Dub Day Afternoon With Lee Perry

Yes, it's Dub Day, or has been. Not all Dub, but mostly. Lee 'Scratch' Perry at the control - who else? Yes, it could have been King Tubby, who's just as good - or is he? You can debate that one if you like. It started with the Blackboard Jungle Dub album, then just grew, the theme echoing through the whole day. I could have picked any one of the scorching tunes from that...oh the ghostly moan...

...wondering what made those tunes so compelling...the production, of course, and the playing, the bass-playing most obviously, how the bass lines sing and what they sing!

Then the Arkology set, not one of my favourites, but it has this...

...from Sound System Scratch...

...spending so much time with Scratch I realised how much I dislike many of his tracks, but that's inevitable considering he made and produced several million....but I still feel bad saying it....those tunes when he sounds like he's sleeping at the controls rather than really applying the genius ears that are wired to his outer space brain.

Me and Lee go way back to the early 70s, when me and the gang would put on our boots and do some of that o-o-ol moonstompin' - so it was a joy to hear this classic again today...

...you know how reggae producers were fond on nicking R&B riffs as well as each other's rhythms in the remix/remake universe, well here's Lizard Stick, not JB's Lickin' Stick, or Lizard Lick Towing, that TV show that I keep seeing as I scan channels without ever looking to see what it is...this is what this is...

...which is a rhythm steal from this...and you may as well steal from the best...

...I intended to chat more about Lee Perry but got carried away making the picture at the top.