Solomon Linda with his band ‘The Evening Birds’ – a very natty outfit indeed, from around 1938.

Sensitised by a discussion today about searching for ancient grain species in Middle Eastern tribal territory, I came on a NYT account of a small IP atrocity about music.

South African Solomon Linda recorded a simple song in 1939, “a tender melody, almost childish in its simplicity — three chords, a couple of words and some baritones chanting in the background.” Inspired by his childhood guarding cattle from lions, it had two words – mbube and zimba, which is Zulu for lion and stop.

He sold the rights for ten shillings, it became a South African hit, starting a whole style of music called mbube, and was recorded again by Pete Seeger who sent it around the world.

Solomon Linda died young in grotesque poverty, one of his children died of AIDS because they couldn’t afford the medication.. he had no headstone… the music is a way of comparing the lives of rich and poor in the different ends of capitalism.

The family did get some money. Other artists did develop the song on its journey to international fame. By the time it really hit our radios, it had a new name. It was called The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

Eventually, the family’s lawyers were able to seize temporary ownership of the Disney icons in South Africa. With Mickey and Goofy held hostage, Disney and the other copyright users have agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to the family, which should leave them comfortable.

But the real atrocity in this story was an accident, and it involved one of our heroes, Pete Seeger. Because his copy of the record (borrowed from Alan Lomax) was so hissy, he couldn’t hear the word “EEM-boo-beh”, and recorded the song as “wimoweh,” in which it has become a kind of drek alternate Cumbayah.

The NYT article allows you to hear the two versions. Even to my ears, Seeger managed to wreck it completely. Solomon died in 1962 so he must have heard the ruined version. I wonder what he thought about that?

The Disney agreement ends a long campaign, which includes a television documentary. It has been covered extensively in a Wikipedia article and the associated links.

There is even an Australian connection, via Waverley Cemetery.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 23rd, 2006 at 1:31 am and is filed under history, strangely compelling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.