Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

The party is almost over. On Sunday, two hands will receive the World Cup trophy and lift it high as confetti sprays out of machines, reminding me that some poor souls will have to clean up the mess.

For South African residents in the seven host cities, it has been a ride. The vibe has been amazing, and the tournament has been very well organised. The special courts that were set up to deal with crime have been in a somnolent state due to inaction. I am sure those bottomless pits of vomit in the European and British media that predicted roaming bands of criminals robbing and raping foreign fans and shooting with AK-47s at the German team will gladly retract their slanderous and – yes, I’ll damn well will say it – racist propaganda against South Africa.

These unfounded predictions cost South Africa. Fewer people than expected came. We may account for some of the shortfall with reference to the economic crisis. But the vicious propaganda hurt South Africa. Still, the host has answered its critics. The stadiums were built in time, travelling fans were safe from crime and race wars, and the atmosphere was every bit as genial as it was in Germany four years earlier. Of course, crime was controlled only by an immense show of strength by the police, which now knows that with good application and resources it might get a handle on the country’s crime crisis. And one hopes that the government will show the same political will in solving poverty as it did in building stadiums and tossing FIFA’s salad.

FUNNIEST WORLD CUP MOMENT: When you lose 4-1 to your most hated foe and are dressed in WW2 uniforms, at least remember to remove your comedy moustache…

South Africa put on a world class show. It could not have been much better, give or take a few transport snafus (Durban airport screwed things up royally on Wednesday). The world’s biggest event was staged in South Africa – in Africa! – with every bit as much competence and efficiency as it was in Germany four years ago. The impact of this on South Africa’s and Africa’s psyche cannot be underestimated. Likewise, the memory of South Africa’s successful organisation must alter the perception of the country and continent among those who have held images of cliché. The government has shown the political will to show that it can do something extraordinary. It must now show the will to do more extraordinary things: beating poverty and crime chief among these.

Like everybody else who was in the host cities over the past four weeks, I will retain many great memories (some are represented in the collage avove). The country being awash in flags, the sound of the vuvuzelas, the opening goal that sent South Africa into a huge simultaneous orgasm, several trips to the fan park and four games in the stadium, doing the fan walk (not so great in cold and rainy weather; glorious on balmy evenings), Germany beating England and Argentina, my black Germany scarf, K’naan’s Wave your Flag song and Shakira’s Waka Waka, fans in fancy dress (the Dutch fans especially were great), and – the happiest of all memories – spending a lot of time with Any Minor Dude.

And whoever wins on Sunday, I will have seen the 2010 World Cup winner on their way to becoming champions (Spain against Portugal and Holland against Cameroon).

With all that out of the way, here’s the final batch of South African songs:

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Tony Schilder Trio – Gimme Loving (1995).mp3
Robbie Jansen (with Allou April) – Love Song For Forgotten People (1991).mp3
Spirits Rejoice – Shine On (1978).mp3
The great Cape Town saxophonist and singer Robbie Jansen died on July 7 at the age of 61. Some 20-odd years ago I heard Robbie sing the best version of What’s Going On I have ever heard (he recorded it in 2005; I’ve never heard that though). With his gravelly voice, hoarse from smoking cigarettes (containing brown and green stuff), he was a great interpreter of songs. A collection of covers sung by Robbie Jansen could have been a brilliant album. He recorded a couple of Cape jazz albums and contributed to albums by others, usually by playing the sax. He appeared on Dollar Brand’s classic Mannenberg album (the title is a sloppy misrendering of the ghetto’s name; on the LP he and the larte Basil Coezee harmonised on alto sax), and guested on both albums by the great keyboardist Tony Schilder, who himself is in poor health (as, sadly, is his musician son Hilton; the struggling Schilder family can be assisted via this site), as well as with acts such as Tananas, Juluka and the Sons of Table Mountain, with whom he visited Cuba a few years ago. Jansen was the saxophonist of Pacific Express alongside a young Jonathan Butler and then of Spirits Rejoice (the hit Shine On features Paul Peterson, now a producer, on vocals). Janssen may not have been known outside South Africa, perhaps not even much outside Cape Town. But the man was a legend, a cultural icon in a jazz city. A local trade union has called for a street to be named after Jansen. It is a marvellous idea. Indeed, the city should name a whole district after departed local jazz greats.

