The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #75751 Message #1345825
Posted By: Azizi
02-Dec-04 - 07:19 PM
Thread Name: Best Rock versions of traditional songs
Subject: RE: Best Rock versions of traditional songs
With regard to Soloman Linda's Mbube {The Lion Sleeps Tonight},
a very interesting book that I'm reading "African Stars: Studies in Black African Performance" {Veit Erlmann;Chicago, University of Chicago Press,1991} gives a fascinating account of the composition of this song. I quote from the book:
"In 1939...He [Soloman Popolo Linda]decided to take a job offer as packer at Gallo's newly opened record pressing plant in Roodepoort [South Africa]. His choir soon attracted the attention of Gallo's talent scout Griffith Motsieloa, and before long one of Linda's songs,
"Mbube {Lion}(Gallo GE 829, reissued on Rounder 5052, A5) topped the list of the country's best selling recordings for the African listenership. Like most isicathamiya tunes, "Mbube" was based on a wedding song which Linda and his friends had picked up from young girls in Msinga [a very poor section of Natal, South Africa] and whose words commemorated the killing of a lion cub by the young Soloman and his herdsboy friends.
While neither the words of "Mbube" nor its anchorage in a wedding song were particularly original, in the view of [Linda's group] Evening Bird member Gilbert Madonda, it was Linda's performance style in conjunction with other innovations that revolutionized migrant workers choral performance styles [referred to as "isicathamiya" and also known as "boloha" or "umbholoho"]".
Given the fact that "Mbube" {The Lion Sleeps Tonight}is based on a folk song, couldn't it be classified as a folk song inspite of its known author? Or does it depend on how much Linda added to the composition? It's unlikely that we'll ever know how much he changed the wedding song that he heard...
It's ironic that I found this song mentioned in this thread today as another thread on African Mudcatters caused me to think just this morning about what African folk songs I knew. Too few... This one, "Che Che Kule", and "Funga Alafia".{I don't count "Kumbayah" this list as that is actually a Gullah African American spiritual.
Well, sorry about the thread creep, but I hope the information about "Mbube" is of interest to some members & guests.