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
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
Wow, it’s been too long since I’ve heard Brian Auger. Thanks for a great selection!
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!
Your Lungiswa post led me to Calabashmusic.com where I found music by Amampondo. I purchased Electric Pondoland, well everything but “Inner City Blues.”
Deb, true true.. but I quite like those Amampondo recordings.