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Hugh Masekela – Mama (1996).mp3
Hugh Masekela – Don’t Go Lose It Baby (1984).mp3
Hugh Masekela – Grazing In The Grass (1968).mp3
The jazz legend appeared in the opening ceremony of the World Cup (which also featured R Kelly – an ill-considered choice for an event in a country with high levels of sexual violence against minors). I was surprised by that; Masekela had taken a very negative stance towards the event, arguing that the money should have been spent on poverty relief. Still, it was good to see the doyen of SA jazz still active and looking good at 71. Featured here are three songs from the man’s long career. On Mama, Masekela sings in his deliciously growling voice. It probably is my favourite Masekela track. Don’t Go Lose It Baby is a blazing jazz-funk track, with some retro-rapping for the ’80s nostalgists. Masekela’s joyful Grazing In The Grass, composed by Philemon Hou, topped the US charts in 1968, and is internationally Masekela’s signature song. Dig the cowbells!

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Blk Sonshine – Building (2000).mp3
Blk Sonshine – Born In A Taxi (2000).mp3
It’s difficult to categorise Blk Sonshine. Though an acoustic outfit, Neo Muyanga and Masauko Chipembere have eclectic influences, drawing from kwela, kwaito and reggae as well as from folk, rock and hip hop, with socially conscious lyrics. The rousing Building is a folk-hued, as was their hit song, the gentle and lovely Born In A Taxi. Blk Sonshine are still recording and appearing live. I’ve heard a few songs from their latest album, Good Life. It sounds great (Check the tunes out). Gil Scott-Heron fans will be interested to note that the great man’s flautist Brian Jackson has lately been collaborating with Chipembere, who was born in the US of Malawian parents. And listen to Building: the vocals aren’t a million miles from Scott-Heron’s at his more agitated.  Visit Blk Sonshine at blksonshine.com/

Blk Sonshine must not be confused with the highly-rated township heavy metal band Blk Jks (for a taste of them, check out the excellent Liberator Magazine blog.

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Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse – Burn Out (1985).mp3
Burn Out was the big South African hit of 1985. A true dance track from the townships that easily crossed the race divide, as Brenda Fassie’s Weekend Special had done the previous year, at a time when that was still remarkable. It sold half a million copies, an extraordinary figure in South Africa’s small market. Before that, Mabuse had been a member of the influential Afro-funk band Harari, the first black pop group to appear on white TV, in 1979. Mabuse never capitalised on the success of Burn Out to become a big recording star (it took him ten years to release a follow-up album), becoming a successful producer of nascent talent instead.

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Miriam Makeba – Ring Bell, Ring Bell (1967).mp3
This series has to feature at least one Makeba song. I suppose most readers will have stocked up on Makeba music after her death in late 2008, but might have missed this lovely song from Mama Afrika’s 1967 Pata Pata LP, released on Frank Sinatra’s Reprise label. Makeba’s life would make for a great TV mini-series; born to a sangoma (similar to a shaman) mother, the beautiful Miriam had success in South Africa and on the London stage (with Todd Matshikiza’s musical King Kong) before going into exile in the US, where she was also unwanted after marrying civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael in 1968. In the interim, she addressed the United Nations on the subject of apartheid, upon which the Pretoria regime revoked her citizenship. Even her last moments were filled with an activist’s spirit: she died after appearing at a concert against organised crime in Italy.

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Letta Mbulu – Hareje (1973).mp3
Another one of the great South African exiles with King Kong connections, Mbulu made her breakthrough when the jazz great David Axelrod signed her to Capitol Records in 1968, to be produced by him alongside such luminaries as Cannonball Adderley and Lou Rawls. Though the critics loved Mbulu’s albums, the label had no idea how to market her unique Afro-soul sound. After Capitol, she recorded the 1973 Naturally album on Adderley’s Fantasy Records label, from which this track comes. Backing musicians on the album, and on Hareje, included the Crusaders luminaries Wilton Felder, Joe Sample, Stix Hooper and Wayne Henderson. This opened the door for a deal with Herb Alpert’s A&M label, but commercial success continued to elude Mbulu. Still, Quincy Jones liked her, having her sing on the soundtracks to the mini-series Roots and the film The Color Purple. She also sang on Michael Jackson’s Liberian Girl. She returned to South Africa with her husband Caiphus Semenya, an acclaimed musician and producer himself, in 1991.

