Last month as I was preparing to depart Ann Arbor on a Monday morning shortly before midday, I tuned into the University of Michigan’s student-run freeform radio station, WCBN, and was instantly transfixed by a loping funk groove that was imbued with a distinct Eastern melodicism and underpinned by a catchy chorus. Fearing that this was my one and only opportunity to identify the source of such a compelling sound before WCBN radio host, birdboy (“Earth Says Hello“), was ready to move on to the next selection, I grabbed my phone and immediately launched Shazam, the clever app that is able to recognize a random snippet of any song stored in its library of recordings. As it turned out, the recording that tickled my ears — obscure by US and Western “pop” standards — was a piece of cake for Shazam to identify:
“Demedim Mi” by vocalist Cem Karaca, with backing support from Kardaşlar, was released for a Turkish market, yet the dynamic opening bass lines, propulsive kick drum groove, and lean guitar riffing all bear James Brown‘s unmistakable “on the one” funk influence. My inner A&R producer tell me this tuneful track with the pleading vocal must have been the A-side when originally issued, and yet Discogs and 45Cat both insist that “Demedim Mi” was strictly the flip side — with a bigger promotional budget and access to international markets, Zero to 180 wonders whether this song could have realized its full pop potential as a B-side breakout hit?
“Demedim Mi“
Cem Caraka & Kardaşlar
(1971)
The fact that this 45 release was packaged in at least three different picture sleeves conveys the sense of the commercial clout attached to this “Turkish rock pioneer” and the supporting group of musicians with whom he collaborated during the early 1970s.
“Tatli Dillim” b/w “Demedim Mi“
“Tatli Dillim” b/w “Demedim Mi“
“Tatli Dillim” b/w “Demedim Mi“
And yet, here in the West, Cem Karaca’s name barely registers in the main music industry trade publications. Karaca’s first (and only) appearance in Billboard would, in fact, be Talip Ogur‘s obituary published in 2004:
Billboard
TURKISH HERO DIES
Turkey is mourning the death of the country’s biggest rock phenomenon, Cem Karaca, whose career spanned almost four decades. Singing with 1970s bands such as Apaslar, Kardaslar, Mogoliar and Dervidan, he was dubbed a “Turkish Bob Dylan” for his radical left-wing songs and was forced into exile in 1979, immediately before the Turkish military seized power. Karaca was ordered to return to face a trial but remained in Germany until 1987, when he returned under a new government. In recent years, Karaca used his music to campaign for a peaceful coexistence between Turkey’s secularists and Islamists. He died of a heart attack Feb. 8 at age 58. The funeral was shown on Turkish TV.
David Barchard‘s obituary for The Guardian‘s 7 March 2004 edition notes that the funeral for Cem Karaca — the dissident and once-exiled Turkish singer of Azerbijani and Armenian heritage who was considered one of the leading lights of the “Anatolian Rock Movement” — which was “shown on pro-Islamic TV stations,” drew a wide range of mourners, “from youths with facial piercings to bearded Islamists.” For millions of Turks, Barchard asserts, Karaca was “a phenomenon who, for nearly four decades mirrored the transformations of his homeland, displayed resolute unwillingness to accept the dead hand of authority, and embodied aspirations for peace and social justice.”
Rugby Typeface in the Wild
courtesy of Plakkutusu
