Afrikaans is such an alive and colourful language, regardless of what the actress Charlize Theron may think. When I was travelling through Gibeon the other day, I saw a sign for the ‘Loslappie Bar’ and knew that there were more than 44 Afrikaans speakers in Gibeon alone. And they were probably all making their way to the local Loslappie Bar.
The name intrigued me as the Afrikaans language always does. How did the words ‘los’ (loose) and ‘lappie’ (rag) end up referring to a promiscuous person? It made me giggle to myself.
Kurt Darren brought the name into the limelight with the popular song ‘Loslappie’ and there isn’t a party around where you don’t hear the words “Ek is ‘n loslappie. Loslappie” (I am an easy guy. Easy guy) ringing through the air.
The song, supposedly inspired by the 1926 ‘The Prisoner’s Song’ and adapted into an Afrikaans version by Vernon Dalhart, has however caused much contention. As the story goes, a student musician heard a homeless man singing it one day in Oudtshoorn. The next day, with the song still in his head, he wrote down what he remembered of the words and the tune, added his own lyrics and called it Loslappie. A few years later, Kurt Darren heard him singing it at an arts festival and approached him after the show to ask him if he could record it on his next album. He received the green light and Loslappie quickly became a hit. A decade later the composer, realising that he may have been short-changed, issued a statement that he should have received royalties and been credited for his work. But was the song actually his in the first place? Who is to say.
In the meantime, leaving the copyright issues to those involved, the song still entertains and the word ‘loslappie’ echoes from music systems around the country among the hundreds of thousands who are proud to call Afrikaans their home language.
(Reference: Loslappie dispute.doc (cachefly.net)
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