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Four Jacks & A Jill – Master Jack (1968).mp3
This group was at the centre of a beer-fuelled spat I got embroiled in many years ago. I had compiled a pub trivia quiz, and one of the questions concerned South African acts that had ever entered the UK charts. One team of worthies, perennial winners whose dedication to the beer life was amply reflected in their protruding guts, included Four Jacks & A Jill in their answer Their disputation of the fact that Four Jacks & A Jill never bothered the UK charts became rather heated. Alas, I had thought it unnecessary to lug with me all my reference books — in this case the 8th edition of the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles. Ultimately, to keep the peace, the utterly wrong bastards got their point. In return, I marked all their subsequent answers with spiteful strictness. Where my pals went wrong was in confusing the charts: Master Jack failed to chart in Britain but was a Top 20 hit in the US (and a chart-topper in Canada). Although the band comprised four men and a female member, none were called Jack or Jill (the “Jill” was in fact named Glenys Lynne.). The folk-pop group was named after a 1942 movie.

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Prime Circle – Lose Tomorrow (2003).mp3
Occasionally I enjoy a bit of alt.rock; I like a bit of Foo Fighters from time to time. So I can see an upside to Germany being reduced to a third-place play-off against Uruguay today: Prime Circle are scheduled to play at Cape Town’s fan park before the game. Having missed out on Freshlyground last week and Blk Sonshine in June (but having caught the excellent electronica outfit Goldfish there), I am looking forward to that. Their Wikipedia entry seems to have been vandalised with insights like “In 1999 the band hadn’t yet formed” and Wildean wit such as “73% of Prime Circle circle [sic] fans are masochists. The other 27% don’t actually listen to the music.” I am delighted to report that my sides have not split.

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More South African stuff

So South Africa has not ruined the football World Cup by presenting unfinished stadiums, or by having the German team murdered courtesy of AK-47 wielding criminals, or by placing Ingerlund fans in the middle of a bloody race war. So now the World Cup is being ruined by a plastic horn that is exciting all sorts of otherwise perfectly sane people, as well as David Letterman (who has ruined US television for a long time now).

The World Cup us being ruined at the Portugal vs North Korea game.

I must admit, I find the sound of the vuvuzela unattractive myself. But I don’t think I’m in a majority here, no matter how loud the hysterical complaints about the vuvuzela. For better or worse, the polytrumpet’s drone is the sound of this World Cup, created by people who actually spent money to be in the stadium (where, I must point out, it sounds far less monotonous than it does on TV, and sometimes even very impressive).

Far more troubling than the unpleasing sound of the vuvuzela is the ferocity with which people complain about it. I suspect that they are more vociferous than numerous. There is a Facebook group that has attracted 200,000 moaning people. That’s almost 0,25% of all Facebook users. By contrast, the British supermarket group Sainsbury (which, we’ll agree, has less global reach than Facebook) reported having sold 40,000 vuvuzelas just during the first weekend of the World Cup. Most people, I think, take the sensible view: the vuvuzela might not compete with the piccolo in calming sensitive nerves, but it creates an atmosphere. The vuvuhaters will argue that it drowns out a diversity of atmosphere as well. But we have heard England fans singing about their empire over the noise of the vuvuzela, and we even heard Chile’s not particular plentiful support make themselves heard.

Although invented in Mexico and heard in US league games before taking root in South Africa, the vuvuzela has been the sound of  SA football for the past decade or so. Why should the World Cup not sound like football does in the host country? Would Africa be right to object, over and over and over, to the singing of sometimes spicy songs by English fans — be it the imperialist claptrap of Rule Britannia, anti-IRA chants or songs about Victoria Beckham’s supposed appetite for anal sex (at this point we welcome the accident porn pilgrim from Google. Goodbye again). Should they write off the 2014 World Cup in Brazil because of the probably incessant drumming by Latin American fans? Those who wish the vuvuzela banned, or are making idiotic statements about a “ruined” World Cup, are seeking to impose their own subjective inclination on others.They display a narrow-mindedness, intolerance and arrogance which, if they were to examine themselves, would probably shock them.

