Since Baudolino's back, I decided to make my first AT post a reggae cut. I hear that I am not programmed, from an evolutionary standpoint anyway, to like this sort of thing, but gosh darn it, I do (sorry couldn't resist).
Alpha Blondy (First Bandit) has a slew of quality albums, so choosing was difficult, but this track from Revolution easily puts me in the mind of the capital city of a former french colony, perhpas 20 or 30 years ago. Not that I've ever been, but it works for me nonetheless.
The "lyrics" are an address by the president of the Cote d'Ivoire at the time and I have yet to divine that person's name. I do know that one night my brother and I browbeat a very cute young frenchwoman into listening several times to the entire 10+ minute track so she could tell us what was being said. Perhaps it was too late or too many drinks in to the evening, but she swore that it was some dialect that she could not really make out. I have heard that in Abidjan, the capital of the Ivory Coast, they have a french of their own.
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I've never fully investigated Alpha Blondy...I might just have to now. I think someone brought him to my attention years ago when I was really getting into reggae, and I just couldn't make the jump then. I'm ready now.
What are your thoughts on Lucky Dube? I got a big dose of him when I was down in the Vigin Islands and I like a lot of his stuff.
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Cody, Luck Dube definitely has plenty o' cred with reggae fans in my circle. For some reason, I was shying away from him. Your question prompted me to go and check some of his stuff in my collection. It's solid. Unfortunately, he was murdered outside of Johannesburg last fall.
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The person whom he referas is President Felix Houphouet-Boigny , president of the Ivory Coast from 1960 till his death in 1993, widely thought of as an ideological moderate, but not averese to a little spot of personal enrichment
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That sort of figures. Thanks for the scoop Baudolino.
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Mog had some pretty good coverage on his passing. I posted on him once, because though I like him and the majority of his tuneage, I have one big disagreement...
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Alpha Blondy is hip.