In the late 1950s a country boy came to Kingston with dreams of making it in the music industry. Over the next few decades, Lee “Scratch” Perry revolutionised Jamaican music, first helping to develop reggae, and then almost single-handedly inventing dub. Along the way he worked with numerous musicians, as well as becoming a recording artist in his own right.
In this candid account of his life, Perry recalls mentoring a young Bob Marley and setting up the Black Ark studio where he made his greatest work. He also details his eventual disillusionment with Jamaica and his flight to Europe, where he spent years in a fog of drink and drugs before going clean and returning triumphantly to music. Featuring some of Perry’s best-loved songs and interviews with a host of music stars, The Upsetter is as much a history of 30 years of Jamaican music as it is an extraordinary portrait of a true genius.
