Shooting Star

by Kwela

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about

SHOOTING STAR is a four-part story whose characters, worlds and sounds blend into song. Driven by an up-tempo Sungura guitar, the song’s initial title was ‘Stolen Guitar’; based on a joke about Sungura music’s supersonic pace resembling that of music played on stolen guitars, with a swiftness that takes your breath away.

It’s based on Vincent, the Zimbabwean guitarist working in Johannesburg not as a musician. It reads like an anthology, a letter to immigrants and dreamers, a note to self and an elegy written around a time of grieving a mother and brother. It celebrates the dearly departed, memory, healing in a foreign city, nearly in isolation and kept up by a dreamy reality.

Available on all digital platforms: smarturl.it/Kwela_SS

lyrics

(Verse 1)
Went Away
Not forgotten
Shooting Star
Labelled foreign
From far away
Just over border
Plucked away
Whenever border
Held in please
By hope and prayer
And gaffer tape
Most valued player
Shuffle shuffle
Pound the ground
Left right centre
When you come around

(Chorus)
Ti lila
Ti lila
Trili lali la

Ti dida
Ti dida
Trili lali la x 4

(Verse 2)
'Cause ain't nobody
Like a nobody
Corporate body
Or lifeless body
From Soweto (to) Sirius B
To Sombrero Galaxy
From where you came
From nothing
Story of your becoming
Day your Mama
Felt something
Made your Papa
Into something
Love is plenty
And you('re) worthy
To be happy
Feel free
When you feel
Squeezed as mp3
Here's a melody
Sing with me

(Chorus)
Ti lila
Ti lila
Trili lali la

Ti dida
Ti dida
Trili lali la x 4

credits

released July 19, 2019
Composer/Author: Kwela
Guitarist: Vincent Nkomo
Producer/Vocals: Kwela
Vocal Recording & Mixed by David Ariza
Mastered by Phil De Metro @ Laquer Mastering
Recorded in Johannesburg & Toronto (2018)
Portrait: Kgomotso Neto Tleane
Artwork: Phuti