Personnel includes: Lee Perry (vocals, percussion); The Heptones, Max Romeo, Junior Murvin, Earl George Faith, The Meditations, The Congos, Errol Walker, Davon Irons, Raphael Green, Winston "Dr. Alimantado" Thompson, Lester "Dillinger" Bullocks, Pat "Jah Lion" Francis, Michael "Mikey Dread" Campbell, Enos Barnes, Junior Dread, Marcia Griffiths, Cynthia Schloss, Full Experience (vocals); Earl "Chinna" Smith, Geoffery Chung, Robert "Billy Boy" Johnson, Phill (guitar); Richard "Dirty Harry" Hall (saxophone); Vin "Don D. Jr." (trombone); Theophieius Beckford (piano); Augustus Pablo (melodica); Winston Wright (organ); Robbie Shakespeare (bass); Mikey "Boo" Richards, Lowell "Sly" Dunbar (drums); Noel "Skully" Simms, Uziah "Sticky" Thompson (percussion).
Recorded at The Black Ark, Kingston, Jamaica between 1975 and 1979.
Personnel: Lee "Scratch" Perry (vocals, percussion); Cynthia Schloss, Danny Clarke, Earl Morgan, Roydel Johnson, Aura Lewis, Lester Bullocks, Barry Llewellyn, Candy McKenzie, Pamela Reed, Junior Dread, Junior Murvin , Leroy Sibbles, Max Romeo, Michael Campbell, Ansel Cridland, Raphael Green, Watty Burnett, Winston Watson, Cedric Myton (vocals); Earl "Chinna" Smith, Ernest Ranglin, Geoffrey Chung, Robert Johnston, Willie Lindo, Ranny "Bop" Williams (guitar); Egbert Evans (flute); Augustus Pablo (melodica); Richard "Dirty Harry" Hall, Glen DaCosta (saxophone); David Madden, Bobby Ellis (trumpet); Vin Gordon (trombone); Keith Stirling, Theophilus Beckford (piano); Robert Lyn, Winston Wright (organ); Sly Dunbar, Mikey "Boo" Richards, Basil "Benbow" Creary (drums); Noel "Scully" Simms, Uziah "Sticky" Thompson (percussion).
Liner Note Author: Steve Barrow.
Recording information: Black Ark (1975-1979).
Photographers: Adrian Boot; Dennis Morris; Steve Barrow.
Black Ark was the name of a one-room shack studio that Lee Perry built in the garden of his home at 5 Cardiff Crescent in the Washington Gardens suburb of Kingston, Jamaica. Beginning in 1974, he helped revolutionize the use of a studio as a musical instrument, while making some of the most sumptuous and grooving reggae records of that decade. ARKOLOGY documents only a thin slice of his studio's rich history, but even that slice is enough to overstuff three discs with hits, dubs and previously unheard treats.
Here you'll find the obvious choices that should be a part of any good reggae collection: international hits like Max Romeo's "War Ina Babylon," Junior Murvin's "Police And Thieves," George Faith's "To Be A Lover," Perry's own "Curly Locks," among many others. But you'll also find the ultra-rare dub versions of these tracks, in their brazenly deconstructed state by Perry and his faithful and ever-evolving band of Upsetters. ARKOLOGY serves multiple purposes and satisfies mightily over its three installments. minimize