lee scratch perry Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The last thing you want to see in your rear view mirror when it's past 2:00 in the morning and you're half a mile from where you're staying are flashing red lights. Yup, I got pulled over last night by a very polite police officer. After quizzing me about what I was doing on that lonely road and learning that I'd only had one beer five hours before (remember: don't drink and drive), he informed me that my license plate light was burned out. He returned my driver's license and proof of insurance along with the admonishment to get my broken light fixed. I sighed in relief and cautiously finished driving to my friend's place, about 20 miles north of where all the action is happening at South By Southwest.

Earlier in the day, I managed to dodge the rest of the Cinematical crew -- honestly, I think they were playing ding dong ditch with me -- and arrived in plenty of time for my first screening at the beautiful Paramount Theatre. Super High Me is very funny, if somewhat muddled, take on Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me; comedian Doug Benson decides that he will get high from smoking marijuana every day and documents it on camera. Benson led a very entertaining post-screening Q&A.

From there I walked about ten minutes to the Alamo Ritz, where a much smaller crowd sat through music doc The Upsetter, based on the life and music of Lee "Scratch" Perry. I'll have more to say about that one as soon as I get my review written up. After that I retrieved my car and drove a few miles south to the Alamo Lamar multiplex in time to see a "secret" screening of Baghead, which was described by Eric D. Snider as "a blast of fresh air" -- I totally agree. Filmmakers Mark and Jay Duplass were present along with members of the cast and crew for another entertaining, relaxed Q&A session. That put me in a good mood, which came in handy for my meeting with Friendly Mister Policeman.

Is there some unwritten rule that every ground-breaking musician must also have a screw loose? I don't mean to assert that Lee "Scratch" Perry is actually mentally deficient, but on the basis of the footage compiled in the documentary The Upsetter: The Life & Music of Lee "Scratch" Perry, it would be easy to conclude that something is not quite right with Mr. Perry.

One of the reasons I wanted to see this particular doc is because I hoped to learn more about Perry, oft described as a legendary musical figure. I first heard about him when he worked with The Clash to produce their version of Junior Marvin's "Police and Thieves" in the late 1970s, but as The Upsetter shows, Perry first rose to fame in the 1960s as the talented producer of dozens of ska records. Perry, who was born in a small town in Jamaica, credits his later success to a stint working on a construction crew building a highway; the rhythmic sound of rocks being smashed against one another made a deep impression on his musical soul. Eventually he got an entry-level job at a recording studio and worked his way up until he became a widely sought after producer.

The documentary is on firm ground as it establishes Perry's reputation, with a remarkable amount of video footage depicting the early days of his career. Perry explains that he wasn't satisfied with his success as a ska record producer, and so returned to his religious roots. Perry's inspired mixing of spirituality with ska led to the birth of reggae in the late 1960s.