Serge Gainsbourg

Caetera Posted messages 234 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   -  
Caetera Posted messages 234 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   -
Hello everyone, I would like to know what the expressions "Bana Basadi Balalo" and "Negusa Nagast" mean from the eponymous songs by Serge Gainsbourg.
Thank you!

4 answers

  1. mushu14 Posted messages 11897 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   1 123
     
    Hello,
    Negusa Nagast

    The importation of reggae into French music resulted in a second album in 1981, Mauvaises Nouvelles des étoiles, produced by the same artistic team and recorded at Chris Blackwell's legendary studio in Nassau, which sealed Serge Gainsbourg's openness to mixing cultures, a hallmark in the eighties. Let's think of the song Bana Basadi Balalo in Bantu dialect  and the Talking Heads at the same time. This new fascination of Gainsbourg for Africa and its rhythms leads him, after experimenting with reggae forms, to reconnect with blues and jazz. He works with the old references of his jazz years, such as Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong, in Gloomy Sunday, Amour sans amour, or Vieille Canaille.


    source: http://www.citedelamusique.fr/francais/espace_pro/enseignants/fiches/gainsbourg.pdf
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    the return......
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  2. mushu14 Posted messages 11897 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   1 123
     
    I can't help it if you don't understand what you're reading

    ...Negusa Nagast
    Ras Tafari Makonnen
    Emperor Haile Selassie I....

    take a look here
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    the return......
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  3. Caetera Posted messages 234 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   24
     
    Thank you, I knew that, hence the song "Bad News From The Stars" in 1991 ...
    But that only explains what these 2 expressions mean ; )
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  4. Caetera Posted messages 234 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   24
     
    Thank you, I hadn't seen it...

    Do you have an explanation for "Bana Basadi Balalo"?
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