The other week I popped into our local second-hand Buddhist bookshop, It is the books not the Buddhists that are second-hand, although they may be too if they have been reincarnated.
The reason I popped in was to take advantage of their permanent '3 for £1' offer on CDs. Usually there is not much to admire but occasionally you strike lucky, and I did on this occasion. Doubly so, as not only did I find three good CDs but when I got to the counter I was told they were knocking 50% all purchases to try to clear some space. So I ended up paying 50p for the three of them.
The CDs concerned were an early Rosie Flores album, an On U Sound compilation - both of which may feature in the future - and today's record of choice, a double CD anthology from Hightone Records called "Rockin' From The Roots". It came out in 2007, around about the time the label stopped releasing new material. At 17p for 30 tracks, it works out at less than a ha'penny a song.
I know some readers will be familiar with Hightone. Between the mid 1980s and the mid 2000s it was one of the leading labels for American roots music, a sort of Bloodshot for grown-ups. The artists that released records on Hightone included the likes of Robert Cray, Dave Alvin, Joe Ely, Tom Russell, Buddy & Julie Miller, Dale Watson and many more.
All of the above feature on ""Rockin' From The Roots" but I have selected tracks by two acts that I was not previously familiar with. As a bonus I have added one by the magnificent Gary Stewart, in my view one of the three greatest country singers of all time along with George and Merle.
Some of you might recognise "Can't Let Go" from the version by Lucinda Williams on "Car Wheels On A Gravel Road" or the later cover by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Until now I had always assumed it was a Big Lu original, so fully does she inhabit the song, so many apologies to Randy for failing to recognise his excellent work for far too long.
Back at the beginning of the month Khayem over at Dubhed shared one of his customarily excellent mixes featuring the works of African Head Charge.
One album that didn't feature in his otherwise comprehensive selection was "Heart", the 1982 solo album by AHC main man Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah under the name Noah House of Dread. We are here to plug the gap.
"Heart" is available from the On U Sound Bandcamp page for a very reasonable price. As the blurb notes "it shows a more harmony-driven and rootical side to his music, in contrast to the heavily experimental soundworlds that his main band were exploring at the time". Nothing wrong with that, I say.
1982 was also a good year for artists from the poppier end of the reggae scene. Our videos feature the 6th and 11th largest selling singles in the UK that year (although for context, Tight Fit and the Goombay Dance Band were both in the top 10 and Renee & Renato were just one place below Musical Youth).
Guest post for you today folks. A few weeks ago in the comment section of this blog George asked Mister F to provide a guest post extolling the virtues of German schlager music. Mister F then sent me the material below. Neither of them seemed to think that I needed to have any say in the matter.
It was originally intended for next Sunday, hence the title of the post. You are getting it early because either (a) it is too good to keep you waiting; (b) I was away and am now under the weather with the result that I have not got round to preparing anything; or (c) both.
Enjoy! Or Endure! As the case may be.
Mister F writes:
What is “Schlager”? Sometimes called Germany’s most embarrassing musical genre, it is
hard to define exactly. Yes, there are simple repetitive patterns of music (often using a
one-two oompah beat) with lyrics that are on romantic themes whilst shying away from
anything controversial - but that is a broad category.
And it travels far beyond Germany -
ABBA are sometimes classified as schlager or, at least, as heavily influenced by it. Indeed,
many countries entering the Eurovision Song Contest have frequently entered schlager style
songs in the past, although this has been dying out more recently.
So, to start with, we have Joy Fleming representing Germany in ESC 1975 with “Ein Lied kann
eine Brücke sein” (A Song Can Be A Bridge) - she came seventeenth out of nineteen
countries. Despite its low placing Joy’s enthusiastic performance made this a favourite with
Eurovision fans who mourned her death in 2017. Lyrics by Michael Holm whom we shall
hear more from later.
[Ernie notes: If Joy sounds familiar it may be because last year we featured the excellent "Daytime Nighttime" by her 1960s group Joy Unlimited here.]
Next up is the Greek-German singer Costa Cordalis with “Anita” which was top ten in
Germany, Switzerland and Austria in 1976. Costa had other talents too: he was a gifted cross-country skier and was Greek national champion twice. In 1985 he even participated in the Nordic
World Ski Championships for Greece. Sadly he passed away during 2019 aged 75 in
Mallorca.
