I attended Swarthmore College in 1968-69 and tried to get into Philly as often as the budget and time would allow to see shows. The Spectrum was a big arena with a revolving stage (!). Weird, but at least it gave us a chance to see these bands, and at affordable prices.
The order for this event was: Credence, The Dead, Iron Butterfly, Sly and Steppenwolf. My memory is that Sly put on the most exciting show. I think for me the attractions were The Dead and Steppenwolf ('Born to Be Wild' was a great hit of summer '68). The Dead were not playing in there proper element, and of course their set was way shorter than the usual. (Alas, this was the only time I ever saw the Dead, or any of the others for that matter.) Iron Butterfly of course we all scorned and thought were way overblown. I guess Steppenwolf was good but I have no memory of them. Nor of Creedence, who were known at the time chiefly for their single, "Suzie Q." They may have played "Proud Mary," which was released shortly after the concert.
Here's a review of the concert, from the Wilmington Delaware Morning News, on Dec. 9. There is much to comment on about the review, but let's just say that where I agree with it is (1) The Dead were not impressive (2) the sound was shitty and (3) Sly & Co. were terrific.
As found on Mixcloud, courtesy Columbus Music Magazine, an Israeli outfit that seems to live exclusively on Mixcloud. I've no idea who the pair are that chose the songs, except that they are Israeli. And based on the choices they've made, we can presume that (a) they listen to a lot of Arab music (b) they have quite good taste and (c) they are not afraid of progressive political music.
Most of the tracks are what one might call "alternative" Arab music, with roots in rock, but there is also some hip-hop. "Arabic" for Engelberg and Jurkevitch seems to mean "Eastern" or "Mashreqi," as there are no tracks from any Arab country east of Egypt. Nonetheless it's a quite good set, and it introduced me to a lot of material I did not know. Of the artists I am familiar with, there are quite good tracks from Mashrou' Leila (Lebanon), Ramy Essam (Egypt, though now based in Sweden), Maryam Saleh & Zeid Hamdan (Egypt/Lebanon), DAM (Palestinian citizens of Israel), Zeid and the Wings (Lebanon), Massar Egbari (Egypt), and Youssra El Hawary & Salam Yousry (Egypt).
I was most impressed by the track by Jowan Safadi, called "To Be An Arab." It surprised me when I listened for the first time, because the vocals are in Hebrew, not Arabic, and the song is not rock or rap but sounds very much like standard Israeli Mizrahi pop. (There is, however, a spoken bit in Arabic.) I did a bit of googling and learned from an article on Mondoweiss that Safadi is a Palestinian citizen of Israel (don't you dare call someone like him an "Israeli Arab"), and that the lyrics are quite amazing. The YouTube video (below) is terrific, and it is aimed at/addressed to Israeli Jews of Arab heritage, known in Israel as Mizrahim (or alternatively, to use an earlier terminology, Sephardim). The video provides a translation of the Hebrew (and Arabic) into English, which Mondoweiss has helpfully transcribed. Here's a few sample lines. I urge you to watch the vid and read the article.
Hardcore homophobes Are the most gay on the inside Mizrachi Arabophobes Are Arabs themselves Who are just afraid And prefer to stay in the closet Because they know, they know the best That to be an Arab is not that great
Interesting, no, to compare Mizrahis who hate Arabs to homophobes?
The song represents a quite remarkable reaching out, on the part of a Palestinian Arab citizen of Israel, to the Mizrahi Jewish minority, who are of Arab heritage. When it comes to a one-on-one "talk," the address is in Arabic, presuming the ability of the Mizrahi addressee to understand the language of heritage -- which in fact many young Mizrahim would not. It expresses a great deal of sympathy for the Mizrahi position, but ends on a tough note: dude, you are in Palestine.
