Lee 'Scratch' Perry wants to remind people that he was Tarzan from Africa
- Text by Huck HQ / Rob Boffard
- Photography by Ashley Sebok
#14 – Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry
Reggae is a complex, dazzling, idiosyncratic thing. The genre is full of wild personalities, crazy feuds, and obscure slang. And Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry is the craziest, baddest personality out there. Even at seventy-nine years old, when he’s more focused on painting than he is on music, he is still a ferocious preacher — wild, free, chasing his own gospel.
A conversation with Perry is a journey through absurd non-sequitors and wonderfully bizarre imagery. On visiting South Africa, a topic that comes up in conversation:
“I am the last man going to South Africa. When I am in South Africa, I’m going to the jungle, to remind the people in South Africa that I was Tarzan from Africa. I was Tarzan and I just returned after all these years, came with all the animals and cannibals in Africa.”
This is just a short excerpt from Huck’s Fiftieth Special, a collection of fifty personal stories from fifty inspiring lives.
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