Manu Dibango - Soul Makossa
PrimeCutsLtd
jersey fresh 2,632 Posts
damn, this album is good. I was thinking about posting about it. Then I went on Captains Crate and there was a post about Manu Dibango. Yea I knew about soul makossa but the rest of the album is great as well. Serving myself a late pass.....
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and the source of my soulseek and gmail moniker, [email]MakossaMan@gmail.com.[/email] That album is like progressive-afro-funk
Does anyone know if there is a vinyl version of his song "From Congo" that was included in a recent Manu cd comp?
and so easy to find for $8. My appreciation for this man is huge. Just copped the L'African Team LP (posted in the crate) from a setsale by jinx74. good looks dude.
NONE of these covers matched up to the original. Every last one had some glaring deficiency (including a sax player who kept messing up Dibango's high notes). That's how unfuckwitable "Soul Makossa" - as done by Dibango - is.
But have you heard the NewJerseyWimmenBackkupFantasia that comprises JABLONSKI? HUH?
I agree with pickwick that most covers of Soul Makossa are lacking, this is by far the best version. They have great female back-ups. It happens to be a Jamaican band that recorded for Randy's in Kingston which was owned by a Chinese-Jamaican family.
And this was one of the versions I picked up, too!
Still got it, and evidently it didn't make much of an impression - Manu had the last word on the Makossa and wasn't nobody gonna take that away, IMO. But since you seem to be so stoked on this version, maybe I'll give it another chance.
Other versions I picked up that day:
- Mighty Tom Cats on Winley (a/k/a Paul Winley decides to bootleg the original before it came out Stateside)
- All Dyrections on Buddah
- Michael Olatunji on Paramount
...and maybe some others that I don't rightly remember as I sit here. (They didn't have the two most famous versions by Manu Dibango and Afrique, by the way, but I had those so it's cool.) [/b]
I agree with pickwick that most covers of Soul Makossa are lacking, this is by far the best version. They have great female back-ups. It happens to be a Jamaican band that recorded for Randy's in Kingston which was owned by a Chinese-Jamaican family.
Wonder how the band came up with a Polish-sounding name.
As the Beatles, the Kinks, the Hollies and quite a few other sixties groups from overseas will tell you, US labels used to butcher foreign albums something terrible. What might have been a 14-tracker across the water somehow morphed into a 12-tracker by the time it was out in the States. I'm assuming that's the way it went down with Manu Dibango.
I was sort-of kidding about the almighty Jablonski. I like it fine enough.
I know what you're saying, but this wasn't the same as a rock release - and it was later on (70/71?)... I'm pretty sure I've seen a French LP (which looked like a EP cuz it was more like an afrobeat release, few songs) with different packaging/tracks... I don't know the details though so I haven't been able to google it.
yeah...
i have the Canadian pressings of the first two LP's, and the beatles analogy is apt, as it's just like one or two tracks are switched around on the american LP's... i would say cop the foreign pressings if you can, they're a little better paced (IMO)...
the OG pressing of the 7" is on the Fiesta label out of france...
as for covers, the Simon Kenyatta (gotta be a made up name based on Robin Kenyatta) one has always seemed to be the most pointless... i like the Byron Lee one...
US record companies were still doing that "switcheroo" shit with foreign releases in 1970-71, and I have a hunch they didn't necessarily have to be "rock," either.
...yeah, that was one of the other "Makossa" remakes I picked up in Baltimore, now that I've been reminded. On the Avco label.
great nighttime listening pleasure..
When Soul Makossa became an underground hit it was only available as a French import. The Fiesta 45 might be more common than the Atlantic one.
The reason that there are so many cover versions (I believe) is because the original was not readily available, and the artists was unknown to many. Thus when Atlantic issued it in the states they stuck that "Original" sticker on it.