Hey you imported Arab Take it from a local Arab You were dragged here To take my place It’s hard to be an Arab It’s really hard, ask me It’s hard to be an Arab How much can one be black Under the rule of the rich and white In the land of Palestine
Hey you imported Arab,
Take it from a local Arab
You were dragged here
To take my place
It’s hard to be an Arab
It’s really hard, ask me
It’s hard to be an Arab
How much can one be black
Under the rule of the rich and white
In the land of Palestine
- See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/08/radical-talent-safadis#sthash.dVU4a8Vc.dpuf
Hardcore homophobes
Are the most gay on the inside
Mizrachi Arabophobes
Are Arabs themselves
Who are just afraid
And prefer to stay in the closet
Because they know, they know the best
That to be an Arab is not that great - See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/08/radical-talent-safadis#sthash.dVU4a8Vc.dpuf
Hardcore homophobes
Are the most gay on the inside
Mizrachi Arabophobes
Are Arabs themselves
Who are just afraid
And prefer to stay in the closet
Because they know, they know the best
That to be an Arab is not that great - See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/08/radical-talent-safadis#sthash.dVU4a8Vc.dpuf
they're runnin but there's
drones up ahead
drones in your bed
drones in your home
drone give me head
drone give me dome
preacher preacher
leave them kids alone
One of my favorite Jefferson Airplane songs, off of AfterBathing at Baxters (1967). There's a lot of melisma in this song from Marty Balin and especially from Grace Slick. It's not the kind of melisma that has become so banal and over-used courtesy of Mariah Carey and American Idol. Check out what Slick does with her voice from around 2:43 to 2:45 on this song. Listening to Arab singers must have been an influence. Umm Kalthum? Bob Dylan did.
It's not just the pot, or the LSD.
The quality of the sound on this vid is pretty lousy, perhaps deliberately so. So go out and buy a decent copy already. Finally, isn't Jack Cassidy's bass solo, starting at 2:08, just to die for?
Other, random, Arab traces in the Airplane. From "White Rabbit," this lyric: "Tell them a hookah smoking caterpillar/Has given you the call."
In heart I'm an American artist, and I have no guilt.
-Patti Smith, "Babelogue," Easter (1978)
Last Sunday's laudatory review in the New York Timesof Patti Smith's new book, Just Kids, got me into a Patti mood.
This inevitably led me to the Patti Smith documentary, Dream of Life, which I had missed when it screened on PBS recently.
The film is beautiful, providing a rich and complex account of Patti. I seem to have given myself the full-time job of looking for "Arab traces" wherever I can find them in US pop culture, and so my account of the film focuses on those. The film of course is much, much more, but I want to argue that Patti's interest in the Middle East is an integral part of her life and therefore is important to the film as well.
Here's the first thing I spotted, a ginbri (a.k. hajhouj), the distinctive instrument played by the Gnawa of Morocco. Why and how it got into Patti's NY City apartment, I don't know, but there it was. About thirteen and a half minutes into the film.
Then there is this: Patti picks up a small antique Persian urn that's in her flat, and struggles for a moment to open it up--she says she hasn't tried to for some time. Inside, it turns out, are some of her ex-boyfriend Robert Mapplethorpe's remains.
Mapplethorke's folks have most of the remains, but Patti has a bit. She remarks that, if she likes, she can schlep Robert around with her, in the urn.
Wow.
(I found the photo of the urn on the website for Dreams of Life. It's part of a slide show of some items that were in the exhibit, "Objects of Life"--photos, videos, paintings and personal belongings connected to the making of the film, which was made over a period of 11 years.)
At around an hour and twelve minutes into the film, we hear Patti in concert--chanting from the Declaration of Independence, and then indicting George W. Bush for a series of crimes, including the invasion of Iraq. Onscreen we see Patti writing, typing, sitting, at the Lincoln Memorial. It's really remarkable: watch it.
