M.I.A. Track Review Correction: Hooray for Bollywood

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.


mojo-photo-discodancer.jpgIn my recent rundown of the new M.I.A. album Kala, I said track four, “Jimmy,” sounded like Boney M; turns out I was both way off and weirdly close. The track is in fact a spot-on cover of “Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Aaja,” by Parvati Khan and Mithun Chakravarty, off the soundtrack to the 1982 Bollywood musical “Disco Dancer.” Actually, it pretty much sounds like M.I.A. just sampled the whole song and sang over it. The reason it was confusing to me is probably because both this and Boney M were huge in Russia—er, the Soviet Union—back in the ’80s and ’90s. By the way, how weird is Russia’s obsession with super-gay disco? Army of Lovers, anyone? That song was inescapable back in 1990 when I was studying over there, and it’s basically like full-on trannies covering “Haveinu Shalom Alleihem.” Seriously. Anyway, like most Bollywood stuff, “Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Aaja” is super super duper awesome, and you can buy it on iTunes, watch the video below, or grab an mp3 at Gorilla vs. Bear who tipped me off on all this.

“Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Aaja” from “Disco Dancer”

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate