I would like to start with two very remarkable singles by a man who is best known as S.E. Rogie, but who on the first of the two singles is called "S.E. Rogers". On the A-side of this -unfortunately rather scratchy- 45 he is accompanied by His Morning Stars, and on the B-side by his guitar. The A-side is a highlife style song, and sounds like it was recorded in an empty factory. The B-side starts with a comical dialogue between husband and (presumably) wife. The 'justice' of the title refers to conjugal rights.Rogie R.20
The second of these two singles is even more remarkable. Both sides contain an ode to President Sékou Touré, one sung in English and one in French. On the English side S.E. Rogie explains that the songs were composed at the request of a Mrs. P.A. James. In the song Rogie "heartily" congratulates Sékou Touré with the independance of Guinea.If you think this is too much, just wait 'till you've heard the French side! I won't spoil the surprise, but I can reveal that a slide guitar is involved.......
S.E. Rogie - Sekou Toure
8 comments:
Thanks for making these available. "Do Me Justice" & "Nyalima Napoi" are also on this CD:
http://www.sternsmusic.com/disk_info.php?id=COOKCD010
Don't know if it's still in print.
As you may gather, I didn't know about this CD. But I am sure this post will add to the attraction of the CD...
thanks for the rogie singles!
i love this music.
if you have more rogie, please do share.
thanks again for such an amazing blog.
I was surprised with the image of Souliman Ernest Rogers here, then I saw that it was Ahmed Sékou Touré with a portrait of Samory Touré.
Thanks for the music.
there's another amazing song by him
http://mog.com/Spike/blog/185558
do you have it? i can´t find it!
thanks for the great tunes!
Not so long before he died, Rogie recorded a LP on the Workers Playtime label. It was produced by David Toop. It's the equal of these 1960s (?) recordings, I think (and he draws from a repertoire of palm wine music dating back to the 1930s). Never released on CD, to my knowledge.
@gd: I don't have any more records by S.E. Rogie which aren't available on CD, but I do have more from Sierra Leone.
@Ngoni: With these amazing two songs about Sékou Touré, I thought a photo of him would be more suited....
@nacho.cor: I have the OM lp, yes. But the song is available in the blog you linked to. So I'm not quite sure what I could add.
Thanks for this. I'm a big Rogie fan, and it's wonderful to hear the presidential song. Does the single say who is speaking on the b-side?
The Mog Spike hosted track is new to me, as well, so thanks nacho.
In terms of rarities, I recently found an online wav copy of his 1975 out-of-print 'African Lady' album. I also have six radio session tracks he did in the late 80s for BBC.
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