In 1909 a baby was born in the Zululand area of South Africa. His name was Solomon Linda, Linda being his tribal name. He grew up herding cattle and became acquainted with local wedding and ancestral songs. In school he tried out for choir contests and he and his friends began singing Zulu songs in the new syncopated way of singing a capella. I suppose this is most closely related to the Do-Wop type of music that became popular in the 50's here in the US.
Like many in the countryside he moved to Johannesburg and found work at a furniture shop and sang in a choir known as the Evening Birds, managed by his uncles. They disbanded in 1933 but he revived the band and the name and changed jobs. He joined up with his boyhood friends who were working at the Carlton Hotel. Solomon was a soprano, Gilbert an alto, Boy was a tenor and Gideon, Samuel, and Owen basses. The Evening Birds were resurrected.
By 1939, when Solomon was 30 years old, he began work at Gallo Records putting albums into sleeves. A company talent scout heard them singing and they recorded a song Linda wrote named Mbube. Linda sold the rights to that tune right after its recording to Gallo Records for the sum of less than 12 shillings, which is equivalent to $2 dollars. Two dollars. Mbube became popular in South Africa and in the next 10 years sold around a 100,000 copies.
The Zulu lyrics of Mbube contained the word "uyimbube" which translates to "you are a lion." Apparently not to the animal but to a fallen king, a lion amongst his people. The king is not dead, but sleeping - a consoling message to a grieving tribe.
In 1952 Pete Seeger, renowned folk singer heard the song and made changes. He misread or misheard the word "uyimbube" and called his version Wimoweh. Wimoweh means nothing, as it is an erroneous hearing of "you are a lion." So now Solomon Linda not only receives no royalties for his song but they now usurp it and assign a non-word as its Americanized title. It becomes a number one song for the Pete Seeger's The Weavers.
Next comes a guy by the name of Jay Siegel who was crooning do-wop tunes along the Boardwalk in New Jersey and heard Seeger's song 10 years later and wants his group, the Tokens, to re-record it, but there aren't any lyrics. His recording studio hired a guy by the name of George Weiss to provide the words and it becomes, voila!, The Lion Sleeps Tonight. Weiss created words that changed its meaning from a powerful benevolent king who has dies to a song that tells its listeners to hush and not wake the lion who is sleeping.
This is the original recording of Mbube. To our ears very African, a combination of exaltation and sorrow. The king has died but fear not, he is only sleeping. he will arise and lead us to safety. Of particular not is the final 20 seconds or so: Linda improvises with the final few notes and it is more reminiscent of what is evolves to today.
The Lion Sleeps Tonight has been one of the most covered songs in history, translated into most languages and is a staple with high school marimba bands and college choruses. Go to You Tube and you will see hundreds of takes on it. It was featured in Disney's The Lion King movie and continues to enchant via the stage show that has been the third longest-running show in Broadway's history.
But this essay isn't about a song's evolution. In this 80th year's anniversary of Mbube, it is about Solomon Linda and the royalties he or his family never received. Because blacks couldn't make contracts he sold the rights for $2, remember? His signature on the document releasing his rights was neatly signed in English cursive by Solomon Linda and yet, he couldn't read or write. He died in 1961 and according to British law those rights should have reverted back to the family 25 years after his death. Oh, and Linda died in poverty, with about ten bucks to his name.
To his credit, Pete Seeger sent Linda $1000 and instructed his publishing company to keep sending modest royalties to Linda, but they rolled their eyes when he left the room and more money was never sent.
When Apartheid was abolished the Linda family, now four daughters, decided to try to collect royalties from their father's work. They hired a lawyer who was not well versed in copyright laws so that effort went no where. Years went by and one of the daughters died. Walt Disney included the song in the movie The Lion King and another, more high power attorney was hired after the Minister of Culture was informed of the situation. This attorney knew copyright laws and used an arcane, Charles Dickens era law to try and make things happen for the family. Along with those efforts, Disney decided they didn't want any adverse publicity, so a trust was established for the family. Disney made it a prerequisite that no information would be allowed as to how much was in the trust. For context, the royalties for the The Lion King alone amounted to $15,000,000 dollars.
The daughters kept asking when the trust would be opened to them, but nothing was forthcoming. Eventually it was revealed that after attorney fees, publishing house royalties, and such, only $250,000 was allotted to each of the girls. Sure, $250,000 was a lot for impoverished South Africans, but it is clear that the millions upon millions of dollars Solomon Linda and his heirs should have received for his iconic work was shoveled off to other entities. The system of Apartheid, the attorney fees, Disney, The Tokens and their publishing house that plagiarized Linda's work, all conspired to pad their own pockets instead of giving proper royalty monies to the author himself.
Folkways Publishing, Pete Seeger and the Weaver's publishing house has promised to give the Linda family $3000 a year and to construct a memorial.
In 2012, Mbube, because of copyright laws in South Africa became public domain. Thus no royalties. The Lion Sleeps Tonight is still copyrighted and making tons for RCA Records.
