Jiving To The Weekend Beat – éVoid
Jiving To The Weekend Beat -Various Artists
You know ‘Shadows’ and ‘Taximan’, but back in the day you may not have known ‘Jiving To The Weekend Beat’. It wasn’t on either of the original releases of éVoid’s first 2 albums but did appear on a limited edition cassette that was sold at gigs at the Springbok Bar in London after the Windrich brothers had relocated to the UK. Fortunately for those who didn’t manage to get across to London to grab a copy of the tape, Benjy Mudie came to the rescue by including it in the bonus material of the re-release of ‘éVoid’, the band’s debut album. And in case you didn’t catch it there, Mudie also released an album called ‘Jiving To The Weekend Beat’ which included material (mostly from the 80’s) of excellent SA music and the song opens that compilation.
The title pretty much tells you what the song will sound like as from the very first guitar notes you are jiving with an abandonment usually reserved for Friday and Saturday nights. It is a life affirming joyfest bouncing around like an ethno-punk on a nightclub stage. You can bop away to this track which mingles western pop and rock with township jive and a bit of punk attitude thrown in for good measure. It has all the energy of a shebeen on payday.
With its fresh sound, catchy rhythms and joie de vivre lyrics, this is a bit of a lost classic from those mad days of the 80’s when the white kids were ‘doing a Graceland’ before Paul Simon thought of it and jiving was leaking out of the townships and into the Hillbows and Braamfonteins of white suburban South Africa. It’s not as serious as ‘Shadows’, nor as punky as ‘Taximan’ but it is a great track and we owe a debt of gratitude to Benjy Mudie for helping prevent the song languishing and fading into obscurity on a rare cassette. And, I can let you into a little secret, it is possible to jive to this song during the week too (in fact almost impossible not to, if you just put it on).
Where to find it:
éVoid (re-release) – éVoid (2000), Retrofresh, FRESHCD106
Video:
1001 South African Songs You Must Hear Before You Go Deaf 