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የከተማው መናኝ
ኤልያስ መልካ
አቀናባሪ ፣ ፕሮዲውሰር ፣ የግጥም እና ዜማ ደራሲ
አቀናባሪ ፣ ፕሮዲውሰር ፣ የግጥም እና ዜማ ደራሲ
409 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 11, 2023
A Great Musician.... Love most of his ideologies.... Touched and learned alot.... RIP Elias, Gone too soon.
A well written and documented book!
A well written and documented book!
April 23, 2025
This is a book important in several ways. I was recommended this book four years ago, and a random morning last week I woke up and bought it on Tuba. I was thrilled to have finally delved into it. My expectations were that I would learn in depth — considering the volume of it — about the life and upbringing of Elias Melka, and through him, the evolution of Ethiopian pop music, along with our contemporary music history and the shifts in the techniques, scales, and colours of our music.
The first few chapters were great! I loved how the book tried to cover Elias' Protestant upbringing. Myself, as an Orthodox convert who grew up in a Protestant family, I had a lot to relate to in the story. But later, when I was expecting the book to give more and more attention to his music and works, the writer progressively shifted to give (unnecessarily) very thick chunks of the book to Elias Melka's worldview and his seemingly Estifanosite Christianity expressed in his lyricism. It was interesting at first to see the comparison the writer tried to make, but I think it was given way more coverage than necessary.
I had to read until about the end chapters of the book to finally cease hearing similar ideas about his religiosity, presented by the writer in slightly different ways in each preceding chapter. He also took time to "psychoanalyze" Elias' asceticism in and through the RTA that happened to him. I’m not saying these things are bad per se, but they were simply not what I expected from the book. This is basically a religious analysis of Elias' theological developments and nothing more, in my opinion. Yes, the writer touched upon Elias' social works and tried to address his teenage rebelliousness and antinomianism, but I think a large volume was unnecessarily given to his religiosity and worldview.
I expected the writer to put Elias in an evolutionary trajectory of Ethiopian music — in comparison to the 60s and 70s Qəñət — and to show Elias' influence on the current one-man studio music production, and to discuss more technical issues like that. Solid 3/5 read for me.
The first few chapters were great! I loved how the book tried to cover Elias' Protestant upbringing. Myself, as an Orthodox convert who grew up in a Protestant family, I had a lot to relate to in the story. But later, when I was expecting the book to give more and more attention to his music and works, the writer progressively shifted to give (unnecessarily) very thick chunks of the book to Elias Melka's worldview and his seemingly Estifanosite Christianity expressed in his lyricism. It was interesting at first to see the comparison the writer tried to make, but I think it was given way more coverage than necessary.
I had to read until about the end chapters of the book to finally cease hearing similar ideas about his religiosity, presented by the writer in slightly different ways in each preceding chapter. He also took time to "psychoanalyze" Elias' asceticism in and through the RTA that happened to him. I’m not saying these things are bad per se, but they were simply not what I expected from the book. This is basically a religious analysis of Elias' theological developments and nothing more, in my opinion. Yes, the writer touched upon Elias' social works and tried to address his teenage rebelliousness and antinomianism, but I think a large volume was unnecessarily given to his religiosity and worldview.
I expected the writer to put Elias in an evolutionary trajectory of Ethiopian music — in comparison to the 60s and 70s Qəñət — and to show Elias' influence on the current one-man studio music production, and to discuss more technical issues like that. Solid 3/5 read for me.
August 21, 2025
Elias was a great musician, but I don’t think this is a good biography of him. The storytelling didn’t hold my attention, and the detailed philosophical explanations made it feel less like a biography, distracting from his life, personal influences, and professional journey. I hope to read another, better biography of him someday.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews