(As part of our 5th year anniversary, we’re revisiting 20 key songs. This post was originally published on April 23, 2006).
Lijadu Sisters: Life’s Gone Down Low
From Danger (Afrodisia, 1976)
(New comments:) Ok, so technically speaking, I actually have never posted this song before, at least, not on its own. I did post it (I think) as part of a snippet from DJs Matthew African and B-Cause excellent Soul Boulders mix-CD, probably the most influential mix I’ve heard in the last few years based on how many of its songs I’ve tried to hunt down after first hearing them on there.
“Life’s Gone Down Low” has been practically at the very top of that list; I just love the slow burning funkiness of the song and having twin female voices doing the vocals made it all the better. Alas, given that copies of this are really only to be found in Nigeria, it happens to be a legitimately tough LP to come by at any price.
Like the Mighty Voices of Wonder, I also scored this (finally!) on my NY trip and appropriately enough, I got it from JP over at Good Records which happens to be the same place Matthew originally scored his copy. (Moral: Good Records is one helluva spot to score African LPs of all stripes. You should hear the Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo de Cotonou album I got there too…hot damn!).
And with that…, so concludes our 5 year retrospective. What I plan on doing (if I can manage the time) is to bundle most (I won’t be able to do all) of the 20 songs I’ve run through and put it on a limited edition CD that I’ll give away at gigs and may make – in very limited quantities – available through the site. This whole spin back has just a way to say “thank you!” to everyone for supporting the blog over the years. It’s been my honor and continued pleasure to do so.
We’re going to throw a 5 year anniversary party in Los Angeles, probably the first Thursday of May – stay tuned for that!
chatter