To South African minds, the drone of criticism is particularly vexing. After being told for years that we can’t build stadiums on time (and still suffer idiots like the Sky journalists who thought the holes in the facade of the Soccer City Stadium had been left there in error), that crime and race-wars made the country unsafe for fans (the especially appointed fast-track World Cup courts are totally quiet, give or take the odd foreign pickpocket and handbag snatcher), that an African country simply cannot organise something as huge as a World Cup, the vuvuzela is the scoundrel’s final stick with which to beat the country.

The extent to which the criticism of the vuvuzela has been accompanied with racist comments — even as the vuvuzela has been enthusiastically embraced b y travelling fans — and the notion that again the West is trying to tell Africa how to express itself is leaving a bitter taste in the mouth. It’s one thing not to like something, quite another to go on and on about it, never mind cracking racist jokes on Facebook.

But even for the vuvuhaters, there may be a bright side. According to musicologists, one can create three notes on a vuvuzela (which does suggest a lack of musical competence on the part of those who blow it), which could give rise to a wonderful album of Coldplay covers played on the vuvuzela. And wouldn’t that improve on the originals?
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With all that out of the way, here is some more randomly-chosen South African music:

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Freshlyground – Doo Be Doo (2004).mp3
One of South Africa’s most popular bands, the multi-racial outfit Freshlyground helped write the official World Cup song, Shakira’s lamentable Waka Waka number (they appear in the video). Doo Be Doo was the band’s big hit in 2005, combining sunshiney pop with an African vibe. Far more than Shakira’s hodgepodge of a song, Doo Be Doo would accurately  reflect the vibe of the host nation (though the song that soundtracks my World Cup is Wave Your Flag by Somali-Canadian K’naan; a song short of artistic merit and huge on catchiness). I featured Freshlyground before, most recently with the remix of Castles In The Sky, the song that brought the band first to my attention in 2001.

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Allou April – A Place Called Love (2001).mp3
Watch any travel programme on Cape Town — doubtless one of the great cities in the world — and the soundtrack will play some township music that is more likely to be heard in Soweto than 1,800 km away in the Cape, even when the crew visits the nearby winelands where that music gets played only for the benefit of tourists. A far more authentic sound of Cape Town is that of jazz guitarist Allou April. Cape Town is rather different from the rest of South Africa. Half of its population are Coloureds, the product of so-called miscegenation (a horribly prejudicial term for racial mixing) over hundreds of years. There is a fascinating debate to be had about whether Coloureds form any kind of cohesive social, ethnic or cultural group at all. But there are commonly shared social, cultural, linguistic and historical markers. So if you go to a braai (barbecue) at the home of a middle-aged Coloured host of whatever background, it is not unlikely that you will hear mellow jazz just as that of Allou April’s. April featured on the SA Jazz mix with the very beautiful Bringing Joy. The singer on A Place Called Love is the late R&B songstress TK (Tsakani Mhinga) who tragically died in 2006 at the age of 27.

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John Kongos -Tokoloshe Man (1971).mp3
John Kongos – Gold (1971).mp3
Fans of Brit-pop should know at least two songs by Johannesburg-born John Kongos, at least as covered by the Happy Mondays: He’s Going To Step On You Again (retitled Step On) and Tokoloshe Man. Both are songs that T. Rex would have taken to the top of the charts. In the event, Kongos became one of relatively few South Africans to bother the British charts with those two songs, both peaking at #4 in 1971. You can get Step On You Again at the great Football & Music blog. Featured here is Tokoloshe Man — a tokoloshe is an evil spirit which is warded off by, among other things, placing your bed on bricks. The other song is a rather nice folkish track from Kongos’ self-titled 1971 album that also included the two hits. Kongos is still active. Check out his website.

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Dolly Rathebe & the African Inkspots – Unomeva (1954).mp3
In the first part of this series, I recalled the story of the vibrant Johannesburg suburb of Sophiatown, whose black residents were forcibly removed to make way for a white suburb called Triomf. Sophiatown’s nightclubs had a famous jazz scene, and Dolly Rathebe was its brightest star, especially after appearing in the 1949 film Jim Comes To Jo’burg, one of the first South African films to portray blacks positively. She was so popular that her name became a slang word for “all right” or “wonderful” . It did her popularity no harm that she was arrested with the great photographer Jürgen Schadeberg (also mentioned in part one) for contravening the Immorality Act which criminalised interracial sexual relations.

