al-Rayyis Bira | Duniya Gharura (Saut El Hob, 1973)

 

Egyptian sha'abi artist Al-Rayyis Bira is, according to his Discogs page, best known for composing the song "El Sah El Dah Enbou," made famous by Ahmed Adaweya. That isn't, however, why we got this 7". In fact, we were gifted it from the source of most of our Arabic-speaking-world singles.

As huge Ahmed Adaweya fans, you can imagine our thrill when we realized who Bira was. "Duniya Gharura," which we might translate as "A World of Arrogance," doesn't disappoint. The right channel on Side A of this mono recording was pretty rough, so we pulled the audio from the left channel and combined the two sides into a frankly less-than-seamless whole. (Side B begins abruptly, a product of the original.)

(Listen to "Duniya Gharura")