At about one hour and 28 minutes into the film, we see footage of a demonstration against the Iraq war that Patti participated in. Eventually we see her addressing the crowd--chanting with the backing of members of her band, against war, for peace. I'm not sure which of the many mobilizations against the Iraq war this was, but it appears to be one that was organized by ANSWER, and to have taken place in DC. Note the guy in the kufiya on stage with her.
We invented the zero And we mean nothing to you Our children run through the streets And you sent your flames Your shooting stars Shock and awe Shock and awe Like some, some Imagined warrior production
-Patti Smith, "City of Baghdad," Trampin' (2004)
Patti was quite active in speaking out against the Iraq war between 2003 and 2005, and she appearing with Ralph Nader and Howard Zinn (RIP) at several anti-war events. And she is, or at least was, a supporter of the Green Party.
For five long years I wasn't a man dreaming chained with the lights on in another world a netherworld
Patti Smith, "Without Chains"
In 2006 Patti put out a song, "Without Chains," about the case of Murat Kurnaz, a German-born Turk, who was arrested in Pakistan after 9/11, detained at Guantanamo for five years, and released in 2006. He now lives in Germany. Kurnaz reports having been waterboarded whileh he was held at the US military base at Kandahar, as well as having endured torture at Guantanamo. You can read what Patti has to say about the song, about Murat Kurnaz, and about John Walker Lindh, here. The song is not available on any recording, only here.
The last ten minutes or so of Dream of Life are really remarkable because they are all shot in East Jerusalem, chiefly the Old City. There are some scenes of the Wailing Wall, but otherwise it's almost entirely Arab Jerusalem. I don't know what the occasion was that brought Patti to Jerusalem, so I suppose it was just a visit, with no concert appearances. The film gives no explanation. (The film screened, incidentally, at the Jerusalem Film Festival in 2008--and the festival director claims it was one of that year's highlights.)
Here's Patti, walking in the old covered suq (market) in East Jerusalem. Despite the Israeli military occupation, despite the continued efforts of the Israeli state and Jewish settlers to confiscate and occupy Palestinian properties, the suq, and Arab Jerusalem, continues to exist. If not exactly always to thrive. Jerusalem's Old City is one of my favorite places in the world.
Here's Patti, eating some felafel, in a typical East Jerusalem eatery. I've probably eaten at this place myself.
She probably knows that felafel is originally a Palestinian-Arab dish, and that Israel's efforts to turn it into an Israeli national dish are both an act of cultural expropriation and an effort to erase felafel's Arab character. (Felafel in Israel, especially when it's made by Palestinian citizens of Israel or by Mizrahi Jews, is quite delicious.)
Here Patti is checking out a scarf sold in a shop in the suq. Note that it's right next to a red-and-white and a black-and-white kufiya. These look like the made-in-China kufiyas that make up most of the kufiyas sold in Palestine today.
Patti doing a typically tourist thing: riding a donkey. Not sure who is with her--her son and guitarist Jackson Smith?
Here Patti is just outside the wall of the Old City, on its south side, I think near the Dung Gate. Note the soldiers of the occupation.
Another shot at the same location.
This is my favorite scene of Patti in Jerusalem: Patti outside the office of The Arab Cultural Center for Jaffa and The League for the Arabs of Jaffa. I don't know where this office is located in the Old City, but I'm pretty sure that Patti isn't just standing in front of the door because it has a pretty painted design. Jaffa was the cultural and economic capital of Arab Palestine during the British mandate, and it was ethnically cleansed in 1947-48. I just can't imagine that Patti is posed here for no reason.
I can't imagine it because Patti's song, "Peaceable Kingdom" (on Trampin', 2004) was reportedly inspired by and dedicated to Rachel Corrie, who was killed in March 2003 trying to defend a Palestinian family in the Gaza Strip, whose home was threatened with demolition. Run over by a Caterpillar bulldozer driven by an Israeli soldier. Patti made a videotape of her performance of an acoustic version of the song and sent it to be played at an event held in Rachel's memory at New York City's Riverside Church, called "Rachel's Words," on March 22, 2006.
