I've lived in Southern Africa for a long time and people sometimes ask me 'What is a Tokoloshe', for many Africans are still afraid of this evil spirit. My best definition; a Tokoloshe is the African version of our Mother-in-law. Hello to all you Wokers.
Yeah man 1971 was the year i was born i can remember the Happy Monday,s cover of Step on and always thought the Mondays wrote this. Now i think i like this original better.
Loved the Happy Mondays cover but this, while I wasn't aware of it until 2 or 3 years ago, has something very special. I am a massive fan of Tokoloshe Man and have been since first hearing it on its release when I was about 9 or 10 years old. I never understood why John Kongos wasn't freakin huge in the UK...so good.
I suspect the reason why he wasn’t a bigger success was due to the fact he wasn’t a great self-publicist. I’ve read that he was somewhat on the shy and quiet side and wasn’t too interested in playing live - you can even see in this video that he’s hiding somewhere at the back. At that time live touring was how you publicised and sold records. From a record company point of view it must have been a nightmare. That’s the only reason I can think of to explain why he wasn’t a bigger success in the U.K., because he recorded some fantastic songs. Great White Lady and Try To Touch Just One are really good, but people only remember Tokoloshe Man and He’s Gonna Step On You Again.
This is the studio recording. Roger Pope is on the drum kit with Mike Moran on synthesiser, talking drum, earth drum. Producer Gus Dudgeon is on chair squeak, rusty tin, earth drums.
I met John Kongos through an engineer friend named Steve Travell (now aka Trav Munro - trance DJ, music writer) back in the 80’s when I was doing songwriting, vocal sessions and living in London (I’m from the US) who told me he had to see this guy to help him set up his in-home recording studio. We knocked and when the guy opened the door and said hi my jaw dropped and I was gobsmacked! It was JK! I told John that I loved his single when I was a teenager back in the 70’s and bought it when it came out because I loved the rhythm (I’m a drummer and singer) and the message in the song about the Native Americans. I asked him if he knew that people thought he looked like John Lennon on the single cover and that it was Lennon who did this recording under an alias. He said he knew the story and he found it quite amusing. He chuckled talking about it. I asked my friend why he didn’t tell me he knew John and he said he didn’t think I’d know who he was. He was not aware that his single was a chart topper in the US as well as the UK. That was quite a day.
@@carolebarker2195 I wish it had been a chance meeting with John Lennon which actually happened to a friend of mine in Boston. But hey, it was still an exciting moment.
@@melodyebuskin5490 Yes, wouldn't that have been great?! Why, do you live in Boston too? I live not far from Liverpool and did an art course in the 80's and my teacher used to go to art college with John Lennon. He said he was rough and abrasive! Not the peace-loving type back in those days it seems!
@@melodyebuskin5490 Thank you, I'm not on fb but my daughter is so I'll ask her if I can have a look! I love "Les Bicyclettes de Belsize", Anthony May is brilliant in it and Judy Huxtable is beautiful. I think she was married to Peter Cook at one time. You're so lucky to see the Beatles, I was born in 1960 so would have been 6 in 1966. This teacher, Mr John Robinson, knew Stu Sutcliffe as well. He said he was dead easy to get on with, laid-back, unlike John. Not criticising John though, he was my fave Beatle. Thanks for looking at my playlists, yes I'm big on the paranormal and ufos. I put John Kongos on my 71/72 playlist as I remembered it being in the charts in 1971 as an 11 year old, and I always loved the song. Didn't John Kongos come from South Africa originally? I think I remembered reading it somewhere at the time. One of my Fab 208 magazines probably!
ich weiß noch gut wie wenn es gestern gewesen wäre ... war mit dem LKW unterwegs und hörte dieses Lied ich war wie Hypnotisiert ..hörte zum schluss nur Kongo... ich habe jeden Plattenladen abgesucht bis einer sich an sowas erinnern konnte, hab dann noch ca. 3 Monate auf die LP warten müssen war verrückt ... habe diesen Schatz noch immer 💓
einer der allerbesten Songs von 1971. Der musikalische Refrain ähnelt dem besten Beatsound aller Zeiten: 'My friend Jack' by The Smoke. Fallste den nicht kennst, unbedingt hier sichern...^^
Didn't realise the happy Mondays was a cover. Totally forgot about this, I was only six in my defence, but as soon as I started playing it I was god yes, I remember. This is much better than the cover.
I was 15 and the second ever album i bought was Kongos [ the first was Bridge Over Troubled Water , a safe bet ] - Anyway here I am at 68 still listening to John .
@@paullandry5594 Agree … everything about this track is right.the vocals , modulation , production, heavy back drop… takes me right back to early teens …great band
… Hey rainmaker come away From that man you know He's gonna take away your promised land … Hey good lady He just want what you got You know he'll never stop … Until he's taken the lot Gonna stamp out your fire He can change your desire … Don't you know that he can make You forget you're a man Gonna stamp out your fire … He can change your desire Don't you know that he can make You forget you're a man You're a man He's a man … He's gonna step on you again He's gonna step on you again He's gonna step on you again He's gonna step on you again … Hey rainmaker he got golden plans I tell you he make you A stranger in your land … Hey good lady He got God on his side He got a double tongue … You never think that he lie Gonna stamp out Hey rainmaker come away … From that man you know He's gonna take away your promised land Hey good lady … He got God on his side He got a double tongue You never think that he lie
I love the simplicity of this version, but I absolutely loved the slightly heavier twist that Def Leppard put on it with their version on the Yeah! album
Amazing tune, but why does it remind me of "A Mars A Day Helps You Work Rest And Play"? I know John Kongos wrote ads and jingles too, did he write the Mars one?
It's amazing to realise that basically everything the Mondays version had, is in the original. Stuff you think they might have added but no, it's all there. Everything apart from Bez.
There's many Mondays mixes of this. One is much more faithful to the original with a better take on the tribal drumming. Remember they originally recorded it as a throw away track for an Elektra complilation but when Oakenfold and Osborne remixed it, it had 'hit single' written all over it with that piano loop and they badly needed a big hit. I always hated the call the cops stuff as it was overdone, I love the Mondays and it kind of turned it into too much of a novelty pop record. Can understand why they did it though, it helped the album to go huge. Always thought they should have put the other version on the album. I know it kind of defines them to many people but it's nowhere near their best stuff, not even close. But hey, they paid homage and covered Tokoloshe Man too...
🤣 I hadn't heard the original til a couple of years ago, when I did, I thought, "This is a great cover, much better than the original" 🤣 I've heard at least three other covers since.
I get the tribal African comments. But, I think it sounds sounds more like an Indian war dance. "Hey rain-maker"? Africans were taken out of Africa. But, it was the Indians who lost their "promised land". Both lyrics and music are excellent.
loop recording for backing vocals, Epstein was experimenting with tape reversal/stretch/loop, But the Guinness book of records says this is the first song which used loop/sampling but I'm sure Sgt peppers album did and also revolver back in 66 on float up stream. . . its been covered by lots of people, Mondays, def Leppard, with the party boys doing a rock version of it in 87 but like most things the original is hard to beat. . .
Yup. He's South African, remember. "Hey rainmaker come away From that man you know He's gonna take away your promised land" - it's about colonialism and the white man taking land and culture away from the black man. One reason it hasn't dated!
The sound and electric guitar sounds are similar to the mega sound of the best beat sound: 'My friend Jack' by The Smoke from 67! Best underground music ever
Yeah there might be a context around the writing of it but the great thing about songs like this is they mean precisely whatever significance they have to you 🤙🏾