After the destruction of Sophiatown in the 1950s and the banning of the liberation movements in 1960, many artists went into exile; people like Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba and Jinas Gwangwa (all, like Dolly, alumni of the famous King Kong musical) and later Letta Mbulu left the country. Rathebe, however, returned to South Africa after finishing her stint with the hugely successful King Kong musical in London’s West End. With the country’s great talents in an apartheid-enforced diaspora, Rathebe’s musical career enjoyed only patches of success. Eventually she was almost as famous for her community work and political activity as she was for bring a music legend. Rathebe died in 2004 at the age of 76.

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Brenda and the Big Dudes – Weekend Special (1984).mp3
Brenda Fassie – Black President (1989).mp3
In many ways, Brenda Fassie was Rathebe’s spiritual heir: a hugely talented daughter of the townships who did not conform to expectation. Cape Town-born Fassie (named after country star Brenda Lee, another diminutive singer who lost her father early) fed off controversy and scandal, and her turbulent life provided much of both. Time magazine once called her “the Madonna of the townships”, a quite accurate (though not entirely original) description. Fassie changed her image constantly, from the bubble gum disco ingénue of Weekend Special to political spokeswoman to drug addict to convict’s wife to open lesbianism in a profoundly homophobic society to elder stateswoman  of Afro-pop to gospel singer . Fassie died in 2004 after slipping into a coma due to an apparent cocaine overdose.

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Margaret Singana – We Are Growing (1986).mp3
Like everything else in apartheid South Africa, radio was racially divided. The two big stations for white pop music were Springbok Radio and Radio 5. Apparently Margaret Singana was the first local black artist to feature on Radio 5’s charts. In the ’70s she was also a member of Ipi Tombi, another international hit for a black stage production after the international success of King Kong in the early 1960s. Singana retired from music after suffering a stroke in 1978, but came out of retirement to record the theme for the TV series Shaka Zulu, which was screened in South Africa in 1986. It was not very good and it presented the English as far less a malign influence in Zululand than they actually were (the cast for the apartheid TV-production included boycott-busters Christopher Lee, Trevor Howard, Edward Fox, Fiona Fullerton, Gordon Jackson, Roy Dotrice, Robert Powell and that horrible apartheid-apologist Kenneth Griffith). Singana’s rousing theme song is about the only redeemable feature of the whole exercise. It reached #1 in Holland, of all places.  The singer died, forgotten and in poor circumstances, in 2000 at 63.

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Springbok Nude Girls – Blue Eyes (1999).mp3
Springbok Radio broadcast the weekly chart countdown every week and, like the BBC in Britain, periodically released LPs of the great hits of the day re-recorded by studio musicians. The album covers, also like those of the BBC’s Top of the Pops albums, featured supposedly sexy women in some ways of undress. These were all the more risqué in a puritan society that banned even the depiction of nipples (these would be covered by stars) and pubic areas (covered with bars). These album covers inspired Arno Carstens and pals to name their alternative rock band Springbok Nude Girls. Hugely successful in South Africa, the group struggled to break through internationally, even when they styled themselves Nude Girls after reuniting a few years ago. The group’s lead singer Arno Carstens is a man of considerable charisma and is still tipped to become an international star (a holy grail for local celebs). Blue Eyes is a solid, slow-burner of a rock song with great vocals and impenetrable lyrics. I like SNG like that, not so much when they fused their alt.rock sound with ska.

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More South African stuff

South Africa is currently awash in flags. The country’s multi-coloured banners are flying everywhere, especially on cars. Shops are decorated with flags from the more glamorous nations taking part in the World Cup — lots of Brazil, Spain, Argentina, France, Germany, Italy, England; not so much North Korea, Honduras and Slovakia. But especially South African flags, which I expect will continue to fly even when the host team’s tournament is over, most probably after the final group game against France on Tuesday.

South Africa clearly is proud to host the World Cup, to be in the world’s eye for a month. There are those who hope – secretly or flagrantly – that SA will fuck it up, but even if there should be problems, the country has prepared well in creating a vibe. People have been wearing football jerseys to work or school on Football Fridays, the unattractive din of the vuvuzela (the plastic trumpets) has been embraced and even practised by otherwise relatively sane people (and insanely hated by many TV viewers), and people who would ordinarily hate football are liable to shout at random the name of their favourite team. South Africa – at least that part of the population that isn’t hungry and freezing in inhumane conditions – is having a massive party.