And I also can't imagine that the film's Jaffa reference is just random because Patti also recorded a song in memory of the Lebanese who lost their lives when Israel decimated the village of Qana in 2006. You can download the solo version here, and there is also a version with her band.
Limp little bodies Caked in mud Small, small hands Found in the road
Patti Smith, "Qana"
Patti performed at the Byblos Music Festival in Lebanon in July 2008; read about it here.
The last scene of the movie, Dream of Life, is in Jerusalem. It shows Patti, with her back to the camera, in the Old City, looking west. Sorry, it was hard for me to get a good photo of the scene. Also sorry that I can't remember what was being spoken during this last seen. Go see the movie for yourself. You'll be glad you did.
As I watched the movie, Adventureland, I thought to myself, when will someone make a movie about a very cool but maybe slightly nerdy girl who harbors artistic ambitions and whose hero(ine) is Patti Smith? But since most of our directors are men, all we seem to get are movies like Adventureland. The film's protagonist, James, the nerdy guy who wants to become a writer, is "cool" because his hero is Lou Reed. I love and admire Lou Reed as much as the next person. (And Lou Reed has performed for the benefit of Palestinian children--for the Hoping Foundation.) But isn't it about time to start promoting the notion that some women artists might be models of cool as well? Patti really deserves waaaay more respect and honor than she gets.
(And by the way, why is it that in Adventureland, it is only James' intellectual interests that are revealed? He wants to go to Columbia to study journalism, to be a writer. The girl he falls for, Em, also goes to college, to NYU. But the film never thinks it important enough to tell us what her major is. Or whether she has any intellectual or artistic ambitions. Instead, she is just a pretty face and a hot body, with a cool, tough attitude. I'm tired of all these guy movies. I really want Katherine Bigelow to win an Oscar for best director.)
This is not to say that Patti isn't, in some ways, pretty male identified. Her three best-known romantic partners just ooze street cred: Robert Mapplethorpe, Sam Shephard, and Fred "Sonic" Smith (of The MC5). Her cultural heroes are William Blake and Arthur Rimbaud. She knew and hung around with the likes of William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan. I don't know what well-known women she admires/d or has hung out with.
Nevertheless, she is a saint.
(A really good account of Patti Smith, that demonstrates convincingly that she is the most awesome female rock artist ever, is to be found in Simon Reynolds and Joy Press' book, The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion and Rock 'n' Roll [Harvard, 1996]. Despite the book's deployment of Jungian archetypes as an analytical framework, it is quite incisive. Especially on Patti.)
Something happened to The Kominas since we last tuned in. They went on a nation-wide tour (although, for some reason, skipping Arkansas). And they got sorta...famous. Or at least created a lot of media buzz. And not because they were attracting huge audiences. Someone who knows them told me, there were maybe 50-80 people at shows per night. Interesting...not sure how to explain it. Except that the notion of Islam and punk going together continues to be a novel notion.
An article about The Kominas in the Los Angeles Times (August 12) is notable both because it comments on the rather considerable media coverage the band had received by that point, critiques it, and makes a conscious attempt to go beyond previous coverage. The Kominas state that they like getting media attention, but complain (a) that it focuses on the fact that the band is (3/4) Muslim rather than the music itself and (b) that the reports are formulaic. The formula is to note that the band was inspired by the publication of Michael Muhammad Knight's novel The Taqwacores, and then to mentions notable song titles like "Sharia Law in the USA."
At least the article points in the direction of better coverage--but it doesn't really do the job of analyzing lyrics or describing the music. The best it can muster is to quote Daniel Cavicchi, guest curator of the Grammy Museum's "Songs of Conscience" exhibit, which includes a piece of Kominas memorabilia. Says Cavicchi, "I would hate to see Taqwacore stall in public discourse as a form of exotica...Their songs are actually quite catchy, with interesting dynamics and a variety of sound textures, all of which are a testament to their musicianship." True enough.
