Lee Scratch Perry & Friends: People Funny Boy, The Upsetter Singles 1968-1969
(Doctor Bird)
2CD
Out Now
Doctor Bird have curated a double CD set gathering some of Lee Scratch Perry’s work as The Upsetter in the years 1968 and 1969. Nathan Brown suggests it to lovers of skinhead reggae.
Not to be confused with the Trojan 10 single 7″ box set that came out in 2019 with pretty much the same cover, this double CD set covers most of that ground and more. If you couldn’t afford the vinyl set, you don’t have a record player, or you want the extras this may be just the ticket. Among the 53 cuts it features all the songs on that box set bar one (Val Bennett & Upset All Stars – “Spanish Harlem”).
Lee Scratch Perry had set out in 1968 to become a producer in his own right and The Upsetter label was born. In the UK his releases would be handled by either Trojan or Doctor Bird. The Upsetter 1968-69 rocksteady sound that screams “skinhead reggae” chunters and grooves across this double CD set, which starts with Lee Perry’s song that gives the collection it’s title. There are some classic Upsetter tunes on here: The Upsetters’ Return Of Django (that even non-reggae fans will recognise thanks to its prolific use on adverts), You Crummy credited to Lee Perry and The Inspirations’ Tighten Up. You can also hear the beginnings of some of Scratch’s trademark chaotic interventions. However, there are also moments of pure soul.
Lord Comic toasts over The Upsetters for Django AKA Bronco, reminding us of the hysteria over Spaghetti Westerns in Jamaica while the keyboard riffs on the Ol’ Man River standard. Meanwhile, The Same Thing by The Gaylads could easily have made it onto the soundtrack of a Sergio Leone. All that is missing is an occasional gunshot ricocheting at the end of a few of the lines.
On Mad House, Scratch does sound mad, perhaps a sign of things to come that would eventually culminate in him burning down Black Ark studio. The infectious Eight For Eight by The Upsetters is an instrumental with an occasional demonic intonation of the title by Scratch, featuring an amazing keyboard performance reminiscent of the glory days of the Wurlitzer Organ. Lee Perry’s What A Botheration, The Upsetters’ Dollar In The Teeth and Val Bennett’s bluesy Baby Baby all feature in their original form and also as alternative takes. Baby Baby was the seed from which Return Of Django grew.
Stand out performances from vocal trio The Bleechers include Come Into My Parlour and Check Him Out – the latter being a tune I have frequently returned to over the years as a fine example of the Upsetter at his best. Their track Everything For Fun is included but not the song to which it was a B-side. One of my favourite Upsetter tunes from this period, A Live Injection is missing, but the cover of the single taunts you from the booklet, almost like a “Here’s one you could have won” moment. The Soul Twins’ Pound Get A Blow is another stand out tune, with a similar loping approach to Toots & The Maytals’ Monkey Man
There are a handful of Scratch treatments of familiar tunes like Acker Bilk’s Stranger On The Shore (performed by Val Bennett), Bob Dylan’s Blowing In The Wind (by Burt Walters), the trad children’s rhyme Farmer’s In The Den by The Bleechers and David Isaacs reggaefied version of John Denver’s I’m Leaving On A Jet Plane. Ten To Twelve is a sax driven Upsetters take on By The Light Of The Silvery Moon, featuring a comical imitation of a cock crowing.
Sleeve notes by David Katz – who wrote the authoritative and exhaustingly detailed biography of Lee Scratch Perry, also called People Funny Boy – provide a track by track commentary and contextual background.
If you dig that skinhead reggae sound you could do worse than, to quote The Bleechers, “Check Him Out”.
Available from Doctor Bird
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Words by Nathan Brown. His Louder Than War author archive can be found here.
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