South Africans are very hospitable. Some of our criminals might get violent with the occasional tourist, but generally visitors are safer than locals; and tourists are as likely to get mugged or pickpocketed in Rio, Venice or LA as they are in Johannesburg, Cape Town or Durban. We like having guests from “exotic” places overseas (evidently not so much from other parts of Africa, as the xenophobic hate-gangs have made clear). The reason for that resides in the long international isolation under apartheid as well as the geographical distance from those countries with which South Africa would like to measure itself. The World Cup is our debutante ball. Please include us in the community of real nations.

Flag-waving über-patriotism generally tends to bother me. Flags are fun, but they can also be symbols (and weapons) of a dangerous nationalism. It is not a coincidence that the swastika was ubiquitous in Nazi Germany and that it often is the fascist, racist thug who has his flag tattooed on the neck. I find the USA’s obsession with and exaggerated reverence for the Stars and Stripes profoundly disturbing in the way it symbolises a sometimes particularly nasty national chauvinism. And yet, I welcome South Africa’s current flag-waving.

The flag is helping unite a deeply divided nation, much as the 1994 elections, the rugby World Cup wins in 1995 and 2007, and the African Cup of Nations win in 1996 did. Here, the flag is a symbol of what will be a fleeting national unity. But as a symbol of unity, however fleeting, it will serve as a permanent admonition that South Africans can be united. The World Cup may not bring South Africa all the promised material rewards (and we’ll need a collective shower to wash off the praetorian grime of our association with FIFA), and it will not solve all our problems. But as crucial contribution to the on-going project of nation-building, it will prove to be an inestimably valuable exercise.

With that out of the way, here are some more randomly selected South African songs.

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Elias & his Zig-Zag Jive Flutes – Ry Ry (1958).mp3
We previously met Elias — actually it’s Jack Lerole — in The Originals Vol. 31 as the composer and original performer of that staple of football grounds, Tom Hark. Ry Ry (which could be translated as “Go! Go!”) was the b-side of Elias & his Zig-Zag Jive Flutes’ 1958 hit, for which its writer received a pittance. Another pennywhistle number, it is spirited, if not quite as much as Tom Hark. Lerole was influential in the development of South African music, first in the kwela genre, then in mbaqanga. He abandoned the pennywhistle in the 1960s, as did the other giant of the pennywhistle, Spokes Mashiane. While Mashiane died young, Lerole was an early member of the next group.

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Mango Groove – Special Star (1989).mp3
Mango Groove – Dance Sum More (1989).mp3
Mango Groove were not the first multi-racial band in South Africa, nor the first to have hits with a fusion of white pop and African genres. Juluka (up next) and Hotline were the big pioneers in that regard. But were Juluka’s African roots were rural and traditional, Mango Groove incorporated the old urban kwela sounds of Sophiatown (discussed last week) and the townships. And the enjoyed much greater commercial success in South Africa. Jack Lerole left Mango Groove before they had their breakthrough. I think I’ve read once that it’s him growling on the infectious Dance Sum More. The superior Special Star, with Mduduzi Magwaza’s great pennywhistle solos and singer Claire Johnston’s gorgeous vocals, is dedicated to Spokes Mashiane.

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Juluka – Scatterlings Of Africa (1982).mp3
Johnny Clegg & Savuka – Asimbonanga (1987).mp3
Johnny Clegg had two groups. First there was Juluka, his band with Sipho Mchunu, whom he met in Johannesburg when they were teenagers (apparently one challenged the other to a guitar contest, and they became close friends thereafter). Clegg, who was born in Rochdale, England, founded Savuka after Mchunu decided to retire to farming in the mid-1980s. With Savuka, Clegg recorded the beautiful and haunting Asimbonanga, an anti-apartheid song for the then imprisoned Nelson Mandela, with its roll-call of assassinated political activists. Savuka also re-recorded Scatterlings Of Africa in 1987. I think I prefer that version with its more prominent flute , though the 1982 original with Juluka is equally a great. That version certainly is the South African classic.

