Q: Right, get writers credit.

A: Yeah man, I'm gonna tell Norman about it. 'Cause Norman is still a teacher in Jamaica.

Q: So go out and grab a copy, as "evidence".

A: Oh yes! I'm gonna buy it. That's the first thing I'll do. Whenever anything comes up I make sure I buy a copy. And peep... But the name of it - The Classics? And the thing is that now that you've said it, because we were... I think that's our name, yunno? That's our name, y'know? Our name... because...

Q: Not something Perry made up?

A: No, that's... Yeah, that's our name. Because we were in school then and you know when you're in high school and you feel that you're like... represent the school that you're in so you come up with a name like that. With a pseudonym that represent you, you understand me? So I think that... yeah! God 'ave mercy. This is beautiful (laughs)!

Q: By the way, what was the inspiration for that song? The lyric is unusually conscious for it's time. It's really roots reggae some five years before roots music became the fashion. I mean, a pretty laid back tune at a time when there was still a faster tempo in the music, so it stuck out somehow?

A: Well, that's... you see? Because you see what happen is this: When I was growing up and I heard all these love songs from the Sam Cookes to the Brook Bentons to the Nat King Coles and the Percy Sledges - all these great lovers and writers of love songs, I was saying to myself that I didn't want to be a part of that. And Norman was a revolutionary in mind as well. Because he was like against the system, or not just the system but the establishment in a sense of the things that was happening. Beca' we were living in poverty, people was even poorer than us. You know, Norman came from nothing. When you go to Norman's house, to get to Norman house you've got to jump over these green waters. Gunds in the water, it's green - it's still, and it's there and not going away, and you've got to jump over it to reach his house. So it was poverty. It was serious, serious poverty. So, we were saying to ourselves as being priviledged to learn English and povilarise ourselves with words, and things like that. We were able to put that together and say "Boy, somet'ing like this is needed". The lyrical contents are brilliant. I always think that from growing up, y'know? "Civilization, better organisation, to fight victimization, all the nations...". I tell you, we used to have the word "black nations" in there, and I took the "black" out.

Q: Why? You felt it was too militant?

A: Yeah, because I said no, no, no! This is a universal song. Not militant - it's a universal song. This is not just for a ethnic population, this is a universal. And that's how I write until this day. If you listen to all my songs that I've written, they are universally written. None of dem is in a corner. You know, and I still write like that today. I think that's a skill I've developed from a long time, to write universal and international lyrics. And it says... so we took out the "black" of it and it said "all the nations have gone astray, and they'll have to unite one day". So, there we are. So it was really roots music before roots music (laughs)! Yeah, I like that...

Q: Ahead of its time, perhaps?

A: Now, this is something else to write about, this is something else now. Have you heard of Helene Lee?

Q: Q: I think she was linked with Alpha Blondy for a while?

A: Yes, she was married to Alpha Blondy. So, I met her a few weeks ago. She wrote this book...

Q: 'The First Rasta'?

A: 'The First Rasta', with Leonard Howell. And now she is writing another book on rasta but she thought it best to come to me to get some of the history. First handed, you understand? So I had a good conversation with her and she wrote me back and she said boy, she never met anybody with so much information before (laughs)! It's like that... But, what I really liked about her writing this other book now is that she is taking rasta in its perspective from my point of view growing up during that era where the Morty Plannos and the Leonard Howells and the Reverend Henrys and all a those people, the Sam Browns, the Orthodox Church, all of those was coming through. And then now I as a person, I was even saying to my son the other day - he's 21 now, I said, "Listen to me, I'm not gonna go through all of this being a rasta for you to come and don't be a rasta, it don't make sense". It means that whatever I was doing was just individually for me, and it wasn't. It's for you. The next generation after you. And all the generations that is gonna come. "So don't come and tell me that you're gonna be shaving your face, and all a dat t'ing, and say you are my son". So him seh, "Daddy, why yu so rough?" I said, "I'm not rough me son, it's just simple, I did all a dat for my moral sake and sanity and that allows me now to parttake it unto you that you can be a better person with yourself also and with whoever you associate with". So him say to me, "Daddy, me understand you". Me seh, "Yu better, y'know", because what I was thinking of is Marcus Garvey's sons, none a dem came and took up the work...

Q: Marcus Garvey Jr did actually do that, maybe not to the extent that his father did, but... they still did it.

A: Yes, that's what I'm saying...

Q: What's the name of the organisation again?

A: UNIA, United Negro Improvement Association. So I'm saying, because this is all people that I know, I've met them from a early age, beca' my grandparents were associates of them.

Q: And Marcus Garvey Jr is working in medicine, in America?

A: Yes, he's a doctor, yes. So, I'm saying, my son is not gonna come like that. My son is gonna be like Bob's children. That's how I look at it, beca' Bob did all a that. Him seh "Not one of my seeds shall sit on the sidewalks...".

