Album: Lee "Scratch" Perry, Chicken Scratch (Heartbeat/Studio One)

It's often forgotten that the great Jamaican maverick-producer cut his teeth as a jobber (and solo artist) at Coxsone Dodd's Studio One in the mid-1960s.,/p>

No one who treasures Scratch solely for his ability to make outer space come to the subtropical farmyard will find much on 'Chicken Scratch' to ignite his spear: the album is composed of the kind of generic, by-the-yard bluebeat/ska required by the Coxsone marketing operation of the day. But, Gadzooks, it is good ska, and it's shot through with the uninhibited creative idiosyncrasies that would later lead Scratch to greatness.