The next day CNN published its take on The Kominas, by Azadeh Ansari. This piece more or less follows the formula identified in the LA Times report--it starts with the book, refer to song titles, and so on. Ansari does at least offer a bit of sociological analysis to account for the band's significance. He writes, "For [the Kominas], punk music is a way to rebel against their conservative cultural upbringing and the frustrations of growing up a young Muslim in America." And the article includes some observations by UC-Irvine history professor Mark Levine and author of Heavy Metal Islam, who says:
"These punk, metal and rap scenes - so-called extreme music scenes -- are addressing issues that mainstream music doesn't...[Punk] allows them to rebel against society and their own culture at the same time."
Levine goes on to say,
"It makes sense why punk has been the music of choice for young, politically active Muslims who are musical...The straight edge movement in punk which was about no drugs, no alcohol, was clean yet very intense and political. It's a way for them to rebel against their families in some extreme ways yet still be ritualistically, 'good Muslims.' "
Accompanying the article is a nice slideshow, featuring photos from Kim Badawi's book, The Taqwacores, plus commentary from Mike Knight and band members, and some music.
But alas, no discussion of the music or the lyrics.
In the interest of at least starting a discussion of The Kominas' lyrics, here's my transcription of the song, "Sharia' Law in the USA." The Kominas have just begun to put out videos of some of their songs, which feature just the lyrics, on Facebook. I don't think you necessarily have to be a FB member to see this, so here's the link.
Sharia Law in the USA
I am an Islamist I am the Antichrist Most squares don't make the wanted list But my my! How I stay in style Cops chased me out of my mother's womb My crib was in state pen before age two The cops had bugged my red toy phone So I devised a plan for heads to roll... Sharia law in the -- USA (2x) Sharia law in the – we've had to pay ...for the white man can take with two free hands Imagine our debts cut in half Our wives multiplied by the number four Why the president's daughters couldn't ask for more One can lick my Afghan's clit Wife three's ready to help As I keep screaming Penetrate me with a strap on dick While a brother from New Orleans does you anally
Then there is some sampled commentary from a well-known 50s educational film on what to so in case of an atomic attack. "Duck and cover."
Sharia law in the -- USA (2x) Sharia law or you'll have to pay
Duck and cover
Roll over Sex Pistols, this supersedes "God Save the Queen." The Sex Pistols were waaaay too timid to broach the subject of anal penetration. As I read the lyrics, they complain about how Muslims are demonized in the USA, and imagine sharia law as a way to take revenge. And in addition, sharia law would be a benefit to (male) Muslims, as they'd get 4 wives. Then I'm somewhat at a loss: the wives would lick each other (?) and then--where does the anal sex come from? I don't know. It's nonetheless very clever, the vocals are well-done, not hoarse screaming in the style of much contemporary punk but much more melodious. Punk more in the content of the lyrics than in the musical form. Some kind of South Asian woodwind and percussion opening the song. Nice.
For a flavor of how the recent Kominas tour went, check out this blog post on the Taqwacore Webzine, from Tanzila Ahmed, who accompanied the band and the rest of the entourage, on tour from LA to Texas. "The first time I had written about the band was over three years ago, and I’d been following the band ever since. It was a blog post where I declared my crush for the boys in The Kominas and how I would fight Ashwairya Rai in a wet sari for them."
