Scratch

"Whip dem, whip dem," sings Junior Byles on "Beat Down Babylon," to the accompaniment of whip cracks that recall the ones on Frankie Laine's "Mule Train.

But lesser-knowns such as the Unforgettables' Bible-thumping "Many Are Called" and Perry's "Jungle Lion," a Skatalites-like take on Al Green's "Love and Happiness," are comparably impressive. Other noteworthy numbers include Max Romeo's throbbing "Sipple Out Deh" aka "War in a Babylon," the Gatherers' psalm-quoting "Words of My Mouth," and Junior Delgado's stunningly emphatic "Sons of Slaves." The Heptones' "Sufferer's Time," recorded at Black Ark, is paired here not with its flip side, "Sufferer's Dub," but with "Sufferer's Heights," where a vocal credited to Junior Dread (not the Brazilian Junior Dread active today) is dubbed onto the Heptones' backing track. None of these tracks is as freakish as the ones on the trailblazing 1973 album 14 Dub Blackboard Jungle, none of which is included here, even though David Katz, Perry's biographer, who compiled and annotated King Scratch, also annotated the 2004 reissue of that album. Featuring such singers as Max Romeo, Junior Byles, Junior Murvin, Leo Graham, the Heptones, the Congos and, of course, Perry himself, the set includes such reggae classics as Byles's "Beat Down Babylon" and Murvin's "Police and Thief," the latter popularized by the Clash's punk-rock rendition, "Police and Thieves." Doubtless unaware of Miller's contributions, Perry played a similarly pivotal role in Jamaica as producer and performer, a pioneer of the hard-pounding dub style that influenced punk, hip-hop, house, techno, and more.