Lee 'Scratch' Perry- The Black Ark Years- The Jamaican 7"s (1974-1978)

 I see the studio must be like a living thing, a life itself. The machine must be live and intelligent. Then I put my mind into the machine and the machine perform reality. Invisible thought waves - you put them into the machine by sending them through the controls and the knobs or you jack it into the jack panel. The jack panel is the brain itself, so you got to patch up the brain and make the brain a living man, that the brain can take what you sending into it and live.

The Black Ark Studio was built in Lee Perry's backyard (5 Cardiff Crescent, Washington Gardens, Kingston, Ja.) .  He achieved an amazing sound using a rudimentary 4 track set up. The  interior was cluttered with archetypal (no pun intended) Perry eccentricities- the drum booth made of chicken wire ( I read somewhere about a  pond?). Mr Perry's  strange experiments inspired by mysticism included exposing the tapes to potentially damaging  substances (blood, piss, whiskey,candlewax, ganja and incense smoke... burying tapes in the ground etc....)
Too much stress in Jamaica, all the time. Everybody want money, everybody want paid. Everyone got problem and want me to solve their problem. Nobody gave me anything, people just took everything. Everybody take this, and take that. So the atmosphere in the Black Ark studio was changing; it wasn’t like it used to be. Then I decided to make a sacrifice as the energy wasn’t good anymore.

In 1979 the Black Ark burned down.
Mr Perry has given several contrary versions of how this came about.
1- he burned it down because he felt there were evil spirits at work there.
2- he burned it down because he wanted to avoid extortion from gangsters.
3- the wiring was faulty, which caused the blaze.

 Disc 1
1. Enter The Dragon - Lee Perry And The Upsetters
2. Hurt So Good - Susan Cadogan
3. Babylon A Fall - Watty Burnett
4. Curly Locks - Junior Byles
5. Dreader Locks - Junior Byles, Lee Perry
6. Stay Dread - Lee "Scratch" Perry, The Upsetters
7. Do It Baby - Susan Cadogan
8. The Long Way - Junior Byles
9. Three Blind Mice - Max Romeo
10. Three Times Three - King Tubby
11. Bury The Razor - The Upsetters
12. Down Here In Babylon - Brent Dowe
13. Be Thankful For What You've Got - Bunny Clarke
14. Woman Gotta Have Love - Jimmy Riley
15. Bush Weed Corntrash - Bunny & Ricky
16. Roast Fish & Cornbread - Lee "Scratch" Perry
17. Sipple Out Deh (Jamaican Mix) - Max Romeo
18. Ital Corner - Prince Jazzbo
19. Police & Thieves (Single Version) - Junior Murvin
20. White Belly Rat - Lee "Scratch" Perry
21. Sufferer's Time - The Heptones
22. A Wat Dat (7" Version) - Junior Dread
23. Mr. Cop - Gregory Isaacs

Disc 2

1. Vibrate On - Augustus Pablo
2. Better Future - Errol Walker
3. Mistry Babylon - The Heptones
4. Stand Up - Eric Donaldson
5. No Peace - The Meditations
6. Ethiopia Land - Pete & Paul Lewis
7. My Little Sandra - Leo Graham
8. Green Bay Incident - Lord Sassafrass
9. Think So - The Meditations
10. Home Gard - Michael Campbell
11. Travelling - Debra Keese & The Black Five
12. Peace And Love - Shaumark & Robinson
13. Dread At The Control - Michael Campbell
14. Forward With Jah Orthodox - Mystic I
15. Land Of Love - The Sons Of Light
16. Brother Noah - The Black Shadows
17. Thanks And Praise - Junior Ainsworth
18. Mr. Money Man - Danny Hensworth
19. Cross Over - Junior Murvin
20. Guideline - George Faith
21. Babylon Falling - The Heptones

http://d01.megashares.com/dl/SG11Xt3/Black Ark Disc 1.rar
 http://d01.megashares.com/dl/yWexfcS/Black Ark Disc 2.rar