Comments on: The Lion Sleeps Tonight

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

peacay — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 14:45:36 -0800

a-wimoweh a-wimoweh..
In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight.
via

By: jonmc

jonmc — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 15:02:11 -0800

Excellent post, peacay. I remember that Dave Marsh said in Heart Of Rock And Soul that it was gratifyingly ironic that this supposedly slight, "commercial" doo-woppy pop number's history was actually closer to the folk tradition than anything the stuffy folkies had ever come up with. Also, R.E.M.'s version of the song is great, since it suits Stipes voice to a T.

By: buriednexttoyou

buriednexttoyou — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 15:16:05 -0800

jonmc, don't forget They Might Be Giants' version in which the lion hijacks a spaceship. Nice post, by the way.

By: RecordBrother

RecordBrother — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 15:36:52 -0800

Thanks for this post did not know of singingfish either so double cool

By: dhoyt

dhoyt — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 16:20:07 -0800

Great post!

By: I EAT TAPES

I EAT TAPES — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 16:22:59 -0800

Video (4.6MB mpeg)

By: George_Spiggott

George_Spiggott — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 18:51:40 -0800

There's a wonderful unhandled editorial note in the second link. Sic:

He toned down his politics [REWORD, RE OUR CONVERSATION], excised references to dark sexual lusts from Leadbelly standards, and threw some hokey cowboy songs into the mix.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 18:56:22 -0800

RecordBrother, your blog rocks, BTW. Glad to see you here.

By: lastobelus

lastobelus — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 19:07:32 -0800

wow thanks. I've always kinda liked "in the jungle" but had no idea about the history of it. I found a recording of solomon linda's mbube on p2p and it is fundamentally cool.

By: page404

page404 — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 19:07:40 -0800

This post from last year was better.

By: maryh

maryh — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 21:41:18 -0800

That 'obscure DJ' from your second link, Dick "The Derby" Smith, is my father-in-law! The A side of the Token's single was a bust, but The Derb made a point of listening to the B sides of all the singles sent to his show. He did a 'breakfast club' format as opposed to a top 40 show, so he wasn't under as much pressure to sort through stacks of singles. When he decided to add "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" to his rotation, the 45s had already been taken out of circulation. It took several weeks for the record company to distribute the new pressings to the local record stores; the heavy requests combined with the scarcity of product may have gone a long way toward making the song such a hit. I know he's always been proud of breaking that song (well, as proud as a dyed in the wool yankee can allow himself to be.) He still exchanges Xmas cards with a few members of the Tokens. Thanks for the post, peakay!

By: Bdave

Bdave — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 23:40:48 -0800

I've got the 78 RPM of the Weavers somewhere... somewhere. Maybe it's with the copy of 'Sweet Georgia Brown' by Brother Bones and his Shadows or 'Chasin' with Chase' by Lionel Hampton. /reminisce Nice Post.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Sun, 01 May 2005 05:51:02 -0800

This post from last year was better. I agree. It said what it was about, clearly and briefly: The story of 'Wimoweh' 'Mbube' or more popularly 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight'. In which a Zulu migrant creates one of the most recorded songs of the twentieth century, but because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, failed to get any royalties and died a pauper. A contribution to the music copyright debate. But somehow the idea has gotten accepted that it's better to be cutesy and allusive than direct and informative. Also, since so many people have joined in the last year, double posts don't seem to matter anymore. *mutter, grumble* No offense, peacay, it's a great story and definitely MeFi-worthy, but if you'd searched on "wimoweh" you'd have found the original post in two shakes of a lamb's tail.

By: RecordBrother

RecordBrother — Sun, 01 May 2005 10:44:53 -0800

Thanks for the Kind words and props jonmc!,nice to be seen here

By: Asparagirl

Asparagirl — Sun, 01 May 2005 23:30:45 -0800

That 'obscure DJ' from your second link, Dick "The Derby" Smith, is my father-in-law! And Jay Siegel of the Tokens is my grandfather's first cousin. Small world, ain't it? :-)

By: peacay

peacay — Fri, 06 May 2005 10:08:37 -0800

Good stories. 6-degrees.. Sorry for not citing previous post - 1 year default on search might have caught me. But it's not a double per se. The PBS site is centre-feature of this post. The other links were additive is all.