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Since the dawn of recorded music in Jamaica, the man known as Rainford Hugh Lee Perry has been a wellspring of
innovation. His influence is evident throughout pre-1980s Jamaican music: as a singer, songwriter, talent scout, dub mixer,
producer, and more, his direct musical contribution is enormous.
Furthermore, his musical ideas have inspired not only
his contemporaries, but musicians to this day, even in genres outside of reggae. With an artist as important as Perry, it is
natural to want to document his life's work; unfortunately, the attempt to catalogue his entire musical output is not only a
daunting task, but most likely an impossible one.
Many details - who wrote which song, who supervised which session -
have been forever lost to the lack of records, fading memories, and contradictory accounts that accompany the passage of time.
Even though much of his work is so distinctive that it is identifiable as his by ear alone, it is scattered across a
bewildering variety of labels and scarce vinyl sources, often with his role uncredited.
This situation is further
confused by the eagerness of exploitative pirates, aware of Perry's popularity, to illicitly release his music in altered
form, or to try and pass off completely bogus material as his work. These factors combine to make certainty and completion
unattainable goals for a discographer.
This website, then, is not a finished product, but an ongoing project: a dedicated
effort at the impossible task of cataloguing and connecting the entire output of Lee Perry's creative genius.
With work, it
will continue to grow in both content and utility; in the meanwhile, hopefully you will enjoy, be educated by, and perhaps even
contribute to the knowledge gathered here.
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