Today’s feature is a cover of a tremendously moody funk instrumental from 1969 – very, very slow funk at that – apparently played by The Meters under an assumed name, with added horns and an echo-drenched clavinet (supposedly played by composer and producer Allen Toussaint).

“Tampin” sounds like it might have been written for a film soundtrack and is quite experimental in nature, but although it might possibly owe a debt to the chord changes to “On Broadway”, it wouldn’t appear to be an obvious inspiration for a reggae tune. Obviously legendary producer Coxsone Dodd and his Studio 1 sessioneers thought differently, and considered it eminently worthy of being licked over.

Dodd’s then current house band – The Sound Dimension – retain the funky wah-wah guitar licks from the original, but of course the addition of an improved, reggaefied bass line from Leroy Sibbles renders this rhythm, one of my favourite in reggae, infinitely more danceable than the original. There’s also some exemplary horn playing from trumpeter David Madden and Cedric ‘Im’ Brooks, who contributes a tasty solo, plus a spoken intro and vocal interjections – “I’m going to bust your mind!” – which are allegedly from Mr Dodd himself, hence the track being credited to The Boss.

The tune was also covered by producer Harry Johnson and renamed “Del Gago”, but despite the Spaghetti Western intro (which may or may not be a reference to an actual film) and an interesting but very basic proto-dub B-side, it has never been as popular as The Boss’s “Great Muga Ruga”. The uptempo rendition makes the whole thing feel too rushed, and the absence of solos from the horns gives the impression that it was recorded at the end of a session without too much thought put into it.

Perhaps the oddest cover was produced by the legendary Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, only appearing as an album track on the Bob Marley & The Wailers album Soul Revolution Part II under the title of “Memphis”, a lone instrumental in a set of classic Upsetter produced vocal tracks. Peter Tosh plays his melodica on top of a typically edgy, unadorned Hippy Boys rhythm, which may well have been intended for a completely unrelated vocal, although none has been found, as far as I know.

For completists, the rhythm track is also included in Soul Revolution Rhythm Part 3, which contains the rhythm tracks to the Bob Marley & The Wailers’ music contained on Soul Revolution.

Surprisingly, despite its popularity, I cannot find any other versions of this excellent rhythm. It wasn’t even covered in the mid-1970s when Channel 1 and Joe Gibbs (and everybody else) plundered the Studio 1 catalogue for their Revolutionaries and Professionals instrumentals, and there don’t seem to be any vocal cuts either. It’s a very rare case of an excellent Studio 1 rhythm remaining almost completely unexploited – perhaps its time is yet to come.

Chris Lane is a label boss, writer, producer and selector based in London. Subscribers can read more about his Fashion Records label in Neil Kulkarni’s feature in The Wire 421 via Exact Editions. You can catch up with instalments one, two, three and four of the series, too.