Amazing Songs & Other Delights #71 is the The Desert Blues and Not Just edition is now on mixcloud.
This edition opens with Imajighen by Mdou Moctar and closes with Tom Huddleston singing a live version on Hank Williams’ I Saw The Light. Once more, I’m travelling through connections, details, inspiration. I’ve wrote an essay for it that can be read here.
Imajighen means free men in Berber. Although the lyrics specifically, or more specifically, address the free men of the Desert, the song’s words can be transposed to encompass us all. The chorus goes:
“Imajighen, we can’t afford to be divided
Imajighen,
We can’t afford to be divided
Imajighen
We have no time for hate
Imajighen
Calling on you all wherever you are!
We are all Imajighen”
Full lyrics in English, Tamasheq and Tifinagh can be read here. here.
What do Mdou Moctar and Hank Williams have in common? Everything, I venture. My essay about the programme further speaks about it.
Tracklist:
01 – Mdou Moctar – Imajighen
02 – ANOHNI & The Johnsons – Breaking
03 – Tiwiza – At u Azeka
04 – Bombino – Mahegagh (What Shall I Do)
05 – Rui Veloso – Sayago Blues
06 – R.L. Burnside – See My Jumper Hanging On the Line (live at home, 1978)
07 – Tarwa N-Tiniri – Taryet
08 – Tom Verlaine – 5 Hours From Calais
09 – Dead Combo – Lisboa Mulata
10 – Fatou Seidi Ghali (Les Filles de Illighadad) – Telilit (live from Story of Sahel Sounds)
11 – Manu Chao – Tu Te Vas Feat. Laeti
12 – Felt – The Stagnant Pool
13 – Boubacar Traoré & Ali Farka Touré – Duna Ma Yelema
14 – Buzz Ayaz – Buzzi Ayazi
15 – Soledad Brothers – This Guitar Says I’m Sorry
16 – The White Stripes – Suzy Lee
17 – Etran de L’Aïr – Imouha
18 – Ben Watt with Bernard Butler – New Year of Grace (Upstairs at the De La Warr Pavilion Bexhill 5th April 2016)
19 – The Legendary Tiger Man – Keep it Burning
20 – Majid Bekkas – Daymallah (feat. Rachid Zeroual, Khalid Kouhen, Paolo Radoni, Marc Lelangue)
21 – Tinariwen – Sastanàqqàm
22 – Tom Hiddleston – I Saw The Light (with Mark Kermode on double-bass, live in the Wittertainment studio)
All previous shows on mixcloud: Yé Yé Radio mixcloud/ | Mondo Bizarre Magazine mixcloud
Mondo Bizarre Magazine 