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Henry Ate – Just (1996).mp3
One of the most popular songs I’ve posted on this blog is Pachelbel by Karma (get it HERE). I’m rather surprised about that. It’s an obscure album track by a South African band whose charismatic singer, Karma-Ann Swanepoel (not much of a rock & roll name), never made her deserved breakthrough as a solo singer. So it must be the exceptional lyrics that caused the track to be so popular. Karma was the alternative name, used for one album, of Henry Ate, a folk-rock group that was very popular in South Africa from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, despite the horribly punning name which they took from one of their songs. The beautiful song featured here is from their 1996 debut album; like Pachelbel, it’s the closing track. Karma is now living in Florida.

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District Six – Shine A Light (1994).mp3
A song from the wildly successful District Six – The Musical. I wrote about District Six last week; the musical tells the story of how a tight-knit community was uprooted and destroyed by the racist apartheid regime. The musical gave a voice to the immense pain felt by the displaced people, much as Richard Rive’s excellent novel Buckingham Palace, District Six did. I remember vividly the tears of the Muslim man in the row in front of me when I saw the musical in 1989. Shine A Light, one of several highlights, tells of a doomed interracial relationship; other songs speak of daily life in District Six and its characters, the humiliation of living under apartheid, the helplessness of being forcibly removed, the defiant hope of return. For such sad subject matter, much of the musical is very funny. In one song, characters tell of being chased away from amenities because these are reserved for whites. Then a gangster tells about a dream he had about dying and going to hell. The devil, however, sends him back, because “this place of mine is reserved for whites”.

The musical was written by the very successful, Olivier Award-winning team of David Kramer, a white Afrikaner, and Talip Petersen, who was born in District Six and was classified Coloured (mixed race) under apartheid. Petersen was murdered at his home in December 2006. His wife Najwa was convicted of conspiracy to murder him. The title of the film District 9, with its theme of forced removals, was obviously inspired by District Six.

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Jonathan Butler – Sing Me Your Love Song (1990).mp3
For a country with such a wealth of talent, South Africa has produced relatively few international stars. One who made it was Jonathan Butler, a guitarist who is active mostly in the field of jazz-fusion but had chart success with the soul track Lies on the Jive label (founded by Durban-schooled Mutt Lange). Butler comes from Cape Town (Irish readers will be amused to learn he grew up in a suburb called Athlone), and his large, musical family has been involved in many bands on the city’s live jazz circuit. Occasionally, Butler comes home and records with old friends, as he did with the great Tony Schilder. A collaboration of them will feature later in this series. Sing Me Your Love Song was released in late 1990 on the aptly titled Heal Our Land LP; with its gentle African vibe it appealed to a country that was blinkingly emerging from apartheid.

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Rabbitt – Charlie (1975).mp3
While the rest of the world had the Bay City Rollers, South Africa had Rabbitt, whose biggest hits were Charlie and a decent cover of Jethro Tull’s Locomotive Breath. And when Leslie McKeown bailed the sinking ship BCR, the renamed Rollers replaced him with Rabbitt singer Duncan Fauré. But it would be unjust to regard Rabbitt as teenybopper merchants. They were serious musicians. After his three albums with the Rollers, Fauré, Rabbit’s main songwriter, turned to more songwriting and producing, but bandmate Trevor Rabin made the greater impact, first as a member of Yes — we may blame him for Owner Of The Lonely Heart — and then as the writer of many scores of hit movies. US sports fans will recognise his Titans Spirit from Remember the Titans.

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Yvonne Chaka Chaka – Umqobothi (1986).mp3
Arguably South Africa’s most popular female singers were Miriam Makeba and Brenda Fassie, one a dignified vocalist and the other lively pop star. Yvonne Chaka Chaka, whose real name is Yvonne Machaka, combines both qualities, and is one of South Africa’s foremost musical artists. Makeba herself described her as “my baby”. Yvonne is an astute woman: her LPs are released on her own label, she is a successful business woman, an activist in areas such as women’s and children’s rights activist and malaria, and an advocate in public administration. Reportedly she teaches adult literacy part-time. My favourite Yvonne Chaka Chaka song, Makoti, appeared on my second Africa mix. This is her massive 1986 hit which featured in the opening of the film Hotel Rwanda. Umqombothi is a home-brewed Xhosa beer, made of sorghum, corn and yeast. The official beer of the World Cup in South Africa, however, is the American pisswater Budweiser.

