BILL MESNIK'S SUNNY SIDE OF MY STREET PRESENTS: GUITAR BOY BY SIR VICTOR UWAIFU AND HIS MELODY MAESTROES (PHILLIPS, 1966) - EPISODE #86

DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS

I miss Amoeba Records in Hollywood. When I was working a few blocks north of there, I’d visit a few times a week during my lunch break. They had a warehouse full of oddities of all mediums and genres, books, films and memorabilia. It was on one of these mid day excursions that I came across an album entitled: “The Rough Guide to Psychedelic Africa”. This was earmarked and marketed for people just like me. The music contained therein varied quite a bit from my idea of psych, but I love discovering new stuff so I couldn’t pass it by.

“Guitar Boy” was one of the tracks on this collection, by Nigerian national hero - the musician, writer, sculptor, and musical instrument inventor Sir Victor Uwaifo (1941-2021), who achieved the very first gold record there with “Jeromi” in 1965. The genre is called High Life, developed in Ghana, a former British Colony on the west coast of Africa. It’s style is immediately recognizable as Afro-Cuban, with it’s fusion of Afro beats with western melodies played by guitars plucked in staccato arpeggios.

Guitar Boy was banned for awhile because of it’s connection to a failed coup in April ’67, which was led by a Lt. Samuel Arthur (later executed), who marched prematurely into Broadcasting House Accra, announced the coup, and ordered the record to be played. Wow! You can’t make this shit up.