Cow Thief Skank information

"Cow Thief Skank"
Single by The Upsetters
B-side	"7¾ Skank"
Released	1973
Genre	Reggae megamix experimental
Length	3:31
Label	Justice League Upsetter
Songwriter(s)	Lee Perry
Producer(s)	Perry
The Upsetters singles chronology
"Cow Thief Skank" (1973) "Buchanan and Goodman on Trial" (1956)

"Cow Thief Skank" is a 1973 single written and produced by Jamaican reggae musician Lee Perry and credited to his studio band the Upsetters. Released in Jamaica through Justice League and in the United Kingdom through Upsetter Records, it is one of Perry's series of 'skank' singles and is a duet between him and deejay Charlie Ace. The song was written as a diss track against fellow producer Niney the Observer, mocking an incident in Niney's youth where his thumb was cut off by a farmer after he attempted to steal one of his cows.

"Cow Thief Skank" is notable for its collage-laden production, which utilised a bricolage and studio-as-instrument approach; Perry samples four other tracks – several bars of a song by the Staple Singers and rhythms from three of his own productions – for the record's music using reel-to-reel tape recordings. This cut-up technique has been described as a precursor to the invention of the sampler and the use of sampling in electronic music and breakbeats and scratching in hip hop music. "Cow Thief Skank" has also been described as an early megamix, due to how it stitches together a selection of Perry's earlier records. The single's B-side, "7¾ Skank", is a "dissociated" version of the A-side.