People Funny Boy (English)

Rainford Hugh Perry was born in the sky, in rural Jamaica, in Africa, or on Jupiter, depending on which version of his legend you wish to believe. The most storied producer in reggae music, his iconoclastic, sound-bending techniques have contributed to the music of Bob Marley and the Wailers, the Clash, and countless other artists, as well as influencing producers and performers from other genres, from ambient to techno. Though his professional start came as a record producer for Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd and Joe Gibbs, it wasn't until he set up his own Upsetter record label and released his first single, "People Funny Boy" (a diatribe against Gibbs, his former employer), that his career took off. Noted reggae writer David Katz's biography manfully follows the often-confusing trajectory of Lee "Scratch" Perry's life through countless feuds, magic rituals, nervous breakdowns, and copious quantities of ganja. The man whose twisted vision of the aural and artistic possibilities of reggae stretched the genre far beyond its dance music roots remains an out-to-lunch, maddening mystery--but Katz's chronicle of Perry's continued success over four decades hints strongly that there's more than a little method to the producer's madness. minimize