Linking to the Bandcamp but they are on Youtube as well. They have new vinyl releases of some fantastic funk and soul spanning the last 5-6 decades in Africa.
Very different rent but this reminds me of the story of the US musician Sixto Rodríguez. Who became very popular in South African without him knowing. I recommend watching the documentary "Searching for Sugar Man"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searching_for_Sugar_Man
Prince Nico Mbarga was not someone I expected to see on HN. What a throwback to the past. Sweet Mother was practically required on the playlist at any event where your mother was going to be recognized in some form or the other (which is pretty much every important event)
I guess it must be intentional, but to my ear, the tuning sounds way off between the guitar and bass. Maybe this is part of the tradition or something, but I find it to be so far off, it's hard to listen to.
I was waching the other day a documentary a bout a rock moviment called Zanrock, very common in Zambia in the 70s. They would perform for great crowds and press discs in South Africa.
Unfourtunaly civil wars, the conflit in Rodhesia, and the lifestyle of Sex drugs and rock and roll in a country ravaged by AIDS, killed a lot of musicians destroyed the movement. A guy started colleccting old records and released on spotify.
of the bands, theres a great one called Witch that reminds me a lot of bands like Steppenwolf and Black Sabath.
Do you remember the name of the docu? I ended up in a small Zamrock clickhole when Ted Lasso used this track in an episode outro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjUOYLJ8IYI but didn't get much further than wikipedia and a couple of google results.
If you find the documentary, let me know! All I know, besides the bands (also, that "We Intend To Cause Havoc (W.I.T.C.H.)" is one of the greatest band names of all time), is that at one point they all played their shows in lock-in overnight parties because of curfew rules.
Thanks, it looks like some other people found perhaps a different one in the sibling comments. It's interesting it seems to be transmitted among the unfamiliar via youtube serendipity and existing Zamrock enjoyers sneaking it into TV shows.
Very nice. Made me think of Paul Simon, made me relisten to Graceland, the song. Always a great listen, great sound. Thought it was just about him paying tribute to musical roots, 'Mississippi delta' and all that. But wait what? 'after the failure of his marriage.'... 'Actress and author Carrie Fisher'. Well internet, Today I Learned.
Huge aside aside, aren't these songs a little similar?
Paul Simon was "inspired" greatly by African "highlife" music on Graceland. Some people dismiss it as plagiarism, but I actually think Paul was actually influenced greatly by a sound he hadn't heard before, and legitimately tried to recreate it and introduce it to a western audience. Having watched a few interviews with him, he meant Graceland to be, as you say, a "tribute to musical roots".
I personally don't care if it was plagiarism or not, as it introduced me to a bunch of artists I otherwise wouldn't have known, such as Prince Nico Mbarga and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
I imagine there are countless of individuals that are very famous within some region, but little known outside of it. It's not easy to have global recognition.
Yes, and it is also something that we are coming to terms with now that we have a more global community.
The hit in question, the one that outsold any individual Beatles single was from 1976. That was a time when most people received news from around the globe in print, with most of those print publications being regional and a handful being national. Something similar could be said for radio, though some people could hear stories from afar on the shortwave bands. That was more the exception than the rule though, typically of greatest interest to those who wanted to hear voices from their homeland or those keenly interested in learning about the world. (Even then, language was typically a barrier. When it wasn't a barrier, most of the stations were propaganda machines.)
Even though your claim undoubtedly remains true, at least we live in a world where those stories can leak out.
> Many of the artists in the list below have both streaming and sales included in their totals.
At best, this is a misleading comparison of apples and oranges. At worst it's an attempt to prop of streaming as actually compensating artists when they basically don't.
Rihanna "Had number one singles in five consecutive years in the UK" 2007-2011. "As of September 2018, Rihanna has sold over 250 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists ever." Her son's name is RZA Athelaston Mayers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rihanna
Although slavery is a society illness, the mixture of African and American (Caribean, South America, North America) cultures generated a huge musical heritage. Could this be the largest branch of music in history?
I don't know who gets cancelled for having multiple lovers, even extramarital lovers. Maybe it should be cancel-worthy (depending on your definition of cancel) for people who build their careers on "family values", but it's practically a plus for a rock star.
Depends where at the end of the 1800s. Belle Époque France saw adultery on the part of men almost normalized among the middle and upper classes, and everyone made use of prostitutes.
