Sabah | Rouh Et-Gawiz (Soutelphan, 1972)

 

Lebanese superstar Sabah (born Jeanette Georges Feghali) is maybe a bit too popular for the scope of this blog, and there are certainly other versions of this single you can find if you want a physical copy. However, it's one of my favorite of her songs (written by Philemon "Hamburger" Wehbe) and this particular version, with the beautiful silkscreen cover, is not available anywhere we could find. So, as with nearly everything in life, we compromise. We chuck our principles in the trash bin, you pick up a sweet MP3 to load into your smartphone.

The transliteration "Rouh Et-Gawiz" comes straight from the Side B label of this record; we suppose you could transliterate it as per the cover sleeve "Rouh Aitajuz Ya Abdu." ("Go Get Married, Abdu!" Muhammad [@ssawal7a on Twitter] tells us. Thank you, Muhammad!) What we do know for sure is that it opens with some of the slinkiest, warmest, awesomely understated guitar we've ever heard on a single from this part of the world. The song plays across Sides A and B; we've linked them together in a single sound file with as seamless a transition as we could manage.

(Listen to "Rouh Et-Gawiz")