Category: 1995-1999

“Rail On” (1995) – Papa Wemba * Written by Papa Wemba and Lokua Kanza * Produced by Stephen Hague * CD: Emotion * Label: Real World Records

The Congolese singer Papa Wemba adopted his stage name from his real-life situation as the oldest child of a family who had lost both parents by the time he was 24. Although the over-achiever had become a pan-African star by the early seventies, his 1995 Emotion album, with its slick production by Stephen Hague, found him making a deliberate play for the international market (including a cover of Otis Redding’s “Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa”). Oddly enough for the high energy rumba/soukous king, the album’s standout track and future fan-favorite was a low-key acoustic guitar number called “Rail On,” a collaboration with fellow Congolese singer-songwriter Lokua Kanza. Papa Wemba had normally sung in his native Lingala, but this song featured lyrics in Kiswahili with an English refrain. On April 23, 2016, he died on stage in Cote D’Ivoire, and since then the song has “railed on” further into even more of an African pop standard than it already was.

“Sorry You Asked?” (1995) – Dwight Yoakam * Written by Dwight Yoakam * Produced by Pete Anderson * CD: Gone * Label: Reprise * Billboard charts: #59 (Country)

Never a proper establishment country artist, Dwight Yoakam caught the US country airwaves via the west coast a la Buck and Merle. He was a honky tonk dance floor top ten regular during the first eight years of his discography (1986-1993), which included a bad-press fling with Basic Instinct-era Sharon Stone. His 1995 Gone album, though, would be the first one in the cult-country, low-to-no charting realm where he still abides. The leadoff track had big fun with his new rep as a crappy romantic partner, and stands as the world’s funniest breakup song. No other country radio offering before (or elsewhere, even Bob Dylan’s “Ballad in Plain D,” which also featured a meddling sister) contained such diagnostic lyrics as “well, we started having problems…” The mariachi trumpet comes off more as vindictive “Understand Your Man” Yoakam hokum than as “Ring of Fire” nostalgia. The trashed-up relationship scenario would become a comfortable go-to theme for Dwight in later songs like “Santa Can’t Stay” (1997) and “Intentional Heartache” (2005) (and his role as a full blown antagonist in the 1996 Sling Blade film monkeys with the persona), but “Sorry You Asked?” was the masterpiece.

“Mamaya (15ième partie)” (1999) – Grand Papa Diabaté * Written by Kerfala Diabaté * CD: Guitar, Extra Dry * Label: Popular African Music

Kerfala “Grand Papa” Diabaté is the oldest of the four Guinean guitar-playing Diabaté brothers (who include Sekou, Sire and Abdoulaye, known collectively as the African Virtuoses). His high esteem as a traiblazing guitarist secured the instrument’s status as a standard component of Guinean music at the dawn of the country’s independence (1958). Grand Papa Diabaté wouldn’t record his first album, Guitar, Extra Dry, until 1999, though, when he was 63 years old. A CD collection of his brothers’ music (The Classic Guinean Guitar Group, most of it recorded in the early 1980s) saw widespread release in 2007. The vocalist on “Mamaya” is Sona Diabaté, who is the sister of Bembeya Jazz guitarist Sekou, but has no immediate relation to Grand Papa.

“Tender” (1999) – Blur * Written by Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon * 45: “Tender” / “All We Want” * LP: 13 * Produced by William Orbit * Label: Food (UK)/Virgin (US) * Charts: UK singles (#2)

In their final days as a steady hit single machine, the Britpop quartet Blur rolled out a seven-minute hippie throwback hymn backed by the London Community Gospel Choir. Lyrical distinctions, though, set it apart as a Gen X affair. The words in sixties folk-chant hits like John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance” or Delaney and Bonnie’s “Never Ending Song of Love” expressed a parent’s sentiments of giving, while this one’s “demons,” “ghosts,” and “screwing up my life” expressed a dependent’s sentiments of needing.

“Ya Rayah” (1998) – Rachid Taha * Written by Amrani Abderrahmane * LP (France): Diwân * Produced by Steve Hillage * Label: Barclay

Although the breakthrough success of the Algerian Taha’s Diwân album (produced by Steve Hillage, the former Gong guitarist) had plenty to do with his built-in pop star charisma, it also benefited from the magnetic pull of “Ya Rayah,” its leadoff song. This was a cover version of a 1973 single by Dahmane El-harrachi, whose entire catalog of festive acoustic chaâbi music features orchestral phrases that swoop across the horizon like frolicsome kites. “Ya Rayah” taps into another powerful emotion, though, for those who understand the lyrics: the allure and parodoxical sadness of emigration.

“Beautiful Stranger” (1999) – Madonna * Written and produced by Madonna and William Orbit * CD single: “Beautiful Stranger”/ (Victor Calderone remixes) * LP: Austin Powers: The Spy Who  Shagged Me (single) * Label: Maverick

Anyone familiar with Love’s “She Comes in Colors” (1967) heard its twisty hook (IIIb – VIIb – IV – VIb) in Madonna’s “Beautiful Stranger” right away. Rhino Records’ Gary Stewart took note of it in Entertainment Weekly, with a sky-is-blue response from a spokesperson that Madonna had never heard of Love. It was likely co-writer William Orbit, though, who drew from the psych-rock cult record to juice the sixties genetics of this particular Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me assignment. The single’s movie tie-in odor, though, was out of Orbit’s hands.