Obituaries: Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Jamaican reggae singer who created dub sound

Lee "Scratch" Perry onstage at the 2013 Coachella Valley Festival in Indio, California. (Picture: Karl Walter/Getty Images)

Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry OD, reggae producer and musician. Born: 20 March, 1936 in Kendal, Jamaica. Died: 29 August, 2021 in Lucea, Jamaica, aged 85

In the words of his own 1986 track, the legendary reggae producer Lee “Scratch” Perry reckoned I Am A Madman. Years later, as he hit his eighties, he refined the sentiment, telling a BBC interviewer “I’m 100 per cent crazy. I’m not lazy.”

It might be going too far to say there was method in his madness but there was definitely industry and creativity. Although he was infamous for his eccentricities, the music and wider world would not be mourning the passing of this elfin figure with his trademark crimson beard and customised cap and jacket were it not for his trailblazing production work in a tiny tumbledown backyard studio in Jamaica. Comparing him to fellow oddball visionary Phil Spector, Keith Richards hailed him “the Salvador Dali of music… Scratch is a shaman.”

Lee “Scratch” Perry, who has died aged 85, was one of the most idiosyncratic characters to emerge from the fertile musical landscape of Jamaica, working with the cream of the island’s talent, including a young Bob Marley, as well as international stars such as Paul McCartney. The Beastie Boys conferred scholastic status on him when he guested on their 1998 track Dr Lee PhD but he was also true to his nickname The Upsetter, falling out regularly with collaborators over financial and creative credit.