I put these guys in this piece because they work so damn hard at it.
-- Some of this information was found in a Netflix's documentary. Look it up if so wish. Further info was gleaned from other sources on the web.
Like many in the countryside he moved to Johannesburg and found work at a furniture shop and sang in a choir known as the Evening Birds, managed by his uncles. They disbanded in 1933 but he revived the band and the name and changed jobs. He joined up with his boyhood friends who were working at the Carlton Hotel. Solomon was a soprano, Gilbert an alto, Boy was a tenor and Gideon, Samuel, and Owen basses. The Evening Birds were resurrected.
By 1939, when Solomon was 30 years old, he began work at Gallo Records putting albums into sleeves. A company talent scout heard them singing and they recorded a song Linda wrote named Mbube. Linda sold the rights to that tune right after its recording to Gallo Records for the sum of less than 12 shillings, which is equivalent to $2 dollars. Two dollars. Mbube became popular in South Africa and in the next 10 years sold around a 100,000 copies.
The Zulu lyrics of Mbube contained the word "uyimbube" which translates to "you are a lion." Apparently not to the animal but to a fallen king, a lion amongst his people. The king is not dead, but sleeping - a consoling message to a grieving tribe.
In 1952 Pete Seeger, renowned folk singer heard the song and made changes. He misread or misheard the word "uyimbube" and called his version Wimoweh. Wimoweh means nothing, as it is an erroneous hearing of "you are a lion." So now Solomon Linda not only receives no royalties for his song but they now usurp it and assign a non-word as its Americanized title. It becomes a number one song for the Pete Seeger's The Weavers.
Next comes a guy by the name of Jay Siegel who was crooning do-wop tunes along the Boardwalk in New Jersey and heard Seeger's song 10 years later and wants his group, the Tokens, to re-record it, but there aren't any lyrics. His recording studio hired a guy by the name of George Weiss to provide the words and it becomes, voila!, The Lion Sleeps Tonight. Weiss created words that changed its meaning from a powerful benevolent king who has dies to a song that tells its listeners to hush and not wake the lion who is sleeping.
This is the original recording of Mbube. To our ears very African, a combination of exaltation and sorrow. The king has died but fear not, he is only sleeping. he will arise and lead us to safety. Of particular not is the final 20 seconds or so: Linda improvises with the final few notes and it is more reminiscent of what is evolves to today.
The Lion Sleeps Tonight has been one of the most covered songs in history, translated into most languages and is a staple with high school marimba bands and college choruses. Go to You Tube and you will see hundreds of takes on it. It was featured in Disney's The Lion King movie and continues to enchant via the stage show that has been the third longest-running show in Broadway's history.
But this essay isn't about a song's evolution. In this 80th year's anniversary of Mbube, it is about Solomon Linda and the royalties he or his family never received. Because blacks couldn't make contracts he sold the rights for $2, remember? His signature on the document releasing his rights was neatly signed in English cursive by Solomon Linda and yet, he couldn't read or write. He died in 1961 and according to British law those rights should have reverted back to the family 25 years after his death. Oh, and Linda died in poverty, with about ten bucks to his name.
To his credit, Pete Seeger sent Linda $1000 and instructed his publishing company to keep sending modest royalties to Linda, but they rolled their eyes when he left the room and more money was never sent.
When Apartheid was abolished the Linda family, now four daughters, decided to try to collect royalties from their father's work. They hired a lawyer who was not well versed in copyright laws so that effort went no where. Years went by and one of the daughters died. Walt Disney included the song in the movie The Lion King and another, more high power attorney was hired after the Minister of Culture was informed of the situation. This attorney knew copyright laws and used an arcane, Charles Dickens era law to try and make things happen for the family. Along with those efforts, Disney decided they didn't want any adverse publicity, so a trust was established for the family. Disney made it a prerequisite that no information would be allowed as to how much was in the trust. For context, the royalties for the The Lion King alone amounted to $15,000,000 dollars.
The daughters kept asking when the trust would be opened to them, but nothing was forthcoming. Eventually it was revealed that after attorney fees, publishing house royalties, and such, only $250,000 was allotted to each of the girls. Sure, $250,000 was a lot for impoverished South Africans, but it is clear that the millions upon millions of dollars Solomon Linda and his heirs should have received for his iconic work was shoveled off to other entities. The system of Apartheid, the attorney fees, Disney, The Tokens and their publishing house that plagiarized Linda's work, all conspired to pad their own pockets instead of giving proper royalty monies to the author himself.
Folkways Publishing, Pete Seeger and the Weaver's publishing house has promised to give the Linda family $3000 a year and to construct a memorial.
In 2012, Mbube, because of copyright laws in South Africa became public domain. Thus no royalties. The Lion Sleeps Tonight is still copyrighted and making tons for RCA Records.
I put these guys in this piece because they work so damn hard at it.
-- Some of this information was found in a Netflix's documentary. Look it up if so wish. Further info was gleaned from other sources on the web.
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