He toned down his politics, excised references to dark sexual lusts from Leadbelly standards, and threw some hokey cowboy songs into the mix.
Wimoweh weavers full#
This was no great achievement, given that the Weavers’ repertoire was full of dreck like “On Top of Old Smoky” and “Greensleeves.” Pete will admit no such thing, but one senses he was growing tired of cold-water flats and wanted a proper career, as befitting a thirtysomething father of two. Later he taught “Wimoweh” to the rest of his band, the Weavers, and it became, he says, “just about my favorite song to sing for the next forty years.” The Zulus were chanting, “Uyimbube, uyimbube,” but to Pete it sounded like, awimboowee or maybe awimoweh, so that’s how he wrote it down. “Golly,” he said, “I can sing that.” So he got out pen and paper and started transcribing the song, but he couldn’t catch the words through all the hissing on the disk. Later he taught “Wimoweh” to the rest of … the Weavers, and it became, he says, “just about my favorite song to sing for the next forty years.” To Pete it sounded like, awimboowee or maybe awimoweh, so that’s how he wrote it down. He was fascinated – there was something catchy about the underlying chant, and that wild, skirling falsetto was amazing. Pete put it on his old Victrola and sat back. They were about to be thrown away when Lomax intervened, thinking, “God, Pete’s the man for these.”Īnd here they were: ten shellac 78s, one of which said “Mbube” on its label. Alan was presently working for Decca, where he’d just rescued a package of 78s sent from Africa by a record company in the vain hope that someone might want to release them in America. Alan and his dad, John, were already famous for their song-collecting forays into the parallel universe of rural black America, where they’d discovered giants like Muddy Waters and Leadbelly. It wasn’t particularly glorious, the money was rotten, and on top of that, he was sick in bed with a bad cold.Ĭame a knock on the door, and, lo, there stood his friend Alan Lomax, later to be hailed as the father of world music. Discharged in ’45, he returned to New York and got a gig of sorts in the public school system, teaching toddlers to warble the half-forgotten folk songs of their American heritage. After that it was into uniform and off to the front, where Pete played the banjo for bored GIs. Scenting a capitalist plot to destroy the brave Soviet socialist experiment, Pete and Woody turned gung-ho overnight and started writing anti-Nazi war songs, an episode that made them briefly famous.
Wimoweh weavers movie#
Special thanks to my “studio audience” for this episode: Brian Schwartz from the book and website “50 Interviews” (where you’ll soon be able to watch a video of the recording of this episode), and Chad and Isaac from Leap: The Movie ( ).He was also a pacifist, at least until Hitler invaded Russia.
Le Lion Est Mort Ce Soir (The Lion Is Dead Tonight, Fr.)
Mbube Roots: Zulu Choral Music From South Africa Here’s on what’s on the show tonight: Title (with link to iTunes, if available)Īrtist (with link to the artists’ website, if available)Īlbum (with link to, if available)
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