The legend that is Ernie Goggins has just completed his epic Ernie's African Odyssey series where he has written about and provided some brilliant music from all 55 African Countries. It is a series that will go down in Blogging history and which has already attained legendary status.
Given that it was alphabetical the odyssey concluded in Zimbabwe. This got me thinking of the musical links between Zimbabwe and Scotland.
Ernie's erstwhile drinking buddy Zeke Manyika somehow ended up in Glasgow where he was friendly with one of my pal's sister and played drums with Orange Juice.To boost his Scottish credentials still further he wrote a song called Kelvingrove on his 1985 album Call and Response about the famous park in Glasgow's West End. I've just discovered that I actually have this record!
The Bhundu Boys were great favourites of both John Peel and Andy Kershaw. They traveled to the UK in 1986 and ended up basing themselves in the Scottish Borders town of Hawick. I saw them play twice in Glasgow and they were absolutely brilliant. At one of the concerts my pal Magoo sang along word perfect to their songs!
I am reacquainting myself with their 1986 album Shabini as I type.
Baba Munini Francis is a song about An Unfaithful Woman and a Mystery "Uncle" with Kuroja Chete being concerned with "Landlords & Tenants - The Rent.The Same Story the World Over (ain't that the truth?)
You are an appalling creep and also too modest to mention your own vital contribution to the series but thank you for the kind words. One minor correction - the series isn't quite finished yet, one final post to come on Friday if I finish it on time.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for plugging the Bhundu Boys, one of the many excellent African acts I couldn't manage to squeeze in.