Lee Perry's Cow

[Dubac]

...just heard it mooing throughout the start of Althea & Donna's Going To Negril (Virgin Front Line 7"). I didn't know the duo ever worked with Scratch, but I haven't got their album to check the credits.

If they weren't there, and somebody just 'borrowed' an old Black Ark rhythm instead, does anyone know whether Lee himself released it under other titles and what it's otrherwise called?

Ta

Dubac

ps - if the Cow reference is confusing, I mean the unique sound effect he used regularly in 1977-78 eg at the beginning of The Congos Ark Of Covenant. I'm sure I read somewhere that he miked a cow to get the sound. Or maybe they meant milked....

[Professor Mushtaq]

I heard it was a cardboard tube and someone "lowing" through it

[django]

I read it was a childs toy.


All the best

Andy

[BMC]

It's all written in Katz' People Funny Boy. Prof. Mushtaq's story is correct, and that someone happened to be Watty Burnett.

[Professor Mushtaq]

I've certainly had a crack at it with toilet roll and a bit of reverb pon the mike but I still can't replicate it. It is a strange noise for a human to make.

[tim p]

It is a strange noise for a human to make.

Human...??

[Professor Mushtaq]

No, that's Superman

[JV]

I use different sizes and lengths of cardboard tubes at home whenever I feel the need to imitate a cow or an alpen horn. Yep, that's what I do. I just blow, blow, blow, blow, till I'm short of breath. hA HA..

[Professor Mushtaq]

I've blown, I've mooed, I've wailed, I've howled, I've hummed but I've never got it quite right. I do quite a good cow sound without the tube but can't get the full blown eerie Black Ark sound with a tube of any length. Perhaps I should bounce it down a few generations with a miked up palm tree and ...
he is superman after all

[Chocolate Soldier]

I think I got in the same ballpark once copping the cow vibe on a BLACK ARK 'tribute' track entitled Phase Anansi on 'RIDDIM CLASH' - released on the Japanese play label.

The secret's in the vocal performance - not the tube, if that helps..

My voice is pretty low too which helps..falsetto vibes shall not enter the cow zone.

[Anonymous]

Maybe this would help?



Respect

Gordon

[Anonymous]

Or was it this cow?





Respect

Gordon

[Professor Mushtaq]

Choc - I'm Paul Robeson when I want to be but still no joy on the cow front. I'll keep practising and getting funny looks on the bus ...
Gord - eating that second one could lead to Creuzfeldt Jakobs disease.

[Curly Locks]

It was a toy, I had one when I was a kid. It's a tube of cardboard, sealed at both ends with small holes to let air pass, as you tip it something inside moves from one end to the other producing that noise. They also made ones that imitated Sheep. They varied in size too.

[BMC]

Yes I know that toy, Curly Locks, a friend of mine had the cow-one too (it's a fun thing to annoy other people around you with ), but in that People Funny Boy book it says that Burnett blew in a cardboard role (empty alu-foil roles) and that was what created the sound according to Burnett.