Now here's a curious thing. When all the Hungarian songs were released yesterday, one song title stood out like a sore thumb. When you see a song called Uncle Tom crop up in the Eastern states, you wonder if either it was a highly politicised statement by a black performer, a well-meaning but misplaced song about racial unity by a moon-faced Budapest lass, or just an accidental folk tune about some farmer in the woods by a band who didn't know anything about the cultural caché of the term in the English-speaking world.
But puzzlingly it's none of the above - and it's made all the more curious by the fact that Mushu appear to be fronted by a perky black lad of the same name. The song itself is pretty decent. Its crunchy guitars and percussive stomp is reminiscent of second-album Arctic Monkeys, with a bit of Radkey's punk'n'blues guitaring chucked in for good measure - a kind of fifth generation indie pop rarely heard anywhere in this contest.
But even more strangely, the song's title doesn't directly allude to the content of the lyric. Is there some hidden meaning we haven't quite uncovered yet? Does the "Let my people go" line actually hint at something more biblical? Or is this just a bunch of kids chucking some nice sounding foreign words they don't fully understand into the song? I genuinely don't know, so I'm looking forward to finding out a bit more about this mob!
***STOP PRESS***
Mushu himself has sent us a message explaining the sentiment by the song.
"It's about people being overworked for fares that aren't enough to get them by. Speaking quite directly about the economical situation in Hungary, while using the Black American Slave Era as a direct analogy for how people are convinced that the injustices that befall them are the natural order of things, and thus don't strive to better themselves, or escape the prisons they often hold themselves in, or their circumstances force them into.
In live performances, I actually sing the second verse as
'Ain't no Masters, Ain't no Gods.
Don't Go Calling me Uncle Tom'."
And if you want to read the full lyric, go to the Comments section below.
Thanks Mushu!
***STOP PRESS***
Mushu himself has sent us a message explaining the sentiment by the song.
"It's about people being overworked for fares that aren't enough to get them by. Speaking quite directly about the economical situation in Hungary, while using the Black American Slave Era as a direct analogy for how people are convinced that the injustices that befall them are the natural order of things, and thus don't strive to better themselves, or escape the prisons they often hold themselves in, or their circumstances force them into.
In live performances, I actually sing the second verse as
'Ain't no Masters, Ain't no Gods.
Don't Go Calling me Uncle Tom'."
And if you want to read the full lyric, go to the Comments section below.
Thanks Mushu!
Right, I've got a hold of the lyric, and it becomes considerably more clear now.
ReplyDeleteI Ain't got time for hanging around
People not knowing when the sun goes down
I worked so hard my nose turned brown,
sniffing people not knowing when the sun go down.
Master, Master I’ve been told
Fetch me silver, grab that gold
I worked so hard with sleeves unrolled
‘Cause I can’t pick cotton if it gets too cold
Master, I must say, you often charge more than you pay
I’d just as soon be on my way
But a Knick-Knack Whipcrack and I stay
Oh My Blisters Bleed
This ain’t the kind of work I need
I’d rather starve than slave all day
You can tax me, torture, but I won’t obey
Cause I ain’t got time for hanging around
People not knowing when the sun goes down
I worked so hard my nose turned brown,
sniffing people not knowing when the sun go down.
Ain’t no Masters, Ain’t no Gods
Let My People Go!
Ain’t no Masters, Ain’t no Gods
Let My People Go!
Ain’t no Masters, Ain’t no Gods
Let My People Go!
Take your chances, snatch the odds
Let My People Go!
If you don’t get fed, what’re you working for ?
Let My People Go!
Well I’d shine your shoes and shovel snow,
but it’s 6pm, I’ve got a life at home
Cause I ain’t got time for hanging around
People not knowing when the sun go down
I worked so hard my nose turned brown,
sniffing people not knowing when the sun go down.