Interview with David Katz, about Lee "Scratch" Perry, part 1

Why and how did you get interested in Lee Scratch Perry ? My earliest exposure to reggae came in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as I entered my teen years. At that time I still lived in a small town in northern California, which had one radio station, KTIM -- a very progressive station that had a 3-hour reggae radio show every Sunday night called Midnight Dread. The presenter, Doug Wendt, was a real ambassador for the music, he travelled to Jamaica frequently and brought guests to speak live on air and introduce the culture of Jamaica, like he had a dub poet from Jamaica explain what dub poetry is, what is niyabinghi, and so on. He played very rare, deep music... a lot of dub, crazy things like Jux Incorporation, a Studio One dub album, and a lot of Lee Perry music. He had the Wailing Souls, live on his show, singing 'Kingdom Rise, Kingdom Fall' a capella, right when it came out, as well. So I was exposed to a lot by that programme, and began to really get deep into the reggae. Seeing Jack Ruby's sound system in 1982 really blew my mind... seeing The HArder They Come and Rockers did as well... and then, I went to London for the first time in 1983, saw DBC sound system... saw a thriving Jamaican community...caught Awad live with Vin Gordon and Bami Rose in the band... and back in the US, dub became a real fixation... I remember buying Super Ape and being really blown away by it, and Blackboard Jungle Dub. Roast Fish was another killer... And there was more and more reggae radio, you could tune into different programmes daily in the SF Bay Area at that time. And I bought Reggae Bloodlines, a great book, and later REggae International, and the Catch A Fire Marley book, etc etc. Anway suffice it to say that I got deeper and deeper into reggae and dub, and really loved Lee Perry's work -- it was always challenging and different. So, around 1984 or 85, a friend in SF started a little music magazine called Wiring Department, and he asked me to start writing for it, and I did, but he hated reggae, so would not let me write about reggae. But when Lee Perry did the Millionaire Liquidator album, I really loved it, and eventually convinced the editor of the mag to let me write about it -- I played him the album and it was so off-the-wall, he could not deny me to write about it, basically. At the end of 1986, I came to London and found LSP was still here. So I arranged to meet him and try to interview him for that magazine.... the interview did not happen the night we met but he took the article I had written about him away and read it, and was impressed at what I had written, especially about the song 'Introducing Myself.' He felt his message was getting through to me, and he'd apparently been searching for a 'ghost writer' to help him with his autobiography, so he put me through a ritual involving some stones from the river Thames and a ring with a winged skull on it, and... I became the 'ghost writer.' So I spent 2 years in his company at his request, seeing him just about every day... Why not The Gladiators, Mighty Diamonds, Desmond Dekker or someone else? -- I love the Gladiators, big-time. Love Mighty Diamonds too, and love Desmond Dekker too. I love all Jamaican music, from mento and jazz and JA r&b through ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub, deejay, dancehall... but especially love roots and dub... not so found of slack dancehall or gun-talk. What happened with LSP is not something I planned... but that is what happened, how it worked out. When I was researching the Lee Perry book, once I finally got to Jamaica I interviewed Albert Griffiths of the Gladiators, and got in touch with Clinton Fearon in Miami. I met Tabby and Judge from the Diamonds and we did a great interview at the grounds of Devon House. And a lot of that material was used in my second book, Solid Foundation: An Oral History of Reggae. I never managed to interview Desmond Dekker, though I did see him live and actually attended his funeral... Are you a musician or a producer yourself? Yes, I played keyboards in some bands in SF for several years, between 1984-86 roughly, and was a singer in a band too, played bass in a band out there too. When I came to the UK, I was approached by Pete Holdsworth, who I used to buy records from, when he had a stall on Portobello Road, so Pete asked me to join a band he was forming, I played keyboards in that band for a while but we never really got anywhere. I did, however, introduce LSP to Pete -- LSP came to one of our gigs. When that band broke up, I played very briefly with Steve Marshall but he and his friends were of a much higher musical level than me, so they fired me pretty quickly...and, I'd gone to Paris for the first time in 1987 when LSP performed there, and I got friendly with some musicians there and one of them, a guy called Bruno Clark, I started to record with him in France, some of that stuff came out as the Positive Brothers, produced by him and me, but not much happened with it either, aside from some airplay on Radio Nova, and an underground buzz. Eventually I was faced with a choice, would I try to play music, or just write about it? It seemed if I had a talent in one area or the other, maybe my talent was more in writing about music, rather than playing it. So I stopped playing and just concentrated on writing. Plus by then, things got a bit tough financially, so I no longer owned any instrument, except a melodica. Later, I did some recording with this guy Digidub, which was released on a 10inch on the David label. Haven't really played music for a while but do sit in on sessions from time to time and offer my input when requested. According to you is there any other "record label CEO" and producer who destroyed his tool( I am talking about the Black Ark incident...) Good question. There is talk that another studio that burned in the late 1960s, that the fire may have been started intentionally for insurance purposes, but that has not been substantiated. LSP says similar claims were made when the Ark burned, but he did not actually hold insurance for the building when it burned. From what I read, Lee "Scratch" Perry started with ska and then kept on creating stuff, is he more than a producer, I mean did he for example write songs with the Upsetters or he would just hum something and people would turn that into lyrics & music? Well, first of all, you should keep in mind that Perry got his start as a singer and songwriter. He wrote 'Rough And Tough' and took it to Duke Reid, but Reid did not like his voice, thought he was not a good singer, so he gave the lyrics to Stranger Cole without Perry's permission. Then Perry went to Coxsone, Coxsone was also using his lyrics, as well as having him do whatever needed to be done, like bringing new releases to the sound systems, etc etc, but Coxsone also thought Perry's voice was not so great... though Perry did record quite a number of songs for Dodd as a singer. Perry can't read music in the conventional sense, nor can he play a musical instrument conventionally, other than percussion. But once he began doing his own productions, for his own vocal work, he would have the lyrics and melody in shape, bring it to Gladdy Anderson and the other musicians, get them to shape the rhythm and melody and then record it. And with the work of others, he would shape what they created. I hope you understand what I mean. fin de la première partie....