Pakistani rock
And then there is Pakistan, ancestral home to 3 of the 4 members of The Kominas--and they've even toured there. Thanks to Shahjehan, I was led to this audio report and this written one, from The Guardian, on Pakistan's lively underground rock scene. One of the bands discussed is Bumbu Sauce, from Islamabad, and their song "Jiggernaut." It's clever and catchy and goofy/serious and you can listen to it, and see the lyrics, here. Alas, I don't get all the references. "Juggernaut" (which I guess jiggernaut is a version of) is derived from the Sanskrit "Jagganatha," one of the names for the god Vishnu. It was incorporated into the English language as a result of a falsehood propagated by (some) British colonialists, who asserted that fanatical Hindus would throw themselves under the wheels of chariots carrying statues of Jagganatha/Vishnu during an annual festival, in order to gain salvation. "Juggernaut" came to mean "unstoppable force" in English--but with a whiff of religious fanaticism. Quite a witty title for a song, then, that deals with the Taliban. Bumbu Sauce is a kind of hot flavoring that goes on packaged noodles. I don't know what the CDA is. Capital Development Authority? Why does the CDA have ninjas? "Why do you act like such a rand?" Again, no idea what "rand" means in Pakistani English. [Update, Nov. 9, 2009: Thanks to an anonymous comment, I now know that "rand" means "whore," in both India and Pakistan.] I do get that the song suggests the possibility that the US struggle with the Taliban in Pakistan might extend to Iran. As The Guardian notes, the song first talks about fighting on the side of the Taliban, and later, fighting against the Taliban.
The report also discusses a song that is rather more earnest and serious in its political critique: "Ready to Die," from the Lahore band, co-Ven. It's here, on youtube, with lyrics for you to read. I can't make out all the bits in Urdu, except for "Iraqi," "Irani," and "Pakistani." The song criticizes the military collaboration between the Pakistani government and the US (i.e., the coalition) and raises the issue of the fact that this military cooperation seems to be having the effect of making the militants multiply. The song could apply equally well to Afghanistan as to Pakistan, and if it weren't for the map of Pakistan on the video, and the fact that The Guardian told you the band was Pakistani, you might think that Afghanistan was in fact the subject.
(Robert Mackey commented on The Guardian's report on the New York Times blog, and decided, for some reason, to focus almost exclusively on the fact that both bands sing in an American accent. He does give us one bit of useful information: the Urdu chorus to "Ready to Die" translates as follows: “The game of chess begins/ And one by one/ Iraqis and Iranians/ Saudis and Afghans/ and Pakistanis.” But why, when the US is involved in such a dangerous game in Pakistan and Afghanistan, you would want to focus on the US accent issue is just beyond me.)
More in the pop vein, stylistically, but much more explicitly political and radical, is the group Laal ("red"). I learned about them, somewhat amazingly, from a report on NPR's Morning Edition. Remarkable because Laal's two leaders are militants in Pakistan's Communist Workers and Peasants party. The guitarist, Taimur Rahman, is getting a PhD at SOAS in London, while the lead singer, Shahram Azhar, is doing his PhD at Oxford. They did music as a hobby, while working on their degrees and participating in Pakistani expat protests against Musharraf. They happened to meet a Pakistani film director, Taimur Khan, who heard them play their song "Main Nay Kaha (”I said”)" at a party. The song is based on a poem by well-known leftist Urdu poet Habib Jalib, and it attacks authoritarianism and political divisiveness. Khan convinced the band to do a video, which he shot in London. The video was a sensation on youtube, and got picked up by the Urdu cable channel Geo TV, and so it was seen, and became popular, in Pakistan. Soon the band was in Karachi, recording their first album.
According to an informative article by James Crabtree in Prospect magazine that focuses on Geo TV, "Main Nay Kaha" quickly became the theme song for the lawyers' movement protests of March and April 2009, that resulted in the reinstatement of Chief Justice Chaudhary. According to Shomial Ahmad's Morning Edition report, the big Laal song of the lawyer's movement was "Umeed-E-Sehr" ("hope of a new dawn"), the title track of Laal's album. Check out the video (with English subtitles) of "Umeed-E-Sehr," whose lyrics are by renowned leftist Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, here. I particularly like this song, "Main Nay Kaha (Musheer)," with lyrics, again, from Habib Jalib.
