The Green Arrows - No Delay (Bullitt)

For many, Zimbabwe is most notable for 2009 ‘Worst Dictator of the Year’, Robert Mugabe, who by most accounts is a merciless corrupt cockface, but this isn’t ‘Thinky Thinks’ or ‘Protest-y Pouts of the Unshaven Pits’ - this is Deadly Deaths, y’all - and check it out - they have bands too!

The Green Arrows were a floating back-up band with a few originals, found playing in a hotel by South African producing legend West Nkosi - and, after some coaxing, became (allegedly) the first band to record an LP in Zimbabwe. A nice blend of the circular rhythms peculiar to much East and South African music, The Green Arrows also brought a Meters-like swagger to some of their more Western-tinged numbers, such as this one, ‘No Delay’.

This particular track has no reported direct association with Steve McQueen’s ‘Bullitt’, but while we’re talking about Steve McQueen, I always imagined that he smelled like a saddlebag full of a mix of lavendar and hay and that his rugged skin made a distinct crinkling sound as he smiled at you from across the table in a charming Chinatown dive, paused, and sipped his beer as he looked just slightly over your right shoulder at some passerby through the window. Zimbabwe! Not just last in your Grade 3 Social Sciences ‘List Of Countries’ project.

Zexie Manatsa, bassist and vocalist for The Green Arrows. Not pictured: Steve McQueen