Pop Quiz: Lee 'Scratch' Perry

Pop Quiz: Lee 'Scratch' Perry

Aidin Vaziri | Lee "Scratch" Perry is our kind of guy. That would be the kind of guy who helps discover Bob Marley, accuses Island Records label boss Chris Blackwell of being a chicken-blood-drinking vampire, worships bananas, eats money and doesn't think twice about spending an entire year living in the burned-out remains of his Black Ark studio. But let's not forget the famed reggae producer's incredible output, including mind-melting albums such as "Super Ape" and "The Return of Pipecock Jackxon." At 71, he's living in Switzerland and touring relentlessly behind his most recent release, "Panic in Babylon."

Lee 'Scratch' Perry
Q: You have written something like 2,874 songs in the past 50 years. How do you remember all the words?
A: I remember all the words, but if you keep singing the same words it could become a little bit boring, so if I can change the same song into a different song with different words with a set rhythm and a set melody, no problem.
Q: You've worked with everyone - Bob Marley, the Clash, Robert Palmer. But you're the only one who's still around.
A: I am blessed with words. In the beginning, (there were) words flying around on wings like angels until the words decided to become a god and call themselves the god of words and the god of sounds and the god of power. I have visible power and invisible power. Visible when I make contact with man and invisible when not making contact with man and the whirlwind.
Q: That makes a lot of sense.
A: Yeah, because I believe in the words, and the words are the whirlwind that gather the sound, that gather the words. The words are the words and the word is the god and the sound is the wing that, with the words, flies on the wings, which are the whirlwind and gather together a big sound which they call thunder - KAHOOONA! So I believe in visible and invisible power, and those visible and invisible powers turn me into Jamaican E.T.
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