Tiken All The Boxes

You are all very tolerant of my inane ramblings, and I would not want to push that tolerance to the limits. But in the unlikely event you can stomach any more, my blethering can now be found in a one-off feature over at Pop Goes The Radio, an excellent blog that whizzes between London and Galway with alarming speed.

Josh, who masterminds Pop Goes The Radio, has very kindly - if rather misleadingly - described 27 Leggies as "a wonderful education in, for want of a better description, World Music". When I read that this morning I immediately shelved the in-depth comparison of the songwriting skills of Gilbert O'Sullivan and Neil Sedaka that I had originally planned for today, and desperately looked around for something more in keeping with Josh's hyperbole.

Which is why you are getting some top-notch reggae from Cote d'Ivoire, courtesy of Tiken Jah Fakoly. Here are a couple of tracks each from his albums Coup De Gueule (2004) and African Revolution (2010).

"Kuma" - Tiken Jah Fakoly (2004)

"Ou Veux-Tu Que J'Aille" - Tiken Jah Fakoly (2004)

"Laisse-Moi M'Exprimer" - Tiken Jah Fakoly (2010)

"Je Ne Veux Pas Ton Pouvoir" - Tiken Jah Fakoly (2010)

Mr Fakoly is apparently banned from Senegal after criticising the President while performing there in 2007. Of course, he is by no means the only reggae singer to have spoken out against injustice. Here is another example.



By the way, for those of you who are interested, I favour Gilbert lyrically but Neil for his mastery of melody. Controversial views, I know, but - like Pluto Shervington and Tiken Jah Fakoly - sometimes you just have to speak out.