Roots Archives Forum

Lee Perry is insane, but at one time he was a absolute genius! eeka mouse is just lame i pity the poor sod.

@ punk- i dont know if many know about syd, some used vinyl of his came in where i work a few weeks ago and they are still there...

super ape wrote:my bets are on scratch winning the title.
hr, better known for his bad brains frontage (his reggae is pretty terrible), is another whack job, but i dunno if he can even enter the ring with those already mentioned....

yeah, HR is bizarre,but hey his reggae material is great! have you heard "charge"? listen to that! that's a good record. i saw Bad Brains a while ago, and HR is in his own universe...
peace

I think Scratch is the most high profile.

I've mentioned this before. I saw him in play in Bournemouth in about 83. He had no lighting rig, just him and a band, and he did the entire gig holding a torch just below his face. Very surreal.

I think it must have been the guy who started this Crazy thread

Funky Punk wrote:super ape wrote :my bets are on scratch winning the title.
hr, better known for his bad brains frontage (his reggae is pretty terrible), is another whack job, but i dunno if he can even enter the ring with those already mentioned....

What about Junior Byles? He went all Syd Barrett on us, had a complete mental breakdown and ended up as a crazy homeless guy, rooting through the trash for food.

Junior Byles can be as lucid as anyone at times. If he lived in a country with proper health support, he would be on some sort of medication to control his condition. Unlike Syd, lysergics disn't play into the equation. To call him a whack job is neither kind, nor accurate.

Long ago, in a different phase of my life when the only reggae record I had was "Double Barrel", I was a member of the Syd Barrett fan club and subscribed to their magazine called "Terrapin". Just thought I should share that sad piece of information with you. I'm all right now though.

Dave K wrote:Junior Byles can be as lucid as anyone at times. If he lived in a country with proper health support, he would be on some sort of medication to control his condition. Unlike Syd, lysergics disn't play into the equation. To call him a whack job is neither kind, nor accurate.

It wasn't my intention to disrespect the man with my post - I'm actually a huge fan of his work. Yeah, I could probably have worded things better. Sorry.

I had heard (interweb) that he'd done too much acid/whatever else in the 70s, which had made his existing psychological problems much worse, though I accept that this could've been an unfair exaggeration. Do you actually know Byles? I'd heard that he was getting his life back on track in the last few years and gigging again...

As for Syd... well, I've got all of his solo stuff on CD from way back. Also, last year, a relative bought me that 'complete works of Pink Floyd' box set on my Birthday. For some reason, they thought that I was a fanboy. Heh, some of their stuff is pretty good - but I dunno if I'd ever have purchased their complete discography of my own volition.

Funky Punk wrote:I had heard (interweb) that he'd done too much acid/whatever else in the 70s, which had made his existing psychological problems much worse, though I accept that this could've been an unfair exaggeration. Do you actually know Byles? I'd heard that he was getting his life back on track in the last few years and gigging again...

I don't think acid was prevelant in JA in the 70's. "Too much acid..." is Syd's claim to fame, not Jrs'! I have met him many times in JA (he was actually at my wedding, he brought a beautiful bouqet of flowers he picked from a lawn on the way there), but I haven't heard much about him recently. I hope the part about "back on track" and "gigging again" is true.

Return of Jesco wrote:Long ago, in a different phase of my life when the only reggae record I had was "Double Barrel", I was a member of the Syd Barrett fan club and subscribed to their magazine called "Terrapin". Just thought I should share that sad piece of information with you. I'm all right now though.

Nothing wrong with liking Syd Barrett in my book. I think he was brilliant! It's later Floyd that I don't like.

I always thought Big Youth had an agenda. He always looked on another planet when on stage, Still love the man though !