This one has grown on me.

I prefer their cover of U2's "I Will Follow"

I guess by the posts below it's been getting a lot of play, but I've been gone, so I'm digging it a lot. 8

 peter_james_bond wrote: 
Immigrant Song in the RP Library.

again

SUPERB!

I used to wonder why this song was getting played so often on RP and then Bill disclosed his love of oddball covers...now it makes sense. Years ago I used to listen to a late night weekend radio program on the CBC called Nightlines. The Host would play some great and some really crazy stuff. That's where I first heard Dread Zeppelin. I don't know if they are still around but Dread Zeppelin used to play Led Zeppelin covers in a Reggae style with an Elvis impersonator as the singer. I know it sounds bizarre and it was but it also worked pretty well. Bill you should check them out.

AGAIN?????

 VicEdee wrote: 
Gets worse and worse for me with each listen...and frankly, my rating of it started out bad.
So if we had a number line, we'd be in the negatives with this.

 ryuujin23 wrote: 
To be fair, the issue is massively complex of which poor governance is just one part. For instance, many countries have debts to pay off and as conditions of debt, farmers have to produce cash crops for export rather than producing food for local folk. Added to that, those same folk are flooded with produce from massively subsidised farms in the US and Europe, undercutting their local farms, making the governments dependent on imports, forcing farms to produce for export, making it necessary to buy all the fertilisers, pesticides etc, generating debt, which then must be paid, which means more farming for export and around and around it goes. 

I get Bono's and the Red folk's point: if your society is losing significant percentages of its 20-40-year-olds, you've got no chance. The Cold War scramble during the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s with attendant civil wars also didn't help, as the global scramble for multinational resources (Coltan in DR Congo for instance) is also threatening. 

And, a lot of 'leader replacement' helped get much of the continent to where it is in the first place. Mobuto Sesse Seko (pardon my spelling) and Idi Amin are among those blessed by the UK/USA.

Not saying they're doing enough, considering their fabulous wealth, but I reckon (Red)'s not a bad idea in principle (don't know of any audits and how much help's reaching the ground). Poor governance is a big problem for a great swathe of Africa, but it really is just one of many. 

 ryuujin23 wrote: 
Indeed... But the reality is that nobody is willing and/or able to go into these countries and do what needs to be done.
Thus the cycle repeats itself...

you play this MUCH TOO MUCH...............!   ( for what it is - a novelty )

Sounds like drunken babbling. Yes, I'm smart enough to realize he's not singing in English. It just sounds like drunken babbling to me.

I love African music and Farka Toure, but this cover is pretty lame.

 ryuujin23 wrote: 

The nasty reality is that there isn't an incentive for anyone to squash those gov'ts.  The countries that have oil pretty much already let the oil companies inside.

At some point in the future, someone will get tired of China and their high wages. The best way to undercut the Chinese is to get a stable region in Africa and pay the locals 1/10 of what the Chinese factory workers make.  That might be worth squashing a gov't for.

I'm not saying I personally approve of any of this. I'm just injecting a little reality into the conversation.  What's the return on investment for some organization(s) with the amounts of cash necessary to make the change or even a dent?

getting really sick of this song - OVERPLAYED on RP......!

Brilliant!! Kind of clears the cultural cobwebs from my brain.

 jfichtenkort wrote: 
The guitar is wild, but what grabbed me was the Chicago-style harp playing in this context, ala Leonard Chess in Africa.

uh...no.

 DELTA__9__FOOLS wrote: 

I'm a huge fan of Farka Toures and I can't stand U2.  For me this cover is kinda dull, too.  Bono, however, deserves all kudos for his efforts to fight disease and hunger in Africa. 

ryuujin23 wrote: 
Look, think, read, learn...

This is a pretty cool cover. What kills me about Bono, Oprah and their (red) products concept is that for relatively intelligent people they really have no idea how to help the African people. Curing diseases is a grand cause and all, but it won't help them get out of their cycle of poverty. The oppressive governments need to be squashed and replaced with a government that is focused on helping the people. The people need education. The countries need better infrastructure. But who really wants to support that when we can consume (red) iPods, (red) Converse sneakers, (red) Dell laptops and (red) Gap t-shirts. Nevermind that only a portion of the money gained from (red) sales actually goes to the charities. Afterall the companies participating in (red) still need their profits (and I'm not talking about Bono or Oprah).

"Africa celebrates U2"? Surely that's the tail wagging the dog, even given St Bonio's enormous ego.

This song is fucking awesome.  What a testament to U2.

HarrO wrote:

Emptyquotin'

Did he say "a-tuna-bunga"?

Better than the original.