Drafi Deutscher’s best known song was "Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht" (Marble, Stone and
Iron Break). Nineteen-year-old Deutscher had ad-libbed the tune during an audition at
Musikverlag music publishers by humming the melody and only singing the characteristic
chorus line of "Dum-Dum, Dum-dum".
Asked by songwriter Christian Bruhn what he
intended to do with it to turn it into a complete song, Deutscher replied, "Det machst du!
("You do that!"), so Bruhn and lyricist Günter Loose subsequently completed the song and
wrote the German lyrics to the melody. It became one of the most popular German hits ever
with an English version becoming a million seller world-wide.
Udo Jürgens, was an Austrian-born composer and singer of popular music whose career
spanned over 50 years. He won the ESC in 1966 for Austria, composed close to 1,000
songs, and sold over 104 million records. “Griechischer Wein” (Greek Wine) is a song,
produced by Ralph Siegel, which describes the longing and homesickness of Greek guest
workers in the Federal Republic of Germany of the 1970s.
Ralph Siegel was also responsible for writing "Dschingis Khan" performed by the group
Dschingis Khan at the 1979 ESC held in Jerusalem. It came in fourth place, but here is the
group with a more disco-oriented version of schlager and the song “Moskau” which has had
quite a long life resurfacing periodically such as during the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the
2018 FIFA World Cup in Moscow. The choreography in the
video below is frankly amazing, get your dancing shoes on.
[Ernie notes: The frontman Louis Potgieter was actually South African, but is unlikely to feature in my African Odyssey series.]
The second video brings us more up to date with the current Queen of Schlager, Helene Fischer, and her most
famous song "Atemlos durch die Nacht" (Breathless Through the Night), showing that schlager
continues to evolve and survive.
But before that we leave you with two classic earworms: first Michael Holm in a non-Christmas mood - “Tränen lügen nicht” translates as “Tears don’t lie” - and then Henry Valentino doing some
stalking of the woman in the car upfront.
In last Friday's post I mentioned that me and my pals were off to see Lene Lovich that evening. This created a great deal of interest - well, two people commented but they were people of taste and distinction - so I thought I would report back on how it went.
It was great fun. Lene was everything you would hope for, still belting it out at the tender age of 74. The entire set was good but I particularly enjoyed her version of "Supernature", the Cerrone smash for which she wrote the lyrics a few years before becoming a star in her own right.
In her comment on the previous post C described Lene as a one-off, which is true but not for the lack of trying on the part of others. Both of the support acts, Das Fluff and SHH, had female singers whose look and sound were heavily influence by Lene. The evening could perhaps have been billed as 'The Three Lives of Lene Lovich'.
Emboldened by this adventure, me and Mr F decided to take a punt on a mystery gig at the Shacklewell Arms in London's fashionable Dalston on Tuesday. For £7.50 we were promised two support acts - Healthy Junkies and Rats-Tails - and some "very special guests" as headliners.
We genuinely had no idea who the mystery headliners were until we got to the gig, and I was delighted to discover it was Girl Ray. They were getting in some last minute practice before flying out today to start a 13 date US tour. If any of our readers happen to be near the Sultan Rooms in Brooklyn tomorrow (Friday) I recommend popping in to see them.
I have been a fan of Girl Ray since their debut album "Earl Grey", which was one of my albums of the year back in 2017. With each successive release their sound has become less indie and more pop, with parts of the new album "Prestige" sounding a lot like old school disco to me. If I was forced to choose I would abide by the Music Bloggers' Code and say I prefer their earlier stuff, but I do like the new record a lot.
Here is a track apiece from the two headliners. The Girl Ray tune comes from their 2019 album "Girl", Lene's from "No Man's Land" (1981).
That's me done for the week. I'm off at the crack of dawn tomorrow to spend a long weekend in Amsterdam with my nephew and his girlfriend who have recently moved there.
I'll be back on here mid-week next week. The Africa series will be back the week after as there is still some digging to be done on the next couple of destinations. Until then, I'll leave you with videos featuring most of the acts mentioned above (I couldn't find SHH).
We are just shy of one-third of the way through our tour of Africa - so much done, so much more still to do - and we have arrived in Equatorial Guinea. Not one of the best known African countries, but one with some distinctive features.
For example, it is the only country in mainland Africa where the main European language is Spanish. It is also the only country predominantly on the mainland with a capital offshore. The mainland province (known as Rio Muni) contains 90% of the surface area and 70% of the population, but the capital Malabo is on the island of Bioko.
