Two From Sir Vic

Last time out we brought you two versions of the same song. This time we go one better - two versions of the same song by the same person.

Sir Victor Uwaifo is one of the Great Men of Nigerian music. He may even be as great as he claims in his extraordinary biography, in which he describes himself with all due modesty as a "maestro, poet, inventor, philosopher, architect, scholar and sculptor". More immediately germane to our interest, he claims to be the first African musician to have been awarded and gold disc (in 1966) and, intriguingly, that "he invented the double-neck guitar with eighteen strings fashioned after the Mammy-water esoteric encounter in 1967". More on Mammy-water here.

The first song by Sir Vic that I ever heard - and still my favourite - was this one from 1977:

"Five Days A Week Love" - Sir Victor Uwaifo

If that doesn't get you smiling then you have probably had one of those days where you get overheard insulting a bigoted woman in Rochdale and end up having to go round to her house and grovel in a manner unbecoming.

Anyway, the other day I was browsing on eMusic, where there are now a load of recently released albums of old Sir Vic material available for download. One of them went by the name of "Love And Romance", which included this little number. A different name but the same song slowed down into a soul ballad with freaky guitar. It is not as fantastic as the original but it is pretty bloody good in its own right.

"Not On A Saturday" - Sir Victor Uwaifo

And it is sad to think that on a Saturday night, while Sir Vic is having to fight the ladies off because he is too busy for that sort of thing, on the other side of town poor old Cat Stevens is desperate for a bit of female company.