By deeply connecting with the people and idyllic landscape of his island, Perry channelled a stream of ideas into mindblowing musicNews: Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, visionary master of reggae, dies aged 85Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry: obituary “Until reggae it was all Kingston … Kingston, Kingston, Kingston! Ska? … Rocksteady? … they were Kingston things with the same Kingston men doing the same Kingston things.”
Lee “Scratch” Perry – who has died aged 85 – was talking me through perhaps the most significant gear change in the earlier years of Jamaican
music – and was understandably animated, even by his own hyperactive standards.