I find it quite exciting that the poetry of a previous generation of revered Urdu leftist poets, which had rather gone out of fashion, is being revived by Laal. (Their music, of course, is great too.) Check out more Laal videos here. The band's official website is here. Go there for more info and to listen to clips from all the songs on their album.
And finally here's an oldie, a clip from the golden days of Urdu cinema in Pakistan. From the 1966 film Armaan, the song is called "Ko Ko Karina" (sung by Ahmed Rushdi). The song's name refers, of course, to Coca Cola. The clip features a huge plastic Coke bottle on the bar, and waiters dance around with coke on their serving trays. This delightful song is an example of the "indigenization" of "Western" rock--it deploys rock elements, especially the electric guitar riffs, but is not straight "rock" in the ways that Bumbu Sauce or co-Ven are. This sort of incorporation of Western genres of course is very familiar from the more famous Bollywood tradition.
Iftikhar Dadi, in a forthcoming article on Urdu cinema, argues that Coke is fetishized by the elite in this clip, as signs of Western modernity. Nabeel Zuberi commented (when I posted Dadi's remarks on Facebook), that "The way the coke bottles are glued to that tray and the waiter's comic gait/dance are surely 'extracting the urine'/taking the piss. At the very least, it's postcolonial mimicry, if not outright camp." I'm inclined toward the mimicry/camp interpretation. (And hopefully Nabeel won't mind me quoting him!)
This "Socio-political History of Modern Pop Music in Pakistan" calls "Ko Ko Korina" "the first ever modern Pakistani pop song." I have no idea whether that is true, but please read this history--an outline, really--more background on Pakistani pop and rock.
Y.A.S. has been getting a fair amount of publicity for its album Arabology, which reportedly has gotten a good buzz in France and Belgium. Check out the video for the first single from the album, "Get It Right." The video features images of space travel, numerous shots of familiar sights/sites in Cairo, lots of chatting on the mobile phone, dancing in a posh Arab disco, and the statuesque singer of Y.A.S., Yasmine Hamdan, who could certainly be a fashion model if she weren't pursuing a career in music. It is really beautifully filmed, a sure sign of the fact that Universal Music is putting a lot of money into backing Y.A.S. It's directed by Stephane Sednaoui, well-known photographer, music vid director (R.E.M., Björk, Massive Attack, Tricky, Beck...), and man about town (linked romantically to Björk, Kylie Minogue and Laetitia Casta, among others).
I quite like the song, it's infectious, it's danceable--and it has Arabic vocals. It's just counting (wahad, tnayn, tlaata, arba'...i.e. 1-2-3-4...) in Arabic, and the other lyrics are in English. Otherwise there is nothing Middle Eastern sounding about it. But go to Y.A.S.'s myspace page, and you'll get a more Middle Eastern feel if you listen to the extract from the song, "Yaspop"--which has real Arabic lyrics, rather than just chanted numbers. According to Fanoos, "It somewhat denounces occupation and the presence of foreign secret agents, married with the idea of globalization and a capitalist economy." (I need to receive my CD in the mail and listen to the entire song to see whether this is the case.) And be sure to check out the remix of "Get It Right" by noted DJ Felix da Housecat. (Another sure sign that Arabology has some serious backing from its record label.)
An article about Y.A.S. appeared in the Wall Street Journal on August 20--another sign, I think, of a publicity campaign mounted by Universal. And it included this photo, from renowned fashion photographer Jean-Baptiste Mondino. It shows the other member of Y.A.S., Mirwais AhmadzaĂŻ, the Paris-based Italian-Afghan producer who has worked with Fischerspooner and Madonna. No doubt the participation of a high-profile producer like Mirwais is key to Universal's support for the YAS project.
