There's a part of me that hates this song. It's disco. It's cheesy. But at the same time it sounds like cheesy disco that African pirates would listen to. And not your modern ship hijacking pirates. Mythical African pirates of yore that had an interest in plundering the seas to funk while wearing Bee Gees wigs. It's got likembe, accordion, and balafon. How can you not love that?
You will immediately recognize the melody of the chorus from Kanye's briliant sampling of the song for his 2010 hit 'Power' from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy:
The original whirling disco stomper is by American funk band Continent Number 6 and is the title track of their 1978 album, which was particularly popular in Europe upon its original release. It's an infectious song that sends you on a whirling trip around the world in the space of six minutes. Even if you start out thinking 'I hate this so intensely', you'll be nodding your head in time by the end. It's been clinically proven this will happen, to not do so is an impossibility.
So. Music for disco pirates. Also the songs mentions The Wizard of Oz like six times. I repeat: how can you not love that?
And so now American Airlines has also co-opted this for the background to a major new advert.
ReplyDeleteThis is an amazing theme, which deserves the attention it is obviously not getting.
Ah really? That's depressing. Haven't seen that ad yet, will keep an eye out. Maybe we can hope it will guide more people to looking up the song and living out their disco pirate fantasies.
ReplyDelete