Episode Four of the Doctor Bird Upsetter singles reissue story.  Confusion… takes us into 1971 and finds Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry rediscovering melody and paving the way for the political statements and the chimes of freedom to come

Release Date:  6^th June 2025

Label: Doctor Bird (a division of Cherry Red Records)

Formats: 2 x CD

LEE ‘SCRATCH’ PERRY – THE STORY CONTINUES…

And, so; the story continues.  Our last coverage of the Doctor Bird/ Cherry Red programme of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry singles compilations took in Perry’s Jamaican singles of 1970.  That collection, Land of Kinks: The Jamaican Upsetter Singles 1970 (the third compilation in the series) saw Perry starting to explore and test the limits of what could be achieved by studio trickery.  And the result of that experimentation?  The birth of Dub Reggae.

Roll forward to 1971, and Perry remained hungry for change although, this time around, it seemed that he was searching for change of a more melodious kind: “I want to change the beat.  The people are getting tired of hearing the same thing over and over again and the musicians are getting bored with playing the same rhythms all the time.  At the moment, I’m thinking of ways to make the beat more demanding, more powerful… more new!”  And, sure enough, 1971 would find The Upsetter venturing into new territory; territory that would include confrontations with Jamaica’s history of slavery, the mainstream emergence of Rastafarian sensibilities, the foundations for roots reggae and some irresistible tunes.

EARLY DAYS

The man who was to become Lee “Scratch” Perry was born as just plain Rainford Hugh Lee Perry in 1936, or 1939, depending upon which biographer you believe.  He was involved in the Jamaican music industry from an early age – he was still a teenager when he hitched up with Arthur ‘Duke’ Reid, owner of the famed Trojan Sound System, in Kingston the mid-1950s. 

He didn’t last long as a Reid acolyte and soon entered into an often-troublesome relationship with another sound system proprietor, Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, initially as a record seller for Dodd’s Downbeat Sound System before progressing to become a general factotum and, eventually, a producer at Dodd’s Kingston Studio.  The Dodd-Perry relationship was never an easy one and accusations of financial chicanery flew in both directions until the pair split up in 1966.  Perry soon found alternative employment with Joe Gibbs’ Amalgamated Records, where he continued to build the reputation as an engineer and producer that he had established with Dodd.

ENTER THE UPSETTER…

Working for Gibbs, Perry was the driving force behind a string of rocksteady singles by the likes of Cool Sticky, The Overtones and The Mellotones, as well as producing records in his own name, the most successful – and significant – of which was I Am the Upsetter (1968), a track that, in addition to referencing his perceived mistreatment at the hands of Dodd, Perry also established his reputation as an “Upsetter” of the status quo.

Soon after releasing I Am the Upsetter, Perry moved on once again, this time to launch Upset Records with the aforementioned sound engineers Lambert and Anderson.  The company’s first major release, People Funny Boy – credited to The Upsetters – was a tilt at Perry’s former employer, Joe Gibbs and was a massive hit in Jamaica, selling over 60,000 copies.  Lee Perry had arrived.

INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS

By late 1968, Perry was ready to make what would be the first of several key career moves.  He parted company with Lambert and Anderson and set out on his own, establishing the infamous Upsetter imprint in the process.  It was around this time that Perry’s unique production style had started to find favour with the UK’s Jamaican population and a deal for the worldwide distribution of the Upsetter Records catalogue was agreed with the London-based Trojan Records. 

International success was almost immediate – the second single to be released under this arrangement was Return of Django (1969) an infectious tune that resonated not only with London’s Jamaican communities but also with the UK’s growing population of skinheads.  On the back of this appreciation, Return of Django climbed to No.5 in the UK singles chart in the autumn of 1969.

THE CHANCE TO INNOVATE

The revenue generated by the sales of Return of Django enabled Perry to establish his Upsetter Record Shop on Charles Street in Kingston and provided the encouragement for Perry to release his debut album, The Upsetter, which appeared in November 1969.  That welcome financial boost also created the freedom that allowed Perry to pursue his studio experiments in sound – and reggae changed forever…

NEW MUSICIANS, NEW OPPORTUNITIES

By 1971, Perry had established himself as a member of Jamaica’s musical ‘elite’ and, whilst his 1970 output had been dominated, to a large degree, by instrumental tracks, by 1971, he was starting to reintroduce vocals once again, with help from talented artists such as Junior Byles, Dave Barker, Little Roy, Carl Dawkins and The Righteous Flames and it’s the work of many of those artists that provides the core material for Confusion…

The studio band had started to evolve, too, with core musicians – Carlton ‘Carlie’ Barrett (drums), Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett (bass) and Glen ‘Capo’ Adams – supplemented by such personalities as Denzil ‘Pops’ Laing and Uzziah ‘Sticky’ Thompson (percussion) and guitarists Alva ‘Reggie’ Lewis and Rainford ‘Ronnie/Ranny Bop’ Williams.

51 TRACKS – MANY UNAVAILBLE FOR SEVERAL DECADES

As was the case with its predecessor compilations, there’s a lot of music on Confusion…  51 tracks, in fact – and many of them have been unobtainable in any format for several decades.  There’s variety here, too.  When Perry said that he wanted to explore new ground in 1971, that was no idle boast.  Amongst the tracks credited to The Upsetters, Dracula is a slice of keyboard-rich reggae-fied doo-wop and Kaya (Version) recalls the early ska of tunes like Last Train to Skaville, whilst simultaneously anticipating Bob Marley’s 1978 ode to herbal sacrament.  And, when The Upsetters are joined by Winston Wright for Earthquake, the result is a chunk of classic reggae at its most endearing – a sold rhythm, deep bass tones, sharp, choppy guitar licks and sweeps od summery organ that beg for the mojitos to be brought out.

Dave Barker’s mellow vocals bring a touch of soul to the version of King Floyd’s Groove Me and, to show that he isn’t a one-trick pony, he adopts a more robust, jokey, tone when he’s joined by Charley Ace for the vibrant Small Axe Version 2.  And, performing under his own name, Lee Perry ventures into jazz and blues territory for the stunning All Combine (Parts 1 & 2).  Aston’s bass and Carlton’s drums roar through the jazzy intro before piano, organ and brass all take their turns in a marathon set that takes in dub, jazz and blues and all the way back again.

FAVOURITE TRACKS THAT POINT THE WAY FORWARD

The fashion for producing reggae interpretations of popular hit tunes was still prevalent in 1971 and the example included here is David Isaacs’ take on the Dawn hit, Knock Three Times.  Sounds cheesy?  Surprisingly, it isn’t, and it’s far, far more enjoyable than the Tony Orlando song. 

But, if pressed to nominate a few favourites from this extensive collection, I’d think I’d opt for the two Junior Byles songs – Place Call Africa and Rub Up Festival 71 and Civilization, the song from The Classics that concludes the 2-disc set.  Place Call Africa is smooth and poppy, but it gets straight to grips with the issues of human trafficking and slavery – issues that reggae wouldn’t be afraid to confront once the door to that subject had been opened. 

Rub Up Festival 71, an early example of roots, points reggae in a different direction and that direction is explored further by The Classics on Civilization.  Four whole years before Bob Marley came to England and was provided with a group of white session musicians to make his music more ‘palatable’ to a white rock audience, The Classics – and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry – showed that they already had the tools in place.  It’s perhaps a shame that relatively few of us realized that at the time.

Listen to Place Call Africa by Junior Byles – one of the collections standout tracks – below:

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