Lee Perry Overated?Overfetish-ized?Overexoticized?
batmon
27,574 Posts
Is Lee Perry's myth larger than his artistic contributions? Are his artistic contributions really that distinctive? I dont want to bring anyone's idols down, I'm just askin.
Comments
like many all his stuff isn't
but when it is
1975-79 was my fave era
black ark 12" rule
heat in the city 7"
blue bells "come along"
rainy night in portland
them ain't over rated
Yo man, I have a 3-cd set that is pretty much
I can't really overstate his artistic contributions... wait until KL finds this thread!
in my opinion lee is not over anything, just a great musician who spent a lot of time making music.
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K.
K.
You guys may find this funny but I've never read any book on Perry, so image/industry stories could mean less to me. I'm basing it on the records in this room right now.
Dude had it going on from his early Studio 1 days until '80.
i think he lost it after 79,
i mean the sherwood & mad p stuff is ok to good,
nothing too hard
& some of that wackies & heartbeat stuff were just gawd awfull
respect the legend, but he has some clunkers
who likes "love can run faster" - robert palmer ??
i do
fuck george clinton...
fuck sun ra...
fuck james brown...
fuck em' all...
marley in a way is overrated just because large populations of assholes believe he is the godfather of reggae or whatever. assholes who think on that level don't even know who lee perry is. those assholes being the majority of the free world (outside of ja). lee perry is still operating at flyspeck level on the overall. if anything he needs more hype, considering exactly how much he contributed to jamaican music by and large. also adding the fact that he is basically an outsider artist and complete fucking mystery. he needs more light if anything.
However, I do think that a certain racism informs the popular conception of him and the idea that he is some sort of mad genius, specifically that his madness is part and parcel of his genius. The fact is that all of his great work was produced when he was in full possession of his faculties. He then cracked up around 1979 and, having become truly mad, never produced another noteworthy recording, much less one that could be described as genius. I don't even rate all that Mad Professor/Adrian Sherwood/etc. crap as part of the Perry catalog. He's a very disturbed man and has been for a long time, but motherfuckers want to act like he's supposed to be that way--like he's some sort of shaman or mystic--when they would never say that type of dumb shit if it was their own grandfather that had cracked up.
over-fetishized?
huh?
he is among the greatest producers. Black Ark was the hub for some seriously creative and innovative shit.
i'm gonna have to go with Kevin on this. smoke some shit and listen closely.
Exhibit A
Exhibit B-iooootchh
Marley with Perry was most of the best shit the Wailers ever did...although it was not the best shit Perry ever did (Max Romeo-Holla!) Still, I feel like you can't argue "Marley vs Perry," because they are too involved with each other to be seen as opposing forces.
Three CDs. Played to shit. Now "scratched". May need to reinvest.
that's my shit. a reggae song with like 4 changes? unheard of... dope as fuck... lately, i've been feeling the disco devil 12", which is off the chain...
Lee Perry overrated?
People funny boy.
Perry's work is amazing, creative, and influential throughout the early major movements of modern Jamaican music ( ska, rocksteady, reggae, and dub).
Add that with his winning and cryptic personality and I'm surprised he's not more of a musical icon.
Underrated?
Yes!
I think Perry suffers from the "Ike Turner Syndrome". Due to the popularity of Bob Marley, his contributions are often over looked and only realy appreciated by those who dig a little deeper into the music than wearing a tie dyed "One Love" t-shirt with a giant pot leaf on it.
Outside of true music lover's circles, Jamaican music starts and ends with Marley and Lee Perry is just a footnote in the suburban white dude with salon bought dreadlocks ganja smokin' impostafari cult of Marley handbook.
Genius?
Most definitely.
I think the reason there is so much talk here ( and maybe one would get a sense of "overrated") of artists like Perry, Sun Ra, Ike Turner, and such is because we can. In other circles I just get scratching heads and sometimes a "oh yeah, I heard of him".
Deep beats and deep crates,
SonicReducer
(TEAMAARON)
Real Talk.
DUDE, Marley is like the messiah. One time Cody, Brenda, and me went to my dad's cottage up north and we brought the most killer 'kine bud with hus braaaaaaaaah. We must of listened to "Legend" the whooooooole weekend. God, it was sooo coool, I wish I was like Jamaican and stuff, they are so frickin' coooool [/b]
It seems there is some overlap w/ these type of reggae fans regarding Perry.
LOL