, Video

“I think the devil is a goat,” and other thoughts of a living legend.

Whether you prefer to call him a madman or a genius, there’s no doubt that Lee “Scratch” Perry is a living legend. The man who gave the Wailers their “Natural Mystic” and pushed the frontiers of dub music at his Black Ark studio has never lost his creative mojo, even at the age of 78. Next week he will host his first New York art installation, followed by a live performance at Brooklyn Bowl with Subatomic Sound System as part of the annual Dub Champions Festival. In the first installment of Reshma B‘s exclusive interview with The Upsetter aka the Super Ape aka Pipecock Jaxson, he talks about two of his most recent collaborations—the Vibes EP, a collaboration with the Swiss musician Iguana, and the Back on the Controls project for which the London-based Rolling Lion team recreated all the exact recording equipment and techniques used at the Black Ark. “The Ark of the Covenant is a spirtual vibration,” scratch explains. “Ancient spirits speak… Everything is spirit. Because God is a spirit and Satan the devil also is a spirit. But Satan need competition.” In part one of the interview, find out why Scratch sprinkles white rum inside the studio before beginning a recording session. And in the second installment, discover who Scratch was taking revenge on when he built his own studio, The Black Ark, and find out how it had so many awesome powers: “It produce rain, whirlwind, hurricane, tidal wave, thunder, hailstone, earthquake, and it preserve life and it kill. It cripple, it cramp, and paralyze.” Videos After The Jump…

Part 1 of 4: “The Duppies Like White Rum”

Part 2 of 4: “The Black Ark cripple, it cramp, and paralyze”