Arlo Guthrie /Guabi Guabi

[08736409]

Gwabi gwabi kuzwa ngilentombi yami ihlale enkambeni shuwa iyangithanda

(Look I have a girlfriend she tays in the compound surely she loves me)

Ngizamthengela amabhanzi, iziwiji,lebhanana

I will buy her buns ,sweets and banannas

[deathtosmurfs]

When Amigo first came out, 1976 or therabout, All the folkies at my college ( all twelve of us) thought one of the verses went "Their's something in la my pantsa, it's a widgie le banana". This is what passed for humor at ****** (name withheld to protect the guilty).

[hilaryme]

Nice try, but thats not what the song is saying. this is about a girl, not a bridge or jungle haha.

[MyMoppet52]

@hilaryme Yes, like Reubon Clamzo is not about a watch along the shore for giant clams in the 1700's to protect the early settlers. (It sounds a bit like a sea shanty to me.) That is what makes Arlo so wonderful and if you believe his stories, you are NOT getting the big picture. His stories afre very rarely accaurate. That is his charm. I have heard this song done without the story. He sounds older.

[slaphappyKat]

When I first heard this song (WAY back), I absolutely fell in love with it, and even memorized it word-for-word! It's cute, as is Arlo...Then AND Now!!

[CazzieWazzieWoo]

so funny to listen to a american try and speak an african language...haha :D

[candries53]

@CazzieWazzieWoo But must say the tune is good

[JAHmelaz]

this is a Zimbabwean song,sang in a Ndebele language similar to zulu language,not a sad song at all,nothing to talk about a jungle or falling person in a bridge, gwabi gwabi is simple a tease,hes teasing his frend that he has a galfrend who is in jail,of whom he will buy her buns=amabhanzi, iziwiji=sweets,lamabanana=bana­na,i find it racist if i may say ,

[devojane]

@JAHmelaz - Not racism, just ignorance. Arlo didn't know, nobody told him, so he made up a funny story. Piranhas are from South America anyway.

[MyMoppet52]

@devojane Arlo knows where Piranhas are from. That is also part of his style. He has travelled all over the world and has even become a Good Will Ambassador for the USA. He didn't fall off a mountainside and write the Pickle Song as he was falling down either. He sang with Pete and also knows lots of world songs. He sings them his way...Nice, but the story first. The STORY is wrong. The song is right. I'm just an Arlo groupie. ...he tells stories like Hoyt Axton did. Love 'em still!

[candries53]

@JAHmelaz Sorry but your comment about Guabi Guabi are not quite right yes it is a tease song to his friend that he has a girlfriend and that she is with him in the camp could be a prison/police camp not jail and that he is going to buy her buns/sweets/and bananas. Its no way racist he is just trying to show off to his friend that he has a chick and was asking his friend where is his.

[08736409]

The song was done in Zimbabwean Ndebele closely related to Zulu. Your translation is very proper.The camp in this sense refers to a Compound(inkomponi)



[MyMoppet52]

@JAHmelaz I am very sorry you feel this is racist. I have been to so many Arlo concerts I cannot even count them. He is loved and beloved for his stories and they are never accurate. That is part of his charm. He told us that Reuben Clamzo was about giant man eating clams that attacked the first settlers and they set up stations to watch for clams. I heard him do Inchworm during the time we were supposed to go metric. It was hilarious. Didn't hear any protests from the Canadians. It's a story.

[gdash4]

Amigo was his best, and one of the best albums of the 70s.

[captboostacious]

woo hoo

[nnwahler]

The studio version of this song is on Arlo's album from '76, "Amigo".....his own favorite of all the albums he did. Warner Brothers put that track out as a single, also, and it didn't even make the Hot 100. Sometimes there's simply NO JUSTICE.

[boomer647]

Does anyone have Arlo doing this song on the "Mike Douglas Show"? As I recall, the sound and harmonies were so much tighter.

[pepper147]

...heard George Sibanda and then Ramblin' Jack Elliott but Arlo has the funniest story =)

[pepper147]

Coolest Ever!!!!!!!

[foxybabyluv]

Arlo is brilliant, long live Guabi! :)

[SandraLuX]

¡Qué genial es Arlo!

[marpeck2]

At our first Church Show some years ago, my wife brought a beat up old copy of Amigo for Arlo to sign, telling him that her mom used to nurse her while playing Guabi on the stereo - to which he replied, with one eye brow raised, "I'm not exactly sure how to respond to something like that."

I'm glad to say that my wife has carried on the tradition, and our son has supped many times with the Zulu strains of Guabi playing in the background!

[madamecarmine]

arlo is beautiful.