IKN

Two weeks ago I featured this song by Manu Chao and the e-mail response was wonderful, both from people that know Manu and his music going “yeaaaaaaaaaah!!” and people who don’t saying “Hey..not bad, who is his guy?”. So here’s a second song from the dude, but this time we go back in time. Before Manu Chao made it big as a solo artist he was the founder, lead singer and central column of ‘Mano Negra’ (black hand), a group playing “patchanka” music (kind of fast ska, punky rhythms and other influences) that was born in Paris. The group split up in 1997 but still has a cult following in France, Spain and all Latin America.

As for this song, it’s the definitive musical homage to the game of football and is nothing short of legendary amongst my group of friends in Buenos Aires, Argentina (esp. El Gordo Wulff). For those of you without an ear for French (Manu sings in Spanish, French, English and sometimes even Portuguese in his songs) the chorus line is “Santa Maradona pray for me”.