Congo Vibes
Music => Congolese Music => Topic started by: BercysFinest98 on September 22, 2019, 09:43
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Today marks exactly 30 years, since this bone chilling performance was given. The "Grand Maître" Franco on his last legs. When I first heard this, it felt so painful! The sound of the guitar solo just didn't sound like Franco. The illness made the Sorcerer of the guitar, lose his magic but not his strength to give a subtle performance! He tried and tried but he was too weak but still motivated to stand up and have one more go at doing his solo. Even though it wasn't the greatest show ever, to me, it was a good way to close the curtains and say goodbye!
Alongside that we're almost close to 30 years since Franco's death. May the legend rest in peace!
https://youtu.be/P5jY7KzP8Co
Franco's final goodbye also reminds me of the song "These Are The Days Of My Life" by Queen. In which the video contains a very pale and sick Freddy Mercury as he was slowly suffering the symptoms of HIV but he was giving it his all one last time before dying in 1991.
https://youtu.be/oB4K0scMysc
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I get emotional sometimes listening to Franco's final concert. I get so mad that he chose the song Chacun Pour Soi. Someone should have told him to do another song like Mario. Mario would have been less bad because he was not doing great. But I know Franco tried to play his best. He almost had it which makes it even worse. But Franco will remain a big legend to me.
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I get emotional sometimes listening to Franco's final concert. I get so mad that he chose the song Chacun Pour Soi. Someone should have told him to do another song like Mario. Mario would have been less bad because he was not doing great. But I know Franco tried to play his best. He almost had it which makes it even worse. But Franco will remain a big legend to me.
I totally get you on the song choice point! In my opinion, I'd say that it was a good idea to choose "Chacun Pour Soi" because, for me even though "Mario" is Franco's biggest hit, the most iconic moments of his career was when he performed the "Chacun Pour Soi" solo with energy, for example at Tele Zaïre in 1986. And of course, Franco will go down as one of the GOATs
Legendary! Heres to 30 years!
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The Gentleman introducing him also died that same year, not sure the cause
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The Gentleman introducing him also died that same year, not sure the cause
Do you know what's really weird? After Franco's death, many of the members kept dying, one after the other and after the other and after the other!
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Are they dead because of AIDS?
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The late 80's and early 90's was a bad era for HIV/AIDS related deaths, it wiped out a whole generation of young talented people and left a stigma that still persists to this day.
[https://youtu.be/OkfYs2_r1y8]
Franco even made a song about AIDS/SIDA two years before his own death
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What surprises me even more is how many people stayed alive. Hearing about HIV infection rates in Congo and Africa, it is kind of unbelieveable that so many musicians did not die.
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@bencuri
Either the musicians of today are using condoms more often or are being a lot more careful about who they sleep with. Just because a woman is beautiful, doesn't mean she's healthy.
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May be Franco knew and something kept telling him that you may not do this again. He must have been emotional inside. I feel for members of the band, they must have been sad.
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The Gentleman introducing him also died that same year, not sure the cause
[/quote Isaac Musekiwa was the guy doing the introductions. He was a Zimbabwean who had moved to Zaire and ended up joining TPOK Jazz. He was a saxophone player.
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I don't believe Franco died of AIDS.
They blame AIDS/HIV for a lot of people's death because it was "trendy and easy" back then...
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@Paysan Congolais
I can't imagine him dying from anything else; it was the 80s, he was a well known womanizer, and his sudden change to physical appearance in a short-time is consistent of AIDS related deaths.
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@Paysan Congolais
I can't imagine him dying from anything else; it was the 80s, he was a well known womanizer, and his sudden change to physical appearance in a short-time is consistent of AIDS related deaths.
Congolese have been speculating for years that his death was a result of him dibbing and dabbling in witchcraft and sorcery. There’s even a rumor that his title Grand Maître was bigger than just music (I won’t get into the basis of those rumors, it’s quite egregious). Did Franco or his family publicly acknowledge that it was indeed AIDS? I have also heard that playing with nkisi shortens your life. All I’m saying is, the AIDS claim has been met with skepticism and him dying of something else doesn’t seem far fetched.
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His pire petit said 6 years ago that he died of AIDS, saying that it was because of his Hatitian sidechick who died earlier than him. In Congo if someone died of AIDS, the family will never admit that because they see it as a big disgrace and if they will admit then they will never say "he died of Aids", they will rather say "he died of it".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEB4N02JBeI
from 28:15 min (saying on the way I explained).
Often if people known that a man or woman died of AIDS then their sidechicks or lovers will deny that they had relationship with him or her. A good examples are when Michel Lady Luya died. Marianna and Marlene Kasanga all denied that they had a relationship with him because of the shame while when he was in life they proudly talking about it behind the scene, getting alot of gifts and a fierce war starting against his official. Or when Sony Ecco Homo died, singer-dancer Lola Kadogo decided to commit suicide, because she was afraid to be mocked because of that. Back in the past, people who were about to die with AIDS had often the habit to make a list with the people they had sexual relationships, so that those people wouldn't deny. It was killing their reputations and some didn't even attract the virus but because of being on list they would have a hard time in their quarter.
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@Paysan Congolais
I can't imagine him dying from anything else; it was the 80s, he was a well known womanizer, and his sudden change to physical appearance in a short-time is consistent of AIDS related deaths.
People die of a lot of things.
AIDS rarely kills you that quick. Franco went from Sumo to skeleton very quicky then died. Even Freddy Mercury did not die that quick, although he was also a heavy drug user.
And being a womanizer is not enough to prove someone died of AIDS. Funny anecdote. Mobutu used to say that he doesn't believe in AIDS. Someone asked him why? Mobutu said: "I don't believe in AIDS because if it existed, Bomboko would be dead already".
Maybe he died of AIDS, but we never had anything to prove it, outside of rumors. I always went with the mysticism/poison theory. But who knows except his doctor.
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@Paysan Congolais
With additional research, you might be right. From what I could find, all major publications that announced his death back in 1989 did not mention anything specific about his cause of death aside from a result of "a long illness". At this point, the only people who can answer the question as to the cause of death are the medical staff in Belgium that treated him prior to his demise (his death certificate) and his immediate family (his wife, closest friends, and children).
As for everyone else, it's hearsay. I'm not the biggest believer in spiritualism, but it's possible that such a quick and unexplainable demise could be something supernatural. However, I'm always going to lean on the side of science.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1989/10/14/deaths/c871abb3-ce1f-4e31-b42b-07c4cd7ec039/
https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/17/obituaries/franco-51-zairian-band-leader-and-creator-of-the-soukous-style.html