“A little gris-gris keeps you safe from harm”I’ve been meaning to make this available for a while, so I might as well do it now before I forget about it completely. A long while back someone on the Buffett listserv called our attention to a song called “Kole Sere”, which was available on an album called Planete Zouk (Volume 1). The writer said there were marked similarities with Buffett’s song “Love & Luck”, which uses the same phrase in its chorus.
I was fresh from my first Caribbean trip and was eager to hear some more zouk music (much like a little tune called “Who Let the Dogs Out?” which I heard on a tape sold to me on a beach in Nevis, three years ago — and which I much prefer to the remake that grew so popular in the US). So I ordered the album. And yes, the similarities are striking. Jimmy’s song is definitely built from the same blueprint, but I wouldn’t want to go so far as to start crying plagiarism. (I’d need a translator for starters.)
Anyway…you can hear the original for yourself via this MP3 (4.2 MBs) [no longer available]. And if interested, you might possibly buy Planete Zouk here. (Please don’t infer that this link is an endorsement of that site, though, since I’ve never shopped there. I bought the CD originally from a site called IMVS, but I can’t remember what their new URL is; and Afromix.org was what I found on Google.) By the way, the album isn’t quite as peppy and energetic as I expected; it mainly sounds like French pop.
And, what the hell, while I’m at it, here’s a live version of Love & Luck (5.2 MBs) recorded at Pine Knob in 1999. Download it quick, since it’s a limited edition; but I feel like I owe it to you guys since I’ve been so remiss in updating this page!
[Archivist’s Note: since posting this we’ve learned Jimmy’s song isn’t quite a scandal, seeing as he includes the song’s original writers in the credits of his remake.
