So, by now, it’s no secret that the new M.I.A. record has leaked (big surprise!) and is being blogged about like crazy (big surprise!). What you might not have heard is that her Bollywood-gone-Discobelle track "Jimmy," is in fact just that: A cover of a Bollywood musical number; and thankfully it’s about 1/8th the running time of a typical Indian musical number.
DISCO DANCER came out in 1983 (eh, it’s Bollywood – you gotta give em at least 5 years to catch up) and details the epic journey of Jimmy (a zinger of a stage name given to him by his manager played by a young and slender Om Puri, whose character’s name is, uh, David Brown?). His mother, previously imprisoned for a crime she didn't commit by a competing Disco Dancer's manager (there are just so many!), is tragically and hilariously electrocuted by a booby-trapped electric guitar meant for her son. Traumatized, Jimmy develops an irrational fear of picking up a guitar, hence disappointing his fans and putting his status as top Disco Dancer at great risk. Apparently, even by 1983, Bollywood hadn't figured out that knock-off Stratocasters had little to do with this new disco thing.
Regardless, the song "Jimmy" encapsulates forever his fans imploring him to pick that guitar right back up, in the same way that we all want M.I.A. to overcome her issues with sexism at Pitchfork and get that god damned visa and perform for us here in the good ole US of A.
We're only disappointed that M.I.A. didn't to choose to cover the superior title track from the movie: "Disco Dancer": It’s much more entertaining than "Jimmy" ("Gimme a 'D'!! Gimme an 'I'!! Gimme a 'S'!! Gimme a 'C'!! Gimme an 'O'!") The song was even the inspiration for a Devo song/video six years later, when disco seemed like a dim, far-away, and irrelevant memory. It was also the biggest of 3 hits from the movie. In my friend Shonali Bhowmik ’s town it was the hit of the summer. In fact it was so popular that during some holiday celebration there was a parade and her and all of her friends dressed like Jimmy and recreated the entire dance scene from the title song!
Another contender could have been "Auva Auva", which features some amazingly awkward robotic breakdancing and is a shameless rip off of The Bugles’ Video Killed the Radio Star. Actually, come to think of it, his dancing style sort of neatly ties up the DISCO DANCER - Devo connection!
JIMMY:
MP3:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ii93y6
DISCO DANCER:
MP3:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/1ks883
AUVA AUVA:
MP3:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/azcwir
UPDATE:
Apparently M.I.A. not only all caps her moniker, but also her rants via Myspace blog:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/40161-mia-goes-crazy-on-myspace
1 comment:
My friend Sat Kirpal says:
I first went to India in 1984 when "I am a Disco Dancer" was huge. We used to sing it constantly and make fun of the dance. Whenever the school had a talent show you could expect at least two motherfuckers to lipsynch and dance to that song every year through the eighties. In the nineties Sharuk Khan came onto the scene and the songs he lip synched in his movies ran supreme. I'm glad Disco Dancer is getting it's international props.
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