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More South African stuff

Tomorrow, June 11, is the day South Africa has been looking forward to for the past six years: today the country will be the host to the world. For a month, South Africa will present itself to an international community of which the country has never really felt it was part of. Twenty years ago, SA was internationally excluded. After that, it was a “special case”, the problem child that suddenly and unexpectedly did astonishing things.

As South Africa grew up to become a spotty teenager, the disappointment that the Mandela-led miracle was not quite as amazing as everybody wanted it to be gave South Africa a reputation of being a state waiting to fail. It is easy to believe that for many people the supposed failure of the Mandela miracle serves as a welcome confirmation that even those African countries that hold the promise of great things will fuck it up.

The same kind of people are doubtless hoping that SA will host a sub-standard World Cup. For six years we’ve heard that we won’t be ready, that FIFA will take the tournament away from us, that there will be a race war, that terrorists as far away from us as Bosnia is to England are endangering players, that criminals will wait with AK-47s to shoot at German players and travelling fans. And so bloody on. I can understand why some want SA to fail; if Africa can put together something as huge as a football World Cup, against apparent expectations, then these people will have to revise their notions of South Africa and the continent itself. Worldviews and prejudices are at stake here. The sceptics will take satisfaction from every little mishap (the Daily Express will blame all of South Africa for the injuries some pissed Ingerlund fan will sustain knocking his head on a fountain), so that they can exclaim, with relief: “Told you so!”

Cape Town's purpose-built stadium, between the sea and Table Mountain.

I expect there will be some blunders; it is inevitable in an event of this scale. There may even be embarrassment at a poor opening ceremony or a stupid statement by the president. And the noisy vuvuzela — the annoying plastic trumpets — will be criticised as not sufficiently dignified for a World Cup. Except by Americans, who’ll love the cultural expressions of the locals. Some particularly ignorant idiots may even consider the vuvuzela as typifying a supposedly backwards culture. But I have full confidence that where it is important, in terms of organisation, the World Cup will be a success. The world will see South Africa in a new light.

To celebrate, this post inaugurates a weekly series of South African music (with further comments) for the duration of the World Cup. The song selection will be random, with no claims of providing any sort of comprehensive history or representativity of South African music. Check this blog for articles on current South African music.

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Sophiatown jazz. Photo by Jürgen Schadeberg

Nancy Jacobs & her Sisters – Meadowlands (1955).mp3
Meadowlands is one of the great and most frequently covered South African standards. This is the 1955 original version by Nancy Jacobs and her backing group who in fact were her mother and cousin. Jacobs was too shy to become a really big star, the way her contemporaries such as Dolly Rathebe or Miriam Makeba did. Instead of pursuing a career on stage, Jacobs soon married and retired from the music scene. The song Meadowlands might sound joyful, but it is in fact very sad: Meadowlands is the name of the settlement in the conglomeration of Johannesburg townships known since 1963 as Soweto (an abbreviation of South-Western Townships) to which the residents of the vibrant Sophiatown were forcibly moved as of 1955. In a further insult, Sophiatown’s now white area was renamed Triomf, which in English means exactly what you guessed it does. The above picture was taken by the great Drum photographer Jürgen Schadeberg (lots more photos on his excellent website)

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Mandoza – Nkalakatha (2000).mp3
I’ve posted this kwaito anthem by the genre’s biggest star before. It’s a fantastic hype-up song, one for getting ready before a party or for an iron-pumping work out. Born in Soweto as Mduduzi Tshabalala, Mandoza as a teenager spent time in jail — the ironically named Sun City — for car theft (the makers of a particular video game might want to include Mandoza on their famous radio playlists). He now tries to infuse his music with constructive messages aimed at a lost generation, but denies that he is a role model (which is a good thing, given some of his behaviour, including a 2008 conviction for culpable homicide involving a car crash). “Nkalakatha” is township slang for a man who has it all, not necessarily obtained by exclusively ethical means.

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TKZee & Benni McCarthy – Shibobo (1998).mp3
TKZee were about as big as Mandoza, and trailblazed the kwaito genre. Football fans will recognise their co-star. Benni McCarthy (second from left on the cover) is one of South Africa’s most successful football players ever — the only one with a Champions’ League or European Cup medal to his name. McCarthy was the great hope of South African football, but his strained relationship with the local football association meant that his appearances for the national team, known as Bafana Bafana (“the