Here’s a vocal version I’ve never heard of what is probably my all-time favourite reggae tune, King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown.
Here’s a classic example of how reggae tunes mutate from vocal songs to instrumental dubs and deejay versions – and back again.
This tune began life in 1975 as Baby I Love You So, sung by Jacob Miller and produced by Augustus Pablo, before the producer stripped it back and took it to Prince Tubby’s studio.
The dub version appeared on the B-side of Miller’s single but I first heard it a year or two later, as the title track of Pablo’s landmark instrumental album King Tubbys (sic) Meets Rockers Uptown.
It’s arguably the greatest of all dub albums, demonstrating the importance of the studio engineer to Jamaican music in general, and dub in particular, long before the term ‘remix’ was coined.
The drums, played by Carlton Barrett, hint at the double-time style of yet-to-be-invented jungle music, anchored by bassists Robbie Shakespeare and Aston Barrett, and decorated by guitarist Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith.
But the dominant instrument is Pablo’s mournful melodica, pushed to the front of the mix, while Miller’s ghostly vocals float in and out, echoing into the stratosphere.
And then… it was sung again by George Nooks, one of the lesser known Jamaican vocalists, but better known (to me, at least) by his alter ego as the toaster Prince Mohammed – most notably on the 12-inch version of Dennis Brown’s 1978 classic Money In My Pocket.
This vocal version by Nooks passed me by until now, probably because it was only released on a Various Artists compilation album in 1980, though I’m sure it was recorded some time earlier, and released on King Tubby’s label.
It takes the song to new places, with a new lyric, and a smoother sound, with a new dub by Joe Gibbs. And I now discover yet another version: a completely different mix, with vocals and dub, was released on a 1992 album, Who Say Jah No Dread, by Jacob Miller and Augustus Pablo.
It was also covered by Colourbox in 1986 as a dub remix with vocals by Lorita Grahame; and again by Dawn Penn – retitled Night And Day – on her 1994 album No No No.
Nooks/Mohammed also recorded other tunes with Dennis and Joe Gibbs including Light Up My Spliff and How Can I Leave You and guested on Give Up The Land by Horace Andy, and I’m In The Mood For Love by Pat Kelly.
Curiously, he had his biggest success since those days in 2025 with a cover of Little Green Apples in tribute to his old pal and soundalike Dennis Brown.