It also 'enjoys' the distinction of currently having the longest-serving president in Africa. Teodoro Obiang has been running the place since 1979 when he deposed and killed his uncle in a coup. He himself was the subject of an attempted coup in 2004 which was allegedly backed by Mark Thatcher - probably the last time that Equatorial Guinea made the news here in the UK.
Before the series started I only had two records by local artists, but I thought I only had one because the members of Hijas Del Sol are based in Spain and I was under the impression that was where they originated from. In fact they are an aunt and niece duo who had been performing together back home but only started recording after moving to Spain in the mid-1990s. Today's selection is from their 1999 album "Kchaba".
The band I was sure about is the Malabo Strit Band (there is a clue in the name). There is not a lot of information available about them but it seems from the Nubanegra Records website that the band was created at the instigation of the label in order to ruthlessly exploit them provide local musicians with a platform and a greater profile. It worked for me. This track is from their debut album "M.S.B" which came out in 2003.
With those two in the bag I then turned to the not exactly extensive Wikipedia entry for 'Music of Equatorial Guinea'. The section on popular music starts, encouragingly, "There is little popular music coming out of Equatorial Guinea". However, it then elaborates that "Pan-African styles like soukous and makossa are popular, as are reggae and rock and roll. Acoustic guitar bands based on a Spanish model are the country's best-known indigenous popular tradition".
We will try to cover as many of those bases as we can in the remainder of the post starting with the act considered leading exponents of the Spanish influenced style, the brothers Desmali and Dambo de la Costa. They hail from the island of Annabon, the most distant and smallest province of Equatorial Guinea with a population of just over 5000. This is the title track of their 2008 album "Luga De Ambo".
Bringing you the soukous we have Mr Titoy Bolabote with the groovy title track of his 2016 album "Botaka". Once again I have been able to find out next to nothing about him. His complete entry on the normally excellent Afrisson website reads ""Originally from Baney, Titoy Bolabote is a songwriter marked by Congolese rumba, soukouss and bubi culture [no idea what 'bubi culture' is]. In 2013, he was nominated for the Kora Awards in the Best Central African Artist category".
Unfortunately I could not find anything suitable to fill the Mandatory African Reggae slot but we have the next best thing - some Mandatory African Soca courtesy of Baron Ya Búk-lu. The Baron is known to his fans as "the king of rhythm", for reasons that will become clear when you turn on the track.
The Baron hails from Micomeseng on the mainland near the border with Cameroon, which may explain the makossa influences that you will be able to detect alongside the Caribbean ones. He has been releasing records since the mid 1990s and today's selection comes from his 2006 album "Fanglosofia".
The Baron has a brand new five track EP called "Eyangá" available on Bandcamp - the only record by any of our featured artists that you will find there. To these inexpert ears it sounds like he has made a conscious effort to scale back the shiny sounds and reconnect with his roots.
Today we pluck the second item from the bag of goodies I brought back from Zagreb, and it is one that I have been particularly looking forward to - "Jugoton Funk Vol. 1".
There are too many dull jazz-funk instrumentals on there to classify it as an essential purchase, let alone iconic or seminal. But there is also plenty of good stuff, as today's selection shows.
Our first choice today is especially for George. We know he likes the great Croatian singer Josipa Lisac. We know he likes prog flute. Let's hope he can cope with having both of them on the same record.
The second track, by Grupa Rok, might as well also be for George (and for Anita and Parsley). There is more prog flute and according to the extensive sleeve notes "Dva Jarca" means "two goats" in Croatian. They don't translate "Grupa Rok" though, so I can shed no light on what the band name means.
We finish off with an absolute cracker from 1970 by Sarajevo's finest, Pro Arte, featuring the mighty vocals of Vladimir Savčić Čobi. The very long title translates as "he who bears eternal sorrow has the right to sing". And so say all of us.
I managed to find this rather splendid clip of Pro Arte in 1972. There is much to enjoy - the music, the guitarist's shirt, the brief glimpses of the organist's pudding basin haircut, Mr Savčić Čobi looking like he's come straight from the office to the karaoke, and the audience.
Its Friday the 13th, folks. Unlucky for some of our musical friends, but not for others it seems.
I hope you are all immune but to be on the safe side maybe stay inside well away from pavements, ladders and lonely magpies until tomorrow. And if you absolutely have to open an umbrella indoors, don't do it near a mirror.
Links stay up for a month or so. If you are an artist or copyright holder and want me to remove the link, or if you want to get in touch for any other reason, e-mail me on leggies27@hotmail.co.uk.
