Bamboula

Album: Postcards from Paradise (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • Ringo Starr penned this street party tune with arranger lyricist Van Dyke Parks over a couple of days during Spring 2014. Ringo explained to Mojo magazine: "Van Dyke Parks is an old friend of mine. Harry Nilsson introduced us way back in the '70s. This one started with my British version of New Orleans music. I just did this drum pattern, and Van Dyke mentioned the bamboula was the drum that Africans were playing 200 years ago, so that's how we came to the title."

    "When I heard the final song, the attitude seemed more street, like a marching band. We're trying to create the impression of a marching band coming, so I played every drum that I have in the studio, including three huge, hundred-year-old drums Joe [Walsh] sent me from Africa."
  • Parks and Starr have collaborated before, in 2010 on the Y Not track "Walk With You" and two years later on the Ringo 2012 tune, "Samba."

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