Lyr Req: Singing the Spirit Home ...

Subject: Lyrics tangent to Singing the Spirit Home
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 18 Jun 99 - 04:09 PM

Eric Bogle's song "Singing the Spirit Home" is one I want to add into my trio's repertoire. No problem there, but what I really want is the Swahili freedom chant they use as a counter rhythm in the chorus. The name of it is something like "Tsioalosa" (I know the spelling is way off but the pronunciation is "cho-cha-low-sa").

My own web searches only turn up references to it.

Anybody? Phonetic or otherwise?

---

Click for "Shosholoza"

Click for a song that used the tune of "Singing the Spirit Home"

Subject: RE: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 18 Jun 99 - 08:08 PM

Hi Jeremiah, best I can do is tell you that Pete Seeger recorded (phonetically) Shot-selosa. You might try Smithsonian Folkways.

Subject: RE: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 20 Jun 99 - 07:16 AM

'Preciate that info Rick. Thus far, the internet yields no further information. Pete did an album in the mid-50's called "South African Freedom Songs". Figured I'd hit paydirt, but no variation of the song title is listed in the discography. *sigh* The search continues...

On the bright side, I did find an interesting "Seeger-site". It's at

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JimCapaldi/

Subject: Lyr Add: TSHOTSHOLOSA
From: rich r
Date: 22 Jun 99 - 09:51 PM

Coul this be it?

TSHOTSHOLOSA (Road Song) traditional

Tshotsholosa, ezontaba stimela siphuma erhodesia
Tshotsholosa, ezontaba stimela siphuma erhodesia
Tshotsholosa, ezontaba stimela siphuma erhodesia
Tshotsholosa, ezontaba stimela siphuma erhodesia
Wena uyabaleka kweso ntaba stimela siphuma erhodesia
Tshotsholosa, ezontaba stimela siphuma erhodesia
Tshotsholosa, ezontaba stimela siphuma erhodesia

Words as they appear in "Travelin On With The Weavers" by The Weavers (1966).

Notes with song:
"It was included in the SouthAfrican show 'King Kong' in which Miriam Makeba appeared. That's the best we can do with the African words. They don't really sound much like that. The English goes something like this: Steam away, steam away over the hills, you train fromn Rhodesia. You are fast moving through hills, steam away, you train from Rhodesia.

rich r

Subject: RE: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 23 Jun 99 - 01:29 AM

Gettin' a LOT closer. Thanks. What I'm looking for may be a slight variation of this. In the Bogle version the word "zimbabwe" is prominent. Could be just a relocation of "rhodesia", but I believe zimbabwe is also the Swahili word for freedom.

Gettin' there, gettin' there ... :-)

Subject: RE: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: alison
Date: 23 Jun 99 - 07:55 AM

Hi Jeremiah,

The Wiggles (popular Aussie kids act) do it... and it mentions Zimbabwe

sho sha low sa (phonetic)......

I can't find any of my wiggles tapes or books.. all probably with the kids in their rooms... but I'm not waking them.. will try to get them to sing it tomorrow...

Slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 24 Jun 99 - 03:09 AM

Bless you, Alison. We're getting closer all the time. Couldn't find the song itself on the Wiggles site.

Just found out as well that the song's been published in Sing Out! Magazine; apparently pg 20 of issue v.31 #4. Not one I've got, darn it all. Anybody confirm if it's different from the lyrics that "rich r" posted?

Subject: RE: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: alison
Date: 24 Jun 99 - 03:59 AM

doing this by a process of elimination.. it's definately not on "the wiggles","yummy yummy", or "Big Red Car." still looking for the other tapes.....

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: alison
Date: 24 Jun 99 - 09:01 PM

well after listening to several Wiggles tapes (AARRGGHHH) I discovered that it wasn't the Wiggles it was "Play School" on a tape called "Oomba Baroomba".

so here are your lyrics

Shosholoza!
Shosholoza!Shosholoza!
Uye eh! Kulezontaba
Stimela sivele Zimbabwe
Wena uyabaleka
Wena uyabaleka momma
Kulezontaba
Stimela sivele Zimbabwe
Shosholoza

Sho-sho-lo etc........

All it says on the sleeve is Trad. arr. Lambert (he was producer of the tape)

Slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 25 Jun 99 - 01:50 AM

Bless you all over again, Alison. I think that's the version I'm looking for. Now if i can just find one of the CDs I have that has it, I can confirm it. I'd never pick up the words in another language just from a recording; gotta have 'em in front of me. Now where did i pack those discs?......

Subject: RE: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 25 Jun 99 - 02:10 AM

When Rhodesia became independent from the British, the name of the nation was changed to Zimbabwe (the Brits had named it after the colonialist Sir Cecil Rhodes) (Rhodes scolarships are also named after him--his extate sponsors them, I believe). --seed

Subject: RE: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: karen k
Date: 25 Jun 99 - 09:32 AM

Jeremiah,

Singing the Spirit Home is in Sing Out! vol. 34#1 (winter, 1989), not vol. 31#4. However, there is nothing about the Swahili freedom chant that you have mentioned.

karen k

Subject: RE: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 30 Jun 99 - 07:28 AM

Rhodesia + Zimbabwe. Duh! I KNEW that, too, and it just didn't connect. Good thing I'm cute, 'cause I ain;t too bright! :-)

Subject: Lyr Add: SINGING THE SPIRIT HOME (Eric Bogle)^^
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Sep 01 - 12:18 AM

In the process of looking for TSHOTSHOLOSA, I found this gem.
-Joe Offer-

---

SINGING THE SPIRIT HOME
(Eric Bogle)

1 They came for him in the morning, an hour before dawning
The pale white moon was waning in the African sky
The cell door flew wide open, and they stood looking at him
He saw no mercy in their hearts, no pity in their eyes.

2 As they took him and they bound him, tied his trembling hands behind him
He felt his courage leave him, his manhood disappear
His legs would not support him, so from the cell they dragged him
He sobbed and screamed and cursed them in his loneliness and fear.

CHORUS
Chains, chains, chains
How many souls have died in freedom's name
To some it is a way of life, to others just a word
To some it is a snow-white dove, to some a bloody sword
Until the last chains fall
Freedom will make slaves of us all.


3 With faces closed and hidden the white guards walked beside him
Indifferent to his pleading, they'd been down this path before
But other eyes were watching, other ears were listening,
Other hearts beat with him in his final desperate hour
CHORUS

4 From the darkness of that prison came the sound of his brothers singing
"Courage" their voices told him "You do not walk alone"
From their cells beyond the shadow, he heard their voices echo
As in love and pride and sorrow they sang his spirit home
CHORUS

5 Their song of hope and freedom rang inside that prison
It beat against the iron bars and hammered at the stone
As in their fear and hate they hung him, the last sound that filled his being
Was his brothers singing, singing, singing his spirit home
CHORUS

ends with singing of TSHOTSHOLOSA

Copyright 1986, Larrikin Music

Source: The Eric Bogle Songbook

Recordings on Dramtreeo 3, and on Bogle's "By Request"

@Africa @prison
filename[ SINGSPRT
JRO

Subject: RE: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 Sep 01 - 12:24 AM

Good job Joe!

Subject: RE: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: GUEST,BigDaddy
Date: 07 Sep 01 - 12:25 AM

Is the Bogle song about Steve Biko, or more generic?

Subject: RE: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Sep 01 - 12:37 AM

On "I Wrote This Wee Song" (1994), Bogle says this is a song he wrote about 20 years before about a young black man (unnamed) who was being executed. As they came into his cell, the man was crying. He was so frightened that he couldn't stand on his legs at all, he couldn't stand up. So, they tied his hands behind his back and they dragged him out of the cell towards the scaffold. And as they were dragging him along the corridor toward the gallows, he was still crying and pleading with them. At that point, all the other black men from the cells in the prison started to sing a freedom song, and they kept singing until the young man died. And it must have been the last sound that he heard on this earth as he died, the sound of his brothers in the cells singing to him.
That story, which was a true story, made a big impression on Bogle, and he wrote this song.

Theis is a pretty fair transcript of what Bogle says on the album.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: Amergin
Date: 07 Sep 01 - 01:17 AM

this is one of my favourites....

Subject: RE: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: GUEST,mick in belfast
Date: 24 Aug 03 - 04:23 AM

I can't help but remember Booby Sands when i hear this song. On the night bobby died there was a deathly silence in the h-blocks of long kesh , a silence i'll never forget.

Subject: RE: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: Big Mick
Date: 24 Aug 03 - 04:12 PM

I am digging frantically for my Eric Bogle songbooks (out of print, purchased from another Mudcatter) to see if there is anything else on this song beyond what Joe wrote. One of the most moving songs I have ever heard.

