In The Jungle (2017)

Rian Malan’s 2001 article for Rolling Stone Magazine entitled “In The Jungle” provides a detailed look into the controversial history of a tune that is enshrined in popular culture. The song, whose most famous version is entitled “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, rose to prominence over the course of several decades through numerous adaptations of its original iteration “Mbube” written and performed by Zulu musician Solomon Linda and the Evening Birds. The most commercially successful iteration of the song, recorded by the American band the Tokens, is a far cry from Linda’s original version, and this is not purely due to the added English lyrics; (though this is a major difference between the versions) the instrumentation and arrangement are wildly different. A sort of intermediate version of the song can be found in the recording of it by Pete Seeger’s band the Weavers, entitled “Wimoweh”, which is a nonsense word. Though this version is also American, it is a less dramatic departure from Linda’s original than “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”. Through examining these three recordings in chronological order we can trace the linear development, driven by forces of cultural appropriation and capitalism, of “Mbube” from a locally appreciated Zulu song to a worldwide phenomenon.

Solomon Linda and the Evening Birds’ original recording of “Mbube” dates back to 1939, decades before the Weavers’ (1952) and the Tokens’ (1961) recordings. As a result, there is a difference in sound fidelity between the original and its followers that is noticeable to the naked ear, whereas the 1952 and 1961 recordings have a subtler difference in quality. Similarly, the instrumentation in Linda’s version features only one stringed instrument, while the American versions both feature big band arrangements, as was typical for American popular music at the time. Notably missing from the American recordings is the improvisational feel present in Linda’s recording. Melodically, the piece is joyous, with soaring lead vocal lines underscored by a repetitive sequence of major chords, and this does not change between the three versions. However, Linda’s original possesses a human quality that is missing from its later iterations, with each member of the band sounding intimately connected to the other. This is in part due to the vocally focused arrangement, but there are elements of the performance practice that suggest this as well, the most noticeable of which is perhaps the lockstep rhythm present in the latter recordings; Linda’s original is still in duple meter with a consistent rhythm throughout but the tempo varies slightly due to its improvisational nature.  

The Evening Birds’ recording begins with an intro a capella, featuring an assortment of male voices. The main portion of the song then begins with the bass voice singing what becomes the accompaniment melody. One male voice with a register that is very high compared to the other voices is the central focus of the recording, which is also true in the other versions of the song. The Weavers’ recording is already a complete departure from the a capella version when it begins, omitting the intro, with the same melody from the post-intro section of Linda’s version, but played with brass instruments instead of bass voices; the instrumental section that begins the song lasts for quite a long time, imitating melodic phrases from “Mbube” using different instrumental voices in the band in call-and-response fashion, as “Mbube” uses human voices. A while later in the song, multiple voices enter and continue to operate in a call-and-response manner, putting melodies in conversation with other melodies. 

Despite this complete change in instrumentation, “Wimoweh” maintains many parallels with “Mbube” in its adaptation of its melody in both its instrumental sections and its sections that include vocals. The major differences are marked by, in addition to the change in instrumentation, the change in lyrics (from lyrics in Zulu to imitative nonsense lyrics that possess similar phonetic and musical qualities but not necessarily linguistic ones), and the clearly marked pulse, driven by percussion and unwavering in tempo. These changes are largely aesthetic, and the melody and some of the same joyous improvisational feeling invoked by “Mbube” are still present. Given the amount it borrows from the original, it is not absurd to simply call “Wimoweh” a cover of “Mbube. 

“The Lion Sleeps Tonight” shares all these differences as well, but deviates from “Mbube” to the point where it is difficult to merely call it a different arrangement of the same song. The Tokens’ version begins right off the bat with the main tenor voice singing a melody, borrowed and adapted from “Mbube”, and with the bass voices entering soon after that. The song features a band with drums as its most prominent instruments, an orchestra, a modest guitar section that sits in the background similarly to the instrumental backing in “Mbube”, and a bombastic female voice which is notably absent from the other two examples. The band is far more prominent than the instrumental section in “Mbube”, but not as big of a focus of the song as the band in “Wimoweh”. In placing emphasis on vocals, “Mbube” and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” are similar, but the Tokens and the Weavers both place a heavy emphasis on percussion. The starkest difference between “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and the two other versions in question is the English lyrics that appear in addition to the nonsense lyrics similar to those in “Wimoweh”. The English lyrics are, in essence, also nonsensical, describing a jungle and a village near which a lion, dubbed “The” lion, sleeps; coming from an American band the lyrics have no more meaning to them than the gibberish lyrics, in that they are both meant to approximate or capture a foreign, intangible (presumably African) energy that abounds in the original recording but is totally foreign to the lyricist. It is more befitting, seeing as entire verses with meaning to English speakers have been added to the song, to call “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” a wholeheartedly American song that is inspired heavily by “Mbube”, or versions of it.

Given this information, it makes sense to separate the two American recordings from Linda’s recording, placing the original version in its own class of authenticity, not just by virtue of its historical context, but also due to its musical content. Due to its English lyrics, it also makes almost an equal amount of sense to separate “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” into its own class, considering “Mbube” and “Wimoweh” versions of the same song. However, despite the stark differences between “Mbube” and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, “Wimoweh” and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” are the two most similar versions even if “Wimoweh” is to be considered a cover of “Mbube” and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” a different song entirely.

Malan’s article outlines his ethical concerns with the productions of both the Tokens’ and the Weavers’ productions, claiming unapologetically that Solomon Linda “wrote a melody that earned untold millions for white men but died so poor that his widow could not afford a stone for his grave”. Sadly, this is the truth. Malan details through a chronological history of the song in its many iterations how the workings of the racist, and particularly antiblack music industry at large contributed to the appropriation of the work of a Black African artist for both monetary gain and the cultural advancement of white artistry. 

The fact that antiblackness runs through the veins of the American music industry is not a secret. What is interesting about this particular examples is how clearly comparing the musical content of each recording demonstrates, with no need for the historical context that Malan provides, this process of cultural capitalism and exploitation through imitation. The most obvious example is the addition of English lyrics by the Tokens, but “Wimoweh” appropriates the original song’s culture in a more subtle way in its more genuine attempt to replicate the original magic of the song. Its titular utterance, just as present in “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, captures the sinister manner in which both newer versions borrow from Solomon Linda and by extension his Zulu culture; it is not a word, rather a feeling and motive that is being imitated. 

The essence of “Mbube” is replicated in both these covers which are not only adapted for American (and other) audiences, but also white washed to maintain and display only the part of their African influences that are marketable as a cultural and commercial product for a more white audience. This part includes not only the image of of “the lion” sleeping in “the jungle”, whose identity is never alluded to and who merely represents a vague exoticization of Africa. It also includes, in both American examples, the joyous and nearly intangible nature of the improvisational vocal melodies found in the original “Mbube” that made the song popular in the first place, distilled down to a vaguely “foreign-sounding” phrase that is repeated over and over again. A wimoweh.

Work Cited: Malan, R. (2001). In the jungle. Rolling Stone.