Slapp Happy
Qalam strives to explore the interpenetration of different cultures. To this end, we have decided to launch a series of playlists in which music mediates between different geographical and ideological spaces. Our first playlist is called ‘West to East: One Hundred Best Songs’. It will be updated several times a week, and its curation will focus on how Western pop culture has reflected the realities of the East, whether they are musical, geographical, religious, or political. (The terms ‘West’ and ‘East’ should be taken as broadly and arbitrarily as possible.)
Slapp Happy was an inimitable English-German trio, the forerunners of the European musical movement that would be called ‘rock in opposition’ in the late 1970s. They struck the perfect balance between poignant simplicity and complex sophistication, prog rock and Berlin cabaret, thanks in large part to the distinctive voice of their German singer with the royal name, Dagmar Krause.
They always paid tribute to the East, from their Japan tour to songs like ‘Tutankhamun’ or ‘Heading to Kyoto’. But their best nod in that direction is the title track of their second and pivotal 1974 LP (a record whose publishing fate was far from easy).
The song is a kind of last tango in Casablanca, a gritty Moroccan noir with references to Kabbalah, cocaine, cracked mirrors, and other spy gadgets.