The focus of the Wall Street Journal article, and the video that accompanies it, is the issue of Arabic--the fact that Yasmine Hamdan's former band, Soap Kills, were pioneers in the Lebanese rock scene and were responsible making singing in Arabic conventional in Lebanese rock, and the problem of trying to sell Y.A.S. records in the West when Arabic is so "foreign." Soap Kills were a terrific band, who were at the cutting edge of the Beirut "alternative" music scene from the mid-90s til 2005. They were frequently called the Lebanese trip-hop band--not an entirely inaccurate comparison. If you search for Soap Kills on youtube, you will find a number of their songs. I particularly like the song "Aranis," from the album Cheftak, whose lyrics consist of phrases you would hear street vendors and service (collective taxi) drivers yell out in Beirut.
It seems that Lebanese rock bands in fact were a bit behind the rest of the Arab world in switching from vocals in English or French to Arabic. Probably this has to do with the fact that (a) English and French are used nearly as much in urban Lebanon as Arabic and (b) that the rock scene in Lebanon was mostly non-existent from 1975-1990, the years of the civil war. Rachid et Fethi (Baba Ahmed) were releasing rock tracks in Arabic in Algeria as early as the seventies. (They later became celebrated rai producers.) And you can also hear "rock in Arabic" on an amazing album put out by Columbia records in the US in 1967, Hard Rock from the Middle East by The Devil's Anvil. The Devil's Anvil were a band that played around in the Village in New York City in the mid-sixties, were discovered by Felix Pappalardi, who started playing bass for them and got them signed to Columbia, and also included Steve Knight, who went on to form Mountain with Pappalardi. Vocals were provided by Kareem Isaaq, who handled the Arabic. Check out "Besaha"--rockin'! (I hope someday someone writes at the very least an article on rock'n'roll in the Arab world, especially from the 50s to the 70s.)
As for singing in that strange language of Arabic before a Western audience--Y.A.S. is not really in the vanguard here either. The first blow was struck--if I'm not mistaken--by rai star Khaled, with "Didi," his huge 1992 hit--all over Europe, all over the world (except North America) in fact. Since then, rai has become pretty mainstream in France, and Khaled and Cheb Mami and others have had hits sung in Arabic. Natacha Atlas has been successful in Europe as well, and don't forget Rachid Taha, especially his cover of "Ya Rayah."
I love the work of Yasmine Hamdan, in Soap Kills, and I love what I've heard of Y.A.S. I do hope that "Get It Right" is a big hit for them. (According to the Wall Street Journal, YAS is trying to rework Arabology for the US market. So all we can acquire here is an import CD. If you live in the US, you can't even download Arabology from the French Amazon.com site!) But I think Y.A.S. should be seen as part of a larger trend of the growing popularity of Arabic music in the West, not as an unprecedented phenom. (Although a hit in the dance music or rocket circuit--that would be huge.)
Read more about Yasmine and Y.A.S. and Soap Kills in this article by Kaelen Wilson-Goldie in The National. Wow, Yasmine namechecks the Bandaly family! And am I right in understanding that she is romantically involved with Palestinian film director Elia Suleiman?
A final curiosity. Trax magazine claims that Peaches, in her new "Serpentine" video, is wearing the same leather outfit for a few seconds that Yasmine wears in the "Get It Right" video. Can you see it? I can't. But it's worth watching the Peaches video all the same. She hasn't lost a step.
Professor of Anthropology, University of Arkansas. Author of Memories of Revolt: The 1936-39 Rebellion and the Palestinian National Past. Co-editor of Palestine, Israel and the Politics of Popular Culture and of Displacement, Diaspora, and Geographies of Identity.
I can't imagine it because Patti's song, "Peaceable Kingdom" (on Trampin', 2004) was reportedly inspired by and dedicated to Rachel Corrie, who was killed in March 2003 trying to defend a Palestinian family in the Gaza Strip, whose home was threatened with demolition. Run over by a Caterpillar bulldozer driven by an Israeli soldier. Patti made a videotape of her performance of an acoustic version of the song and sent it to be played at an 
