"I burned it down because I built a dread studio, and I am not a dread," he says. "I build a dread creation and promise a dread situation. Then I remember that I am not a dread. So why did I build a dread creation? I was trapping myself."
Put another way, Perry was beginning to resent being cast in the shadows of artists he put on the map in the first place.
"I thought I was buildin' up the Lee 'Scratch' Perry studio," he allows. "But it wasn't the Lee 'Scratch' Perry studio. It was the Bob Marley studio and the dreads' studio, and the Congos', the Meditations', Max Romeo's studio. I was creating a dread thing that was too dreadful for me. And I didn't remember that I was a soul man. I thought I was dread. So after I remove it, I remember that I am a soul man."
For a while, Perry all but disappeared from the reggae scene. He eventually resurfaced in Zurich, Switzerland, having married into local royalty in a Hare Krishna ceremony. Before long he set up a studio that he calls "my extraterrestrial laboratory"--a term he seems to mean literally. "In Jamaica, I was depending on the blacks and make Black Ark," he offers. "They takes all the tapes of everything. But before they get the Ark, I burn down the Ark, and then I'm not depending on the blacks anymore--I'm depending on the extraterrestrials."
Also assisting Perry is Mad Professor, a contemporary dub genius previously profiled in these pages ("It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Professor," October 31, 1996). The two have assisted each other on a series of projects for the RAS/Ariwa imprint, including the upcoming disc Dub Fire. Predictably, Perry's description of the latter is curious but intriguing. "It's something real heavy," he asserts. "It's like a mega-ton. It's heavier than reggae; it's called 'meggae.' It take and make reggae look like it's small. Put that reggae into reincarnation--so reggae pray and clear the rain, for I am coming with the meggae. Dub 'President of Fire' Perry with Mad Professor and the Robotic--heavier than lead."
In the meantime, Perry is looking forward to his first visit to Colorado: "I believe in the ice and snow 100 percent. I'll come up to the mountains and pray." Then, without a pause, he shifts into a religious tale that the authors of the Bible apparently neglected to record. "Jesus went into the mountains of Colorado to pray," he reveals. "He said, 'Blessed are the humble, for they shall meet I in the blackboard jungle, and blessed are the meek, for they shall see I walking in the Colorado mountain peak...' I present music without end, dub revolution in the Colorado mountain, where Jesus went in the mountain to teach. Righteousness exalts the nation, so down with your sins and up with righteousness. Rastafari the almighty God in Colorado mountain, a comin' with lightnin' and thunder!"
What on earth is Perry talking about? Even he might not know--but he knows who he is. "I call upon the people of Colorado," he warns, "for it is I in the name of one love, Jah Rastafari--his one and only son, Lee 'Scratch' Perry: the upsetting, blazing ball of fire."
Lee "Scratch" Perry, with the Mad Professor and H.D.C.. 9 p.m. Saturday, November 8, Fox Theatre, 1135 13th Street, Boulder, $21, 443-3399 or 830-
