The Upsetter: The Life and Music of Lee Scratch Perry

Ethan Higbee and Adam Bhala Lough's doc follows the reggae legend from his childhood in rural Jamaica through his modern role as an inscrutable guru to musicians from a wide range of styles.

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The Upsetter: The Life and Music of Lee Scratch Perry

Tue., Nov. 13, 7 p.m., $5-$8, Asian Arts Initiative, 1219 Vine St.

Every musical genre has its creation myth, but few art forms are as distinctly monotheistic as reggae. While Bob Marley has come to be the music’s face, he is the peace-loving, martyred son; the “father” is producer Lee “Scratch” Perry, and he is a vividly Old Testament creator. Perry is the very image of a mad genius, a contentious eccentric who pioneered the sound of reggae and invented dub virtually single-handedly. He mentored Marley and lent his singular vision to works by everyone from the Clash to Paul McCartney, but eventually the scales tipped from genius to madness, ending in his rage- and drug-fueled burning of his Black Ark studio, a shack that he had built literally from the ground up. Ethan Higbee and Adam Bhala Lough’s doc follows him from his childhood in rural Jamaica through his modern role as an inscrutable guru to musicians from a wide range of styles.

Tue., Nov. 13, 7 p.m., $5-$8, Asian Arts Initiative, 1219 Vine St., kinowatt.wordpress.com.

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