Chicken Scratch Deluxe Edition

They Say...

Review by Jo-Ann Greene, All Music Guide

In 1961, Lee Perry strode confidently into Studio One and presented label head Coxsone Dodd with a song celebrating the latest dance fad, "The Chicken Scratch." His performance certainly amused those present; unfortunately, the crowd was laughing at him, not with him. The idea that this studio gofer would go far as a singer was ludicrous, and Perry was disparagingly dubbed "Scratch" by the label's actual singers and musicians. But Perry was persistent, and useful around the studio, so eventually Dodd relented and recorded an acetate of the song, which much to everyone's shock went down a charm in the sound systems. That success didn't increase Dodd's faith in Perry's vocal abilities, and over the next five years the producer only occasionally allowed him to record further singles. It was, though, a formative period in Perry's career, as he honed his vocal performances and songwriting and learned the engineering, producing, and music business ropes. Thus, in 1989, the Heartbeat label bundled up a dozen of these crucial early recordings for the Chicken Scratch compilation. Now that set has been remastered and reissued, with a number of the songs replaced by the original single mixes, all bolstered by six bonus tracks. Like "Chicken" itself, "Feel Like Jumping," which opens the set, is an exuberant celebration of the dance, although here the lyrics neatly veil the actual sexual connotations of the song. But innuendo was the order of the day, and Perry gleefully served it up on "Roast Duck," "Open Up (Cook Book)," and "Rape Bait." All these numbers set the stage for the success of his rude reggae singles later in the decade. Perry did have a romantic side, as "Solid as a Rock" and "Just Keep It Up" illustrate. However, he wasn't a man to cross, as his lover discovers on "Please Don't Go" and "Tackoo." His "Mother in Law" gets a well-deserved tongue lashing, while on "Madhead" Prince Buster gets a bashing. Battling former friends and enemies on disc quickly became a favorite Perry pastime. The flip side of the raunchy, pusillanimous singer/producer was the fervid believer and warrior for justice. The jumping "By Saint Peter" and sermonizing "Cannot Wrong" represent the artist's religious side, "Hand to Hand" and "Help the Weak" his social activist side. On the slower-tempo "Run Rudie Run," Perry tries to reason with the bad boys on a 1964 single that signposts the way to rocksteady. On that latter single, Perry was backed by the Gaylads' fabulous harmonies, the Wailers gave the singer a hand on "Hand," while the Soulettes, who also performed under the pseudonym the Dynamites, featured on a number of his singles. None of these 45s ever bothered the Jamaican chart, but each and every one was a learning experience, one that held Perry in good stead in future years.