John Kongos – He’s Gonna Step On You Again

3rd July 1971 · 1970s, 1971, Music
Here’s a pop trivia gem: this song by John Kongos is the first to use a sample. It would be sampled itself nearly 20 years later by The Happy Mondays. 

According to the Guinness Book of Records, it uses the first sample ever – a tape loop of tribal African rhythms – for this ahead-of-its-time critique of white colonialism.
 
It was of course re-appropriated in 1990 by The Happy Mondays, whose version – Step On – just failed to match the original’s dizzy heights of No.4 in the summer of 1971.
 
In his native South Africa, John Kongos had already had a bunch of hit records (with The Dukes, then Johnny Kongos & The G-Men) when he was still a teenager in the early Sixties.
 
Relocating to London, he had a crack at stardom here, first as Floribunda Rose (it was the era of flower power) and then as The Scrugg, a psychedelic combo who made a great single called Everyone Can See that’s on one of those Nuggets compilations.
 
Going solo, he made an album with the magnificent title Confusions Of A Goldfish (it was also the era of LSD) before striking gold with this great self-penned tune, written as a protest song against the white man’s appropriation of native territory in Africa.
 
He had another hit with Tokoloshe Man but, despite his meagre success, he had a highly successful music career, having sensibly bought himself a London studio, where he worked as a record producer, sound engineer, songwriter, session musician, TV jingle and theme music composer.
 
Here’s another bit of trivia: he also programmed the synths on Def Leppard’s 1983 album Pyromania.
 
Completists should try to track down his 2002 album Lavender Popcorn: 1966-69, which combines the music of Floribunda Rose, The Scrugg and his early solo material.
 
These days, I learn, his four sons have a band called, with huge originality, Kongos, who cover his songs.