Lee Scratch Perry Was at the Height of His Powers in 1973

Lee “Scratch” Perry’s fame and legendary status derive mostly from events that happened after he opened his Black Ark studio in late 1973. These events include the destruction of Black Ark in 1979, which Perry claimed occurred deliberately and at his own hand. Perry will always be known and loved for his thundering dub effects, outsized eccentricity, and the myriad collaborations and hipster cred that resulted from his rediscovery by British producer Adrian Sherwood in the 1980s. Before all that, though, Perry was a prolific and accomplished producer.

As far back as the early 1960s, Perry worked for Clement “Coxone” Dodd at Dodd’s new Studio One label. He even recorded his own ska music, which Dodd never released. Perry later worked with Joe Gibbs and Winston “Niney” Holness, even managing a UK Top Five hit with “Return of Django” in 1969. Perhaps most crucially, though, in the early 1970s he produced and released the first material by the newly-rechristened Bob Marley & The Wailers, including songs that would become standards after Marley signed with Island Records and became an international superstar.

During this time, most of Perry’s productions were released on his Upsetter label. Few reggae artists have been anthologized more than Scratch. However, over the past couple of years, the UK label Doctor Bird has been focusing on this pre-Black Ark period. The result of this herculean effort is the Jamaican Upsetter Singles series, of which Flashing Echo is the eighth two-CD compilation. What’s more, Flashing Echo covers a period of only six months—the latter half of 1973, just before Perry opened Black Ark. As such, it captures a seminal artist at the peak of his powers, just before those powers were transferred from one context to another.

Perry and the Upsetters’ Blackboard Jungle Dub, one of, if not the first LP, devoted to the new production-heavy style, was released in 1973. You won’t find much mind-bending, speaker-shattering, effects-heavy dub on Flashing Echo, however. Still, the breadth and scope of the material on these 48 sides is almost staggeringly impressive. Perry’s production skills are showcased across a variety of styles and artists.

Crooners David Isaacs and the silken-voiced Junior Byles deliver straightforward, catchy love songs. Perry receives a writing credit on most everything. Still, a tranche of Motown and doo-wop covers on the second CD showcases the influence of American soul music on Jamaican reggae. These include a winning version of Doris Troy’s “Just One Look” by the obscure vocalist Annette Clarke, an uplifting take on the Chi-Lites’ “We Are Neighbors” from Isaacs, and the rich three-part vocal harmonies of the Silvertones on songs made famous by Ben E. King and the Drifters, with the Silvertones portending Perry’s classic work with the Congos later in the decade.

Flashing Echo also shows Lee Scratch Perry on the cutting edge of “roots” reggae. The term reflected less a type of sound than a realistic focus on inner-city life, often seen through the lens of the cultish Rastafarian religion that was becoming predominant on the reggae scene. Many of the roots tracks here are fronted by Leo Graham, whose rather thin voice is compensated for by his emphatic, biting delivery on songs like “News Flash” and the Psalms-referencing “No Dig Pit”.

The most powerful social commentary, though, is delivered by Lee Scratch Perry and his Upsetters themselves. “Justice to the People” is a reinterpretation of the Chi-Lites’ “(For God’s Sake) Give More Power to the People”, and its lethargic pace and coed vocals, led by a crooning Perry and deadpan, baritone delivery of the title phrase, seem heavily influenced by Sly and the Family Stone. The self-descriptive “Blackman Time” finds Perry asking “Why won’t they share the wealth? Why must the Black man suffer?” as incessant keyboards and a deep, melodic bassline drive the questions home.

There is plenty of room for early, more subtle dub music as well. Many of the B-sides here are “versions”, essentially remixed or repurposed replications of the A-sides. These served several purposes. They were economical; they allowed producers and engineers to explore new techniques and uses for their limited equipment—often by accident; and they provided backing tracks for sound system DJs, who were immensely popular. The DJs acted more like today’s MCs, flowing or “toasting” over the rhythms, telling stories and generally enthralling audiences with their oratorical skills, much as rap MCs would later.

Flashing Echo showcases the great DJ U-Roy, with his trademark “y’know’s”, as well as I-Roy and Perry prodigy Lester “Dillinger” Bullock.  On these tracks, the DJs’ voices often sit in heavy reverb, or the music cuts out just as a line of toasting begins, hinting at dub techniques on the horizon. “Kuchy Skank Kuchy Skank” previews the deep dub to come, with a menacing rhythm, ghostly melodica, and phasing effects that add up to a claustrophobic, ominous feel. “Rejoicing Skank” features an eerie, echoing chorus of wordless voices while what sounds like a cicada or laser beam sweeps in and out of the mix.

At least some of these “versions” were mixed by Osbourne “King Tubby” Ruddock, as he was the name in early dub and mixed for a wide variety of producers, including Perry. Still, Perry supplied the raw material. Sure enough, on a couple of tracks, the mischievous, licentious, eccentric Scratch, the one who would cast the longest shadow over the last several decades of Perry’s life, appears. There he is on “Bathroom Skank”, inviting you to “dig this musical sculpture coming from King Tubby’s headquarters” before singing about scrubbing his privates, as tiny bubbles pop in the background. And on “Kentucky Skank” he emerges from the dub laboratory to declare “Welcome all you weenie boppers / This is your musical papa.”

Indeed, Lee Scratch Perry was a musical papa of sorts to many styles and many musicians. Chronologically, Flashing Echo covers only a small part of that story, but it is an astoundingly rich part and essential listening for boppers of all shapes and sizes.