Reggae legend Lee Scratch Perry is cosmic. And now likes BitTorrent

Reggae luminary and cosmic traveller Lee Scratch Perry is embracing BitTorrent technology at 78 years of age.

Perry has worked with nearly every reggae legend as a producer, writer, and composer spanning a 50-plus year career — he was one of the first to produce Bob Marley in the early 1970s in Jamaica — and now he’s released his first song on BitTorrent, a new track called “Jesus is a Soul Man.” It marks a seismic shift for the singer.

Perry’s enthusiasm for BitTorrent technology dovetails with the new documentary about his colorful life. The film is called “The Upsetter: The Life and Music of Lee Scratch Perry.”

Academy Award winner Actor Benecio Del Toro narrates the film.

According to the film promoters:

Filmmakers Ethan Higbee and Adam Bhala Lough spent seven years documenting the strange world of Scratch Perry; and another three self-distributing the film to over 80 theaters across the globe. Their film, The Upsetter, narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Benicio Del Toro, is Scratch’s story, his footage, and his words: an uncommon look at one of music’s (maybe last) true eccentrics and agitators. 

Perry — called Scratch by his friends — has embraced cutting edge technology since he launched his career in the late 1960s. He’s known as a studio wizard who makes magic happen and was one of the first reggae titans to use a computer in the sound room.

The BitTorrent move makes perfect sense. The peer-to-peer file sharing protocol is one of the easiest ways to transmit and distribute large data files on the Net.

Long live the disrupter!