Tapper Zukie made one of reggae’s more unique albums with Man Ah Warrior, brought to the world outside Jamaica by Patti Smith.

This is such an extraordinary song, from an extraordinary album that I discovered after Patti Smith put it out on her label Mer Records, with a fantastically striking monochrome cover shot.

Not sure of the chronology but I think I’d already heard his Jamaican hit single MPLA, a straight-up song which sounds nothing like this.

Man Ah Warrior, by contrast, sounds as if it was recorded in an empty echo chamber with its stark sound of a bubbling bass, the simplest drum beat and a scratchy guitar, with the vocals sung-spoken – more like toasting than singing.

I remember Tapper Zukie coming on as a guest at a Patti Smith gig I was at in (I think) 1978, and then performing at her after-show party downstairs at the Rock Garden, a burger joint in Covent Garden, where Patti returned the favour by coming on with him.

It was a memorable night, not all of it for the best reasons. It included an encounter with a well-refresed young Scotsman who accosted me outside the party to admire my T-shirt (Graham Parker ‘Stick To Me’) before turning to puke copiously at my feet – the only time I ever met Brian Robertson of Thin Lizzy.