Elektra 45729, 1971
Most of you will recognize this from the Happy Mondays cover, though it may take a while. It's interesting how Happy Mondays internalized the original's anti-colonialist political message (Kongos is South African) and reinterpreted it as an anthem of junkie paranoia - in other words, making it their own.
The original presented here is pretty incredible. An international hit in its time, an ingenious mash-up of Glam and World pop and likely the first hit single ever to have used a sample-based beat (the entire track seems to be built around a tape loop of African drumming).
1 comment:
I've been catching up on these in a strange order, so have only come across this after listening to a lot of your other uploads. Suffice to say, this vindicates my opinion that we have very similar music tastes as this (and Tokoloshe Man) have been life-long loves of mine. I must however point out he was nowhere near the first person to employ a tape loop and is sadly, a myth.
It's a shame nothing else on the album even comes near the 2 lead singles, harking back more to his hippy acoustic pop era...
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