Don't forget, there was also reckless driving involved there and a ton of bad press. The only fallout was losing a few of his many endorsement deals. He kept his videogame. He kept golfing. "Facing appropriate consequences for your actions" is not being cancelled.
Him falling off his game is on him. Or are you really implying some entity "cancelled" Tiger Woods' golfing skills or there was some conspiracy to prevent Tiger from winning because he cheated on his wife?
I don't think Tiger sees it this way after he took a few months off.
But, it is clear that the inability for people to take responsibility for their actions and instead blame some bogeyman like "cancel culture" is a big problem. Enablers and others who make excuses for them are part of the problem too.
> Funny this is cancel-worthy sometimes, and in other times it's treated as a quaint personality trait.
You can see this same tension in Fela Kuti fandom and scholarship, where people almost have to choose between lionizing him as a anti-colonialist or anti-dictatorship hero and downplaying negative sides so that his sociopolitical impact feels more powerful, or deploring his treatment of women as something that tarnished his whole career.
> Funny this is cancel-worthy sometimes, and in other times it's treated as a quaint personality trait.
Yeah sometimes you see that in passing. Some famous people seem to get a pass especially if they are not polarizing nor brazen, as opposed to, say, someone like Donald Trump. But in the end, they hurt and abuse people all the same.
For example, almost every bio I've seen on YouTube about Richard Feynman treats his proclivity of banging his colleagues' wives as nothing more than some charming quirk or idiosyncrasy (usually to differentiate him from the bookish physicists of the time) at best, and a peccadillo at worst.
The worst description I've read yet of his behavior was summarized as: "he just loved women."
If women who were married to people who worked with Feynman had consensual sex with Feynman, what exactly is the problem? It might create a tense work environment, but you should be able separate work from private life.
Clickbait headline. It outsold any of The Beatles singles *in Africa*:
> “Sweet Mother,” his 1976 one-hit wonder, had sold at least thirteen million copies across the African continent – more than The Beatles’ bestseller “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
What's the clickbait? "I Want to Hold Your Hand" sold 12 million. Is the clickbait that it's downplaying the achievement, since "Sweet Mother" only sold well in Africa?
I'm still reading the article, but it's a fascinating, human-oriented look into a man's life, a man who is probably little known outside Africa. Answering the (implied) question in the headline is only a tiny part of the draw of the article.
Non-paywalled copy: https://archive.ph/Rw054
If you're interested in unheard music from Africa, this is an incredible project: https://analogafrica.bandcamp.com
Linking to the Bandcamp but they are on Youtube as well. They have new vinyl releases of some fantastic funk and soul spanning the last 5-6 decades in Africa.
Pro tip to anyone looking for a place to start: a lot of disco tracks that came out of Nigeria in the 70s/80s are fantastic.
Hell yeah!! Dizzy K and William Onyeabor are big favorites of mine.
I would also recommend the "Radiooooo" website/app. You pick a country and a decade, and it plays songs. Great way to discover new old music.
What an awesome app! It even uses the correct names for countries across the decades
Very different rent but this reminds me of the story of the US musician Sixto Rodríguez. Who became very popular in South African without him knowing. I recommend watching the documentary "Searching for Sugar Man" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searching_for_Sugar_Man
Prince Nico Mbarga was not someone I expected to see on HN. What a throwback to the past. Sweet Mother was practically required on the playlist at any event where your mother was going to be recognized in some form or the other (which is pretty much every important event)
Prince Nico Mbarga “Sweet Mother”: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3mecNrIaWOA
I guess it must be intentional, but to my ear, the tuning sounds way off between the guitar and bass. Maybe this is part of the tradition or something, but I find it to be so far off, it's hard to listen to.
i would argue that discordance you hear is a taste thing. Not different from someone accustomed to western diet may find Indian cuisine too spicy.
That's a pretty good analogy.
This time for Africa
I was waching the other day a documentary a bout a rock moviment called Zanrock, very common in Zambia in the 70s. They would perform for great crowds and press discs in South Africa.
