Track Listing

1. El Lado Mas Bestia de la Vida (Walk on the Wild Side) - Albert Pia
2. Hit the Road Jack - Mo'Horizons
3. Nobel (In The Air Tonight) - Toure Kunda
4. Afrika - Tukuleur
5. People Get Ready - Ladysmith Black Mambazo w/ Phoebe Snow
6. Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher - Chris Ardoin and Double Clutchin'
7. I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) - Les Go
8. Voodoo Child (Slight Return) - Angelique Kidjo
9. Magot Tcheri (In The Summertime) - Fatal Mambo
10. Ces Soirees La - (December 1963 - Oh, What A Night) - Yannick
11. Ain't No Sunshine - Ladysmith Black Mambazo w/ Des'ree
12. No Woman, No Cry - Nenes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #72512 in Music
• Released on: 2003-02-25
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
This album offers 12 enlightening cover versions of Western pop tunes, as performed by artists from places like France, Spain, South Africa, Germany, and Mali. It's always instructive to glimpse how one culture's music is perceived by another, whether through a funhouse mirror, from under a microscope, or even face-to-face. The performances gathered here range from misguided (Albert Pla's bizarre Spanish language take on Lou Reed's "Take A Walk On The Wild Side") to hilarious (Fatal Mambo's salsa interpretation of Mungo Jerry's "In The Summertime") to a delightful breath of fresh air (Malian girl group Les Go's version of Hall & Oates' "I Can¹t Go For That"). Nenes' earnest Japanese-language rendition of Bob Marley's "No Woman No Cry" is laced with plangent plucked samisens and is somehow extremely touching. Other attempts are less effective, but at least none of them come across as cynical and all are worth a listen. --Christina Roden

Customer Reviews

what a hoot!
As with most compilations, there is a certain amount of unevenness to the selections. Highpoints: Catalan Albert Pla's absolutely hysterical lisping flamenco version of Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side;" Beninois Angelique Kidjo's nearly guitar-less version of Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)" (though nothing can match the absolutely ferocious version she does live in which she sings the lead guitar part); and the female Okinawan band Nenes' sanshin-driven version of Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry" (which, when you think about it, a female sanshin-driven version sung in Okinawan is pretty good evidence for the case that Bob Marley is indeed the world's best loved musician). Some of the covers are less successful to my ears, at least in part because I don't like the originals. One exception is the Ivorian trio Les Go's version of Hall and Oates' "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" - for me, having successfully repressed the original in my consciousness, their cover is simply a pretty good dance track, typical of Les Go.

Fun--but not one of Putomayo's most stellar works....mm
Most of the Putomayo I own are CDs I can play over and over. "Cover the World" was interesting the first time around, but I doubt I will be revisiting the collection as often as I do "Celtic Tides" or any of the others with more original works.

Standouts are Kidjo's "Voodoo Child," and the 2 selections by Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Good Idea but ....
This could have been a good CD but there are just too many tracks that are too close to the originals eg Toto, Phil Collins to make it worthwhile. Hit the Road Jack swings and No Woman No cry is a good interpretation of the Marley song but other than that it plods along. There is just so much more interesting 'world' music out there to explore than this.