"Good evening and greetings to you people of the Universe - this is the mighty Upsetter, madder than mad, dreader than dread, redder than red, dis ya one heavier than lead. We are here at the turntable terranova, it means that we are taking over..."Lee Perry has been part of reggae music since it’s beginnings. He cut his teeth with the pioneering producers Clement “Coxsone” Dodd and Joe Gibbs. But after a series of violent disagreements he eventually struck out on his own. While napping under a tree in his backyard, Perry had a dream in which he heard strange music. When he awoke, he began building his own studio on that very spot. When he was done he painted the words BLACK ARK above the door, styling the small studio as a dark analog to the Ark of the Covenant. The music that was recorded at the Black Ark Studio over the next five years would be reggae’s most radical sorcery.
The dark aura of the Black Ark attracted Jamaica's greatest singers, from The Heptones to The Wailers. Perry was always behind the mixing board - dancing, clapping, and blowing ganja smoke onto the master tapes as they rolled. Using fairly simple equipment, he was able to make four tracks sound like eight or more by mixing down several tracks onto one and then repeating the process.
The Black Ark studio would not last long. Eventually Perry himself burned it down. "The Black Ark was too black and too dread," Perry explained later. "I have to burn it down, to save me head.”
Here are a few songs from the Black Ark period:
Croaking Lizard |
Jah Jah ah Natty Dread |
Bird in Hand |