South Africa’s Skylark

Of the many Makeba compilations on the market, this 45-track set may just be the most comprehensive of them all. Whether all Songlines readers will regard that as a good thing is another matter, for the collection’s comprehensiveness means that compiler Phil Meadley has trawled far beyond Makeba’s overtly African material to include the soul-pop records she recorded while in exile in the US, and which find her sounding closer to Nina Simone or Aretha Franklin than her traditional ‘Mama Africa’ musical persona. The first CD – somewhat clumsily subtitled ‘Traditional and Classic Miriam’ – includes the most widely familiar material from ‘The Click Song’ and ‘Pata Pata’ to ‘Sophiatown is Gone’ and ‘Back of the Moon’. Most will already have these tracks but, of course, no Makeba collection can do without them. The second CD – even more clumsily subtitled ‘Funky and Socially Conscious Miriam’ – contains rarer material that has seldom been anthologised. Versions of Buffalo Springfield’s ‘For What it’s Worth’ and Credence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Down on the Corner’ sound as unashamedly American as the originals, but reveal that she was a great international pop singer as well as an African superstar. Other tracks, such as ‘Goodbye Poverty’ and the magnificently moody ‘Quit It’, reveal a classic soul singer and betray the influence of her good friend Nina Simone. Other rarities include a brace of civil rights anthems in her 1974 single ‘Malcolm X’ and the funky ‘Talking and Dialoging’. The lack of recording dates and other track information is frustrating. But, as a compilation that showcases every facet of Makeba’s artistry, South Africa's Skylark is hard to beat.