south america

hola a todos


yes, i would indeed agree, look you see, that south america is a pretty broad, sweeping (and general) title for a post. rather than cover all, or each and every aspect, of what south america is, this shall instead be a bit limited. and that limitation focuses on how london born rock stars chose to sing the name "south america" on records in the 1980s.

so as to limit it further, avoiding the need for us to be here all day with it, this will all concentrate on just the two london born rock stars, namely david bowie and mick jagger. although saying the latter is london born is pushing it, but dartford is close enough i suppose.

for some reason south america has always appeared to have a special kind of allure (or appeal) for rock stars. if we assume that it isn't because of the proliferation of drugs, flexible morality, copious sex available, lax law enforcement and ease of access to firearms there, then it must be because they love the fans down in that part of the world. or, indeed, up, if you are reading this from somewhere geographically south of the continent.

at no stage, then, did any self-respecting rock star in the 80s refuse (or decline) an opportunity to mention south america. in the present day (the 2020s) this is called a "shout out", apparently. but we did not call it that back then.

yes, the above is indeed a sound clip of david bowie (sort of) singing "south america". as it was only about a second or so long i opted to repeat it a few times, so you can enjoy it over the course of a dozen or so seconds before you need to press the play button again. by my calculations, if you set this on repeat you could hear david bowie sing "south america" (or "sarfy hurmericaaaaa") considerably north of 84,000 times in one (1) 24 (twenty four) hour day.

the above has, of course, been extracted from the celebrated 1985 chart topping single dancing in the street, as recorded by david bowie and his mate mick jagger, all in support of live aid. which gives me the perfect excuse to once again use this "interesting" artistic rendering of david and mick, as featured in that documentary about bromley council services.

did mick jagger ever pay homage to the continent by singing "south america" at any point? why, yes, he did. which is very handy, otherwise this blog post would have fallen rather flat (if it has not done so already, anyway).

just 2 (two) years prior to the bowie recording he done with him, jagger had a preliminary crack at singing "south america" on a song. it was in 1983 when him and his more regular day job, the rolling stones, did an absolute belter of a song called undercover of the night. amazing video for it, too.

perhaps (as in i am) biased, but where the bowie version is vibrant, positive, optimistic and fun, the jagger take is somewhat broody, moody, downbeat and dark. if not for the dark we could not have light, i suppose. make no mistake, but i do believe i am an advocate of the bowie delivery more so than i am the jagger one.

some, perhaps even many, of you may wish for (or appreciate) a more "side by side" comparison of the variations of each artist performing the line "south america" in song. this is not only something i can do (or see as "doable"), bit rather a matter that i gone done.

yes, indeed, there probably are any other number of artists who have had reason (or occasion) to sing of south america. i am just presently not aware of them, or to be blunt not that interested. for what reason would i wish to listen to others in rendition of such when i have bowie and jagger doing it?

right, well, anyway, i suspect that the sound snippets are really all what was needed here. my text just adds a nice border to it all, maybe.




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!