SBS carried an excellent documentary tonight on the origins of the song known as 'Wimoweh" or "The lion sleeps tonight". Absolutely guaranteed you know it. One of the most recorded and played songs of the 20th Century.
The musician behind the song, Soloman Linda, was a Zulu worker who was artistically successful but died in poverty, never receiving a cent in royalty and only posthumous recognition. Meanwhile the song has generated in excess of US$10M in royalties over the years. Soloman didn't have access to the lawyers he needed. Greedy music industry folks simply exploited the situation.
The story is well covered by South African author Rian Malan who wrote an expose for Rolling Stone magazine. Follow this fascinating tail, ahem, tale at 3rd Ear Music.
Update: eclecticism followed the story and now has 6 versions of 'Wimoweh' from the Apple Music Store.
oh no! I always miss the good stuff on tv!
I remember reading an article about the topic a while ago (maybe sunday (tele) magazine or something like that), about the topic.
Posted by: johnny | Jul 26, 2003 at 03:13 PM