Making the Music One's Own: Rachid Taha and "Kelma"

Apparently one of the legendary stories of music revolves around the chance meeting in Paris in the 1980s of a young up-and-coming Algerian singer for a rock band and The Clash. He admired The Clash and was influenced by them. He saw them as equal parts militant and hedonists, which he found exciting, and as musicians they were willing to branch out into different styles and genres and not get stale. I don't know what the particulars are of that meeting, or what passed between them. But apparently the young up-and-coming Algerian musician gave The Clash a demo tape to listen to. He never heard back from them, and assumed they lost the tape or just didn't listen to it. A few months later, The Clash released Rock the Casbah, and the young musician wonders if perhsps The Clash listened to his tape after all. And just as The Clash may have been inspired by the music of a young Rachid Taha, it is apparent that Taha was very influenced by the image and music of The Clash. Some years later, Rachid Taha would issue his own cover of The Clash, renamed Rock El Casbah, which was named one of the 50 Greatest Covers of All Time by The Guardian.

These stories are great, and always make one speculate. Musicians have so much contact with one another, it's hard to know who directly inspired whom, or what after-hours jam sessions might have produced in people's minds. Another great song, Under Pressure, evolved from a jam session between David Bowie and Queen, and though none of the musicians was completely satisfied with it, it became one of the best known collaborations. Even when not directly working with one another, artists of all stripes are constantly soaking up the influences of other artists, and then reworking that influence in their own particular ways to come out with something new. When I listen to world music covers of famous songs, and I have a few of them, I'm always impressed how usually the artists make those songs their own and in some cases, even better. David Bowie said of Seu Jorge's Portuguese covers of his songs for film that had Seu Jorge not covered them, he would not have known of the beauty that his interpretations could bring.

Wow, how did all this come out? The random song for today isn't even a cover, though it is by Rachid Taha. Kelma first appeared on his 1995 CD Olé, Olé and then on his 1997 CD Carte Blanche. Now based in France, Taha's music is influenced by rock, punk, electronica and Algerian raï and has been described as "sonically adventurous." He first became exposed to music through his Algerian culture, but moved to France as a child where in his teens he worked menial jobs during the day but DJ'd at night playing Arab music, rap, funk, salsa and other music. He also soaked up raï, which was a music of political protest in Algeria during the 1980s. He co-founded a rock band in 1981 and became lead vocalist. Later in the 80s he went solo, and in 1989 he recorded with producer Don Was playing Arabic style beats, but didn't achieve much success with American audiences. In 1998 he recorded his breakthrough album Diwan, which were remakes of songs from Algerian and Arab traditions. He is known for playing the mandolute, essentially a fretted oud. He is described as an eclectic artist who is gregarious, quick with a smile, and who loves to party through the night.