No Looking Back

Orchestre Du Baobab: Kelen Ati Len
Originally released on the album "Visage Du Senegaal" (1975) and re-released as a 7" on Soundway (2006)

Manny Corchado: Pow Wow
Originally released on the album "Aprovecha El Tiempo" on Decca (196?) and re-released on Jazzman (2006)

In general, I like to see myself as the architect of my destiny. There's that lovely quote from Invictus (the poem not the record label, dorks), which I carried around with me for a number of years: "I am the captain of my fate, I am the master of my soul." But on the other side of the coin, there's that old adage: "What's done is done." A bit trite, to be sure, but founded on a substantive (albeit fatalistic) truth: that what's behind us is now beyond our control, with what lies before us--our immediate future--the ineluctable result.

Maybe this is wierd, but I'll just come right out and say it, Oprah-style: I worry less about myself and my own bunglings than the petty mistakes of others. I fret deeply about the imperiled course of my fellow man, and, to be perfectly frank, from time to time I actually lose sleep over the inane gaffes of strangers.

For example. The mighty Soundway Records recently reissued this Baobab track, which, granted, is one of the most LAVA-HOT BANGERS in the history of space and time. However. There is simply no excuse for dropping a hard-earned Benjamin Franklin for a re-pressed 45 that came out fewer than six months ago--and I don't care how limited the pressing. Such was the inexplicable boner executed by some credulous Ebay-er a few weeks back, and I'll be damned if I'm not thinking about it still. What a knuckle-head! Get the CD you big dope! Or, while you're at it, flaunting your Big Willie cheddar, why don't you just make it two bills and buy a nice copy of the original LP? But then, what's done is done...

Anyhow, this post is for that kid: a hundred dollars poorer, and, I hope, pleased as goddamn pie with his acquisition. Way to go, buddy!

Ps. The Manny Corchado joint is another recently repressed classic that, hopefully, nobody is selling their kidney to purchase. Enjoy that.

Pps. I fully recognize that to spend this much time both perusing Ebay and thinking about other people's finances legitmately qualifies me as a loser. But f--- it. I'm the master of my soul, bitches.