Unfourtunaly civil wars, the conflit in Rodhesia, and the lifestyle of Sex drugs and rock and roll in a country ravaged by AIDS, killed a lot of musicians destroyed the movement. A guy started colleccting old records and released on spotify.
of the bands, theres a great one called Witch that reminds me a lot of bands like Steppenwolf and Black Sabath.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1kcs8gftls
Do you remember the name of the docu? I ended up in a small Zamrock clickhole when Ted Lasso used this track in an episode outro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjUOYLJ8IYI but didn't get much further than wikipedia and a couple of google results.
Same thing happened to me when Poker Face used Ngozi Family for an outro:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlOT_gSRE48
If you find the documentary, let me know! All I know, besides the bands (also, that "We Intend To Cause Havoc (W.I.T.C.H.)" is one of the greatest band names of all time), is that at one point they all played their shows in lock-in overnight parties because of curfew rules.
Looks like it's on vimeo https://vimeo.com/ondemand/witchhavoc
I watched ina friend house, but its possible is this one.
Its been some years now. I think I arrived at the youtube video through a link here in Hacker news.
I did not found the original documentary, but found this playlist in youtube with a mini doc anda few Zanrock albuns.
https://youtu.be/czrPRJehmdA?si=OKbqUQZw1cjCeG6E
Thanks, it looks like some other people found perhaps a different one in the sibling comments. It's interesting it seems to be transmitted among the unfamiliar via youtube serendipity and existing Zamrock enjoyers sneaking it into TV shows.
Maybe https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5666750/
If you like it checkout this epic soukous song called Nairobi Nights by Loketo Soukous Starts that includes Sweet Mother.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L93pse3-23A
Very nice. Made me think of Paul Simon, made me relisten to Graceland, the song. Always a great listen, great sound. Thought it was just about him paying tribute to musical roots, 'Mississippi delta' and all that. But wait what? 'after the failure of his marriage.'... 'Actress and author Carrie Fisher'. Well internet, Today I Learned.
Huge aside aside, aren't these songs a little similar?
Paul Simon was "inspired" greatly by African "highlife" music on Graceland. Some people dismiss it as plagiarism, but I actually think Paul was actually influenced greatly by a sound he hadn't heard before, and legitimately tried to recreate it and introduce it to a western audience. Having watched a few interviews with him, he meant Graceland to be, as you say, a "tribute to musical roots".
I personally don't care if it was plagiarism or not, as it introduced me to a bunch of artists I otherwise wouldn't have known, such as Prince Nico Mbarga and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
@Geekette, if you read this comment. I am making an african music startup. And I would love to get in touch !
I imagine there are countless of individuals that are very famous within some region, but little known outside of it. It's not easy to have global recognition.
Yes, and it is also something that we are coming to terms with now that we have a more global community.
The hit in question, the one that outsold any individual Beatles single was from 1976. That was a time when most people received news from around the globe in print, with most of those print publications being regional and a handful being national. Something similar could be said for radio, though some people could hear stories from afar on the shortwave bands. That was more the exception than the rule though, typically of greatest interest to those who wanted to hear voices from their homeland or those keenly interested in learning about the world. (Even then, language was typically a barrier. When it wasn't a barrier, most of the stations were propaganda machines.)
Even though your claim undoubtedly remains true, at least we live in a world where those stories can leak out.
Rihanna sold more records in the UK than the Beatles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_art...
I very much doubt this:
> Many of the artists in the list below have both streaming and sales included in their totals.
At best, this is a misleading comparison of apples and oranges. At worst it's an attempt to prop of streaming as actually compensating artists when they basically don't.
Rihanna "Had number one singles in five consecutive years in the UK" 2007-2011. "As of September 2018, Rihanna has sold over 250 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists ever." Her son's name is RZA Athelaston Mayers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rihanna
Although slavery is a society illness, the mixture of African and American (Caribean, South America, North America) cultures generated a huge musical heritage. Could this be the largest branch of music in history?
Funnily enough, this is man is namesake!
>“His only weakness was temptation,” says Rogers. For alongside Esame, his wife, and Lucy, his first love, he had numerous other lovers.
Funny this is cancel-worthy sometimes, and in other times it's treated as a quaint personality trait.
Also, the Beatles aren't famous because I Want to Hold Your Hand sold 12 million copies. The Beatles have 50 multi-million selling singles.
I don't know who gets cancelled for having multiple lovers, even extramarital lovers. Maybe it should be cancel-worthy (depending on your definition of cancel) for people who build their careers on "family values", but it's practically a plus for a rock star.
