Watch Out!

Just as the hippie era came to an end in America, a second 60s began. In what is now Zimbabwe, young people created a rock and roll counterculture that drew inspiration from hippie ideals and the sounds of Hendrix and Deep Purple. The kids in the scene called their music “heavy,” because they could feel its impact, and it resonated from Zambia to Nigeria. At its peak in the mid-70s, the heavy rock scene united tens of thousands of young progressives of all racial and social backgrounds. The country was called Rhodesia then, one of the last bastions of white rule in Africa, and heavy rockers defied segregation laws and secret police to make a stand for democratic change. Wells Fargo was at the forefront of the scene, and the title track of this album, ‘Watch Out’, was the anthem of the counterculture. Following our previous collaborations with Now-Again Records, we are thrilled to reissue now Wells Fargo’s “Watch Out!,” a curated collection of songs intertwining rock and funk with Zimbabwean folkloric melodies, taken from the band 45s discography, never available outside of Zimbabwe at the time the singles were originally released.