Q: "... and beg bread".

A: You understand me. So I'm saying the same thing to my kids "Listen, this is something that I've thought about over the years and I'm positive about and I'm sure about and I know, so I don't want you to do anything contrary". My first daughter, she's a rasta. She is just doing her Degree now in Trinidad, and the moment she passed her A-levels she just stopped combing her hair, started being a vegetarian, and that's brilliant. Because, that's my work. You know, it shows me that I did something good. She is what is called a A-grade student. She is the brightest student in Trinidad, to date.

Q: Alright.

A: So, I was telling my son the other day, "Listen...?" "But daddy I don't shave, I don't comb, I don't cut my hair..." I said, "OK, that's good enough...". So we can talk now as man and man, y'know wha' I mean? I'm so glad, yeah. And that's... here I am. Being me, it's not something that... you see a lot of people thought it was a fad! It's gonna be something that is just gonna be here only for a time, being a rasta, and then...

Q: You mean something fashionable, things that eventually fade away... as if the movement in the sixties and the following decade was a trend only. Even if a lot jumped on a bandwagon at that time, it's still a movement beyond any form of fashion, that can't take out the roots of it?

A: Yes. Like it was a trend, y'know wha' I mean. They didn't know that it was a livity. It was something that I personally transpired, to the fullness. And then it started happening where people... I remember this guy from Africa, looking for Bob Marley. Nineteenseventy... what was it now? Seventyeight. And I was up there sleeping and one a my friends them came an' call me, a few a them and say, "Bwoy, there's a man now downstairs who want to see Bob, he's from Africa, y'know. And he's got something there he say that he brought for Bob and he want fe show it to us, y'know" (laughs)! So anyway, we told him about it and come and meet him. So I say OK, I went downstairs, I met him, and the first word I said to him... you know, he fell on his face, and his knees, and his elbows, and bowed down on the ground saying to me, "You speak like the Gods! What can we Africans do for you? Tell us and we'll do it!" And I was like "Wha'!?" So me say "Hey, get up, man!" Me seh "Get up, get up!" Me seh, "Hold on deh! Before yu say anyt'ing on, weh yu a come for an' seh so?" And him say him a come to look fe Bob Marley. And I say well, Bob Marley was here yesterday. But is not a person weh yu can seh "him a come today". But 'im will also just come in. Ca' him jus' come when him feels like it. Him give we no warning about it, him just come in the night, any time of the day or the whole of the morning if him feel to come him just come. So if you wanna stay an' meet Bob you can stay. We give you a place to stay - you get food and whatever you acquire basically, and you can meet Bob if you want. And then he started asking me a few questions an' things like that and then he just looked at me and just said "You know what? Now that I've met you I don't want to see Bob Marley again". And he gave me these two books, and I took them. I read them in three days - I took three days fe read them beca' that's how I am. When I have a book I jus' read it until it finish. And pass it on to my friends so they can have a read as well. And I finished these two books, pass it on to my friend them and then someone went and told Bob that this guy came from Africa looking for him and I've got whatever he brought. So Bob called me one day and seh "Me hear yu 'ave two book for me ya know, wha' happen? Give me them". So me a seh "Ya 'ear me now - me get the two books, but ya hear me? See, if yu waan read them you a come a Trench Town come read them, ca' them nah leave Trench Town" (laughs). And they're still there now, they are still there. Yeah, those two books. Said a lot to me in that... in different ways. And the guy looked at me and said to me "Don't ever look for me in life again, you will never ever see me in life again, y'know". And I've never seen this guy again, y'know. I've never ever seen this guy again. Or even heard of him again or anything like that.

Q: You don't recall his name? There was one guy from Senegal called Mamadou Sekka who gave Bob an award in '78 I think? Don't know if he was some sort of ambassador or diplomat or cultural representative or whatever?

A: OK, I've heard of him. No, I don't think that... Yeah, because this guy was... I've never seen any one person - his nose was straight as an arrow! His skin was as black as crude oil - that's how his skin is. His lips was red like cherry, and his eyes was black and white. I've never seen anyone like that before in my life. And there was no pimple bum, you could see no pours on his skin - his skin was so smooth. I've never met anyone like that before, or after. Yeah, the guy said "Don't ever look for me in life, y'know. Because you will never ever see me in life again but remember - take care of those two books because I brought them to give Bob Marley because I know that if Bob Marley had these two books black people would be safe!" That's exactly what the guy say to me, you know! I'm telling you, man... So these things start showing me that there was a spiritual power that was surrounding the whole thing, what was happening, with my friends and myself. Those things now triggered my thoughts to go deeper. In myself, to find myself more. So we could even have this conversation we have today.