Great to see some good discussion about Greensleeves’ court victory over Scientist blogged below…
wayne&wax is typically on point with some great hyperlinkage and thoughts on the nature of ownership, which is taken up by dj ripley over at her place.
I don’t have a great deal to add to this discussion, other than what I said on the thread on dissensus.
Wayne hints at Scientist perhaps getting mad AND getting EVEN with a future release and of course, there are precursors for this throughout reggae’s history, Lee Perry producing numerous “dis” records aimed at former record companies.
There’s even one example using the “vampire” schtick which Scientist could revamp for the 21st Century (how little has changed).
The cover shows Chris Blackwell of Island Records as a blood-drinking vampire – but this is apparently (allegedly!) something MORE than a metaphor for oppressive business practices…
In this interview Scratch states:
“You know, that Chris Blackwell disgusts me, makes me want to vomit. He invited me to the opening of the Compass Point studio in Nassau and there I saw him drink the blood of a freshly killed chicken. He thought I was into all that voodoo and obeah […] stuff, and offered me some. It was disgusting. […] I, Lee Perry, will swear that before any judge, solicitor or barrister he could employ.”
I sincerely hope Scientist is cooking up some lethal dubs in his laboratory which go straight to Greensleeves’ head – he and his fans can all benefit from that…
Chris Blackwell deinking chicken’s blood! I remember this story and it has to be one of Scratch’s tallest tales.
Hilariously prepesterous isnt it? I imagine even Blackwell would think this was funny.
I think that was just one of a long string of allegations, including something like “you know why he has a picture of Jamaica on the record labels? It’s because he wants to control the island, going round and round”.
I’m pretty sure he ended up going back to Island Records anyway to record one of the Adrian Sherwood albums (Sherwood being someone else he fell out with) – and of course they did the Arkology set, I assume with his co-operation!
As far as I know, Blackwell (aka “whiteworst” – Lee Perry) has never denied any of it 😉
I beleve Blackwell tells the stoiry against himself.
It is of course essential to drink the chicken’s blood while fresh, though voudouns over here tend not to go for animal sacrifice.