Aug 21/07
Makes Me Wanna Xhosa
A random morning shuffle of not-yet-listened-to albums brings us Lungiswa’s cover of Marvin Gaye’s classic, Inner City Blues, sung in the Xhosa language.
Lungiswa is a young South African female vocalist from Cape Town. You may know her already from her work with Amampondo.
I thought I’d have a dig around for other versions of the song in my collection.
Have a listen to the original, plus a live version from Gaye’s Last Concert tour (that wasn’t really the last). Marc Moulin’s rendition is easily my favourite, and the New Orleans’ Dirty Dozen Brass Band whips up a version that for whatever reason reminds me of a Jean-Pierre Jeunet film.
If any of you have any good covers of Inner City Blues to share, send them to me and I’ll include them in this post.
ps- sorry, I just realized that podcasts have been broken for a while. They’re fixed now. Podcast link is http://bennloxo.com/?feed=rss2, or iptc://bennloxo.com/?feed=rss2 to open in iTunes directly.
Lungiswa - Inner City Blues (Xhosa version)
Marvin Gaye - Inner City Blues
Marvin Gaye - Inner City Blues (Live)
Marc Moulin - Inner City Blues
Dirty Dozen Brass Band - Inner City Blues
Brian Auger - Inner City Blues Thanks, Francois
August 21st, 2007 at 3:21 pm
the marc moulin track is actually performed by him and is band “placebo” and is the opening track on PLACEBO’s album “ball of eyes”.
good post
August 26th, 2007 at 2:49 am
Wow, it’s been too long since I’ve heard Brian Auger. Thanks for a great selection!
August 27th, 2007 at 12:30 am
Can’t tell you how often I read things in the news that “make me wanna holler/throw up both my hands.”
Definitely one of my favorite Marvin Gaye songs. Didn’t realize there were several covers. Thanks!
August 29th, 2007 at 5:17 am
Your Lungiswa post led me to Calabashmusic.com where I found music by Amampondo. I purchased Electric Pondoland, well everything but “Inner City Blues.”
August 29th, 2007 at 8:03 am
Deb, true true.. but I quite like those Amampondo recordings.