It depends not how many lovers you have but how you have them.
I think the "at times" refers to periods of times, have multiple lovers at end of the 1800s and find yourself described as absolutely irredeemable.
Depends where at the end of the 1800s. Belle Époque France saw adultery on the part of men almost normalized among the middle and upper classes, and everyone made use of prostitutes.
ok, so it depends on time, place, gender, probably also age and occupation.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a man, married or not, in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a bit on the side.
Tiger Woods.
I think it was mostly because he was such a self-assured prick though, and so it was easy to pile on.
I don't think he was cancelled so much as a laughingstock after his 2009 Thanksgiving car crash. That sent the value of the "I am Tiger Woods" marketing to zero. https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2017/11/24/tiger-woods-car-...
Don't forget, there was also reckless driving involved there and a ton of bad press. The only fallout was losing a few of his many endorsement deals. He kept his videogame. He kept golfing. "Facing appropriate consequences for your actions" is not being cancelled.
He had 14 Majors, and was well on his way to passing Jack Nicklaus. He'll never pass him now.
Him falling off his game is on him. Or are you really implying some entity "cancelled" Tiger Woods' golfing skills or there was some conspiracy to prevent Tiger from winning because he cheated on his wife?
He took a bunch of time off because of public pressure. Was never the same.
I don't think Tiger sees it this way after he took a few months off.
But, it is clear that the inability for people to take responsibility for their actions and instead blame some bogeyman like "cancel culture" is a big problem. Enablers and others who make excuses for them are part of the problem too.
> Funny this is cancel-worthy sometimes, and in other times it's treated as a quaint personality trait.
You can see this same tension in Fela Kuti fandom and scholarship, where people almost have to choose between lionizing him as a anti-colonialist or anti-dictatorship hero and downplaying negative sides so that his sociopolitical impact feels more powerful, or deploring his treatment of women as something that tarnished his whole career.
John Lennon was also quite a horrible husband to Cynthia.
"I can resist anything except temptation" --Oscar Wilde
Or a sign of pride or virility, reserved for (or a prerequisite to become) the rich, powerful, famous, and leaders.
> Funny this is cancel-worthy sometimes, and in other times it's treated as a quaint personality trait.
Yeah sometimes you see that in passing. Some famous people seem to get a pass especially if they are not polarizing nor brazen, as opposed to, say, someone like Donald Trump. But in the end, they hurt and abuse people all the same.
For example, almost every bio I've seen on YouTube about Richard Feynman treats his proclivity of banging his colleagues' wives as nothing more than some charming quirk or idiosyncrasy (usually to differentiate him from the bookish physicists of the time) at best, and a peccadillo at worst.
The worst description I've read yet of his behavior was summarized as: "he just loved women."
It's messed up.
If women who were married to people who worked with Feynman had consensual sex with Feynman, what exactly is the problem? It might create a tense work environment, but you should be able separate work from private life.
Bro code I guess.
Or Golden Rule too. I don't think any of us would want to see our wives agree to get banged by some other dude. Even if it was Richard Feynman.
Divorce the wives then.
Clickbait headline. It outsold any of The Beatles singles *in Africa*:
> “Sweet Mother,” his 1976 one-hit wonder, had sold at least thirteen million copies across the African continent – more than The Beatles’ bestseller “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
It's a bit ambiguous in your quote, but "I Want to Hold Your Hand" sold 12MM *globally* (source: the song's wiki page).
Incorrect, it outsold “I Want to Hold Your Hand” worldwide—it just happens that most of those sales were in Africa.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_singles
What's the clickbait? "I Want to Hold Your Hand" sold 12 million. Is the clickbait that it's downplaying the achievement, since "Sweet Mother" only sold well in Africa?
[flagged]
Please don't post shallow dismissals like this.
I'm still reading the article, but it's a fascinating, human-oriented look into a man's life, a man who is probably little known outside Africa. Answering the (implied) question in the headline is only a tiny part of the draw of the article.
Which makes it even more impressive: he sold more based off of popularity in one continent, versus a band that was presumably popular worldwide.
I think it's more that Africa is more populated than people realise and the Beatles weren't as "worldwide" as people realise
Because his hit was sold across Africa, not Europe or North America.