Africa is a Country

The Playlist series rolls on. This week’s its Rustum Kozain’s turn. Poet (his “Kingdom of Rain” from This Carting Life, published in 2005 by Kwela Books/Snailpress, is still one of my highlights), blogger, and writer (check out, for example, his web-only essays on “Dagga“). He lives in Cape Town, South Africa.

Remember the instructions are: 10 songs. It could be what you listen to in the car, at work, your favorite tracks of all time, genre-based top 10 lists. Go forth.

Here’s Rustum on how he picked his ten:

“… I’ve been compiling a ‘sad and eclectic’ for my guest appearance on Bush Radio’s “The Unhappy Hour” and have lots of CDs lying around. Back from the show, I thought I’d just pull 10 CDs, more or less randomly, but mindful not to repeat that playlist, and choose a favorite track from each CD. So, somewhat random, somewhat eclectic, still a bit melancholic, and of some vintage”:

(1) ‘What Love‘ by Charles Mingus. Off Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus (recorded in NYC, 1960), with Eric Dolphy, Dannie Richmond, Ted Curson. Love it for the conversation between bass (Mingus) and bass clarinet (Dolphy), which is really a fight between the two musicians as Dolphy had decided to leave the band (from Nat Hentoff’s liner notes). Eventually, the instruments sound like human voices, as if one can hear an argument between a next-door couple – loud and angry, but muffled by walls. And then it returns, resignedly, to the melody of ‘What kind of love.’

(2) ‘Winter in America‘ by Gil Scott-Heron and his Amnesia Express. Off Tales of Gil Scott-Heron (Live) (1990). He really is the godfather of soul, and this song remains a powerful mix of melancholia and politics. In witty riffs on Scott-Heron’s classic rap, too many commentators have pointed out that the revolution has indeed been televised, especially following Obama’s election. Few have considered another meaning to the title: if it has been televised, it’s not a revolution (see following Emma Goldman quotation).

(3) ‘Give the Anarchist a Cigarette,’ by Chumbawamba, the misunderstood band. ‘Tubthumper,’ a song parodying yob drinking culture, ironically became a yob anthem. But ‘Chumbawamba’ has been around for a long time – irreverent, punk, anarchist, and they also have a lot of melodic stuff. This is off their Uneasy Listening compilation (1998), which has an Emma Goldman quote: “If I can’t dance to it, it’s not my revolution.” How can you not like them?

(4) ‘Rent‘ by The Pet Shop Boys (!). Off Discography: The Complete Singles Collection (1991). “You took me to a restaurant off Broadway/ To tell me who you are”. I love the undercurrent of melancholia in those lines.

(5) ‘Longshot kick de bucket‘ by The Pioneers (1969). Off a various compilation, Young, Gifted and Black (2002), with 50 classics from Trojan Records. I hunted long and hard for this track. Horse racing commentary as ska lament: “It was Daybreak, Combat, Carousel/ Long Shot on the rail/ Combat fell, Long Shot fell/ all we money gone a hell”.

(6) ‘Perfidia‘ by Phyllis Dillon (1967). Staying in the reggae tradition, but with Dillon’s rocksteady rendition of a 1940s classic. From the Treasure Isle compilation, Rocksteady Soul (2001).

(7) ‘Armageddon Days Are Here Again‘ by The The. Off Mindbomb (1989). “Islam is rising, the Christians mobilising/ The world is on its elbows and knees;/ it’s forgotten the message and worships the creeds.” A song still for our times.

(8) ‘The World is a Ghetto’ by War. Off The World is a Ghetto (1972). Classic soul. A favorite ever since I first heard it when I was 13 years old.

(9) ‘El is a Sound of Joy’ by Sun Ra and his Arkestra, off Sound of Joy (1957). Crazy Saturnian. Beautiful music.

(10) ‘Supermarket Blues‘ by Eugene McDaniels, off Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse (1971). Funky soul, and a mixture of the absurd and anger in this classic bit of rap: “I bought this can of pineapple the other day/ When I got it home, it was a can of peas, goddamn!”. The complaint leads to beating by the supermarket manager, and a beating by the police and a mob. Goddamn!