The Weavers introduced many folk revival standards to new audiences. Because of this, some folk song fans criticized them for watering down their beliefs and commercializing their singing style.Įncouraging sing-alongs in their concerts, sometimes Seeger would shout out the lyrics in advance of each line. The Weavers first big hit was in 1950 with Lead Belly‘s “ Goodnight, Irene“, backed with the 1941 song “ Tzena, Tzena, Tzena“, which also became a best-seller.ĭuring the Great Red Scare of the early 1950s, their manager advised the group not to sing their most explicitly political songs and to avoid performing at “progressive” venues and events. The Weavers were formed in 1948 by Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hays, Fred Hellerman, and Pete Seeger. The group took its name from Die Weber a play written by Gerhart Hauptmann in 1892 that depicted the uprising of the Silesian weavers in 1844. Their style inspired the commercial folk music boom that followed them in the 1950s and 1960s. It's become my favorite running music of all time.)) that goes with that.The Weavers were an American folk quartet from Greenwich Village in New York City who sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children’s songs, labor songs, and American ballads. In short, the author tracks down some of the music that may or may not have inspired Paul Simon's seminole album. What I thought was a slightly corny, throw-away tune turned out to have a much more interesting history! Right up my musically-leaning, liberal arts alley - the original melting-pot, world-fusion tune! Long, long, long before Paul Simon's Graceland and the interesting and slightly-similar story ((If you love Graceland as I do you owe it to yourself to read this post and listen to the audio at Hectic City. As of 2006 Linda's heirs have reached a settlement with the distribution company that licensed the rights of the derived tunes to Disney. Years later the song's popularity would be resurrected yet again with The Lion King. Hello, I'm The Official A Wimoweh Meme ChannelI Need More Likes, Subscribers and Comments PleaseCOME ON, I NEED LIKES, SUBSCRIBERS AND COMMENTS PLEASECreate. Sadly, Solomon died shortly after in 1962, having received little compensation beyond an initial check from Seeger. Remarkably there were about six versions of that song recorded before The Tokens recorded the one my mother and many generations most likely remember in 1961: That version still lacks the words you're probably familiar with, but it's a wonderful marriage of the original melodies and an American folksy feeling. He must've liked it because he adapted a version of the song for his group The Weavers and retitled it Wimoweh - a not unreasonable mishearing by American-English ears for what turns out to have been uyimbube ((Uyimbube! All this time! It's Zulu for "You are a lion" but wimoweh is just. This song became a hit in South Africa and found its way over to the United States around 1949 where it was noticed by Pete Seeger. It's unclear to me if that improvisation is captured here - presumably it is - but you can listen to the 1939 recording with Solomon Linda and the Evenings Birds:Īround 2:22 you hear him improvise a melody that sounds much more familiar to modern audiences. Per this wonderful writeup from Rolling Stone, it was during the third take that Solomon improvised the line In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight. In fact, the words and melodies on top of the familiar "wimoweh" background vocals were largely improvised. Originally the tune was called Mbube - Zulu for "lion" - and featured no words in English. It turns out the origins of the song go all the way back to 1939 and that it was written by a South African Zulu musician named Solomon Linda. What I thought was pseudo-world music, faux-African pastiche from the very early 1960s demonstrating possibly dubious taste turned out to be much more interesting! I thought it was enjoyable and reminded me what a nice, simple song it was. My mom sent me a link the other day to Jimmy Fallon and Billy Joel performing a two-man rendition of The Lion Sleeps tonight on the Tonight Show: The surprising history behind The Lion Sleeps Tonight
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