Back later,

Mick

Subject: RE: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: greg stephens
Date: 24 Aug 03 - 04:19 PM

Shosholosa is now THE rugby song in South Africa and Zimbabwe. it was used as a TV theme tune for coverage of matches on TV there, and is sung as an anthem by the crowds. Ladysmith Black Mombazo recorded the TV version, and I have recently had the pleasure of recording a fantastic version in Stoke(UK) sung by a group of Zimbabwean refugees.

Subject: GUEST,mick in belfast
From: GUEST,GUEST, African in UK
Date: 02 Nov 04 - 05:28 AM

...excepting that Bobby Sandes represented a bunch of fucking murderers who killed civilians and children, oh, and "disappeared" people, rather like Hitler's "nacht und Nebel". How dare you compare your filthy little outfit with the South African freedom struggle, you pig?

Subject: RE: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 02 Nov 04 - 06:01 AM

All right, GUEST,Mick and GUEST,African... let's not divert what is a wonderful thread into a mud-slinging match. No comparisons are needed to show Eric's wonderful song and the sentiments behind it. It stands on its own, wuite capably. Leave it at that, please.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Aug 05 - 09:34 PM

I think line 2 , verse 4 should read " Courage, brother......".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Aug 05 - 09:43 PM

In reply to African in UK, Mrs.Mandela/Stompie/Necklaces? Let he/she who is without sin cast the first stone.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Singing the Spirit Home (Eric Bogle)
From: lauren54
Date: 04 Feb 06 - 08:36 AM

Either way, you could say that it was about Biko or whoever because Eric doesn't give a name to the man.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Singing the Spirit Home (Eric Bogle)
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 05 Feb 06 - 08:27 PM

It was definitely not about Biko because he wasn't executed but died of 'natural' causes. See Steve Biko dies in custody.

Tom Paxton (Death of Stephen Biko), Wally Page (Biko Drum) and Peter Gabriel (among others, I suppose) have written songs about this.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Singing the Spirit Home (Eric Bogle)
From: GUEST,Texas Guest
Date: 06 Feb 06 - 01:50 PM

I, too, fell in love with this song some time ago and it's on the list to work up. I sent Eric Bogle an email seeking information on the correct pronunciation and meaning of the words at the end of the song, and, someone in his music family got back with me indicating that they had called Eric up on my request. They stated simply that he did not know what the words meant and that his pronounciation was, in fact, phonetically derived. I still haven't gotten around to doing it yet - all these damned Irish tunes keep blocking the way.
"St. Patrick was a gentleman, he came from decent people,..." Cheers.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Singing the Spirit Home (Eric Bogle)
From: GUEST,Dave Rado
Date: 25 Jun 06 - 06:55 AM

I love that song, too. My favourite Bogle song, though, is Leaving Nancy, which I think is the most moving song I know. See: http://www.ericbogle.net/lyrics/lyricspdf/leavingnancy.pdf. He wrote it after leaving Scotland to live in Australia, parting from his mother, Nancy, on a railway platform.

Dave

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Singing the Spirit Home (Eric Bogle)
From: Sooz
Date: 25 Jun 06 - 08:14 AM

He sang them both in Gainsborough on Wednesday - wonderful!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Singing the Spirit Home (Eric Bogle)
From: bbc
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 02:34 PM

As a mom who's very close to her son, Leaving Nancy has me in tears every time I hear it--knowing that parting is normal & necessary & trying to be self-controlled & not make it difficult for the child. For me, Eric has really captured it.

bbc

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: GUEST,ACR
Date: 26 Jun 15 - 08:59 PM

Absolutely love Eric Bogles "Singing the Spirit Home", and have just found this clip (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGpWDqYuQiA) of a South African boys choir singing Tshotsholosa (Shosholoza) (South African freedom song) and thought readers of this thread might enjoy.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Singing the Spirit Home ...
From: GUEST,ACR
Date: 02 Oct 15 - 04:40 PM

Another version of the "Shosholoza" lyrics:

Shosholoza, Shosholoza
Ku Lezontaba
Stimela sipum'e
South Africa (or Zimbabwe/Rhodesia)

We uyabaleka, We uyabaleka
Ku Lesontabla
stimela sipum'e
South Africa

With the suggested rough translation as:

Move fast, move fast
on that mountain
train from
South Africa

You are running away
on that mountain
train from
South Africa

---

I closed this thread because it has become a magnet for Spam. Please post in one of the crosslinked threads listed above, at the top of this thread. Thanks.
I reopened it in 2020. Let's see if the Spam has stopped.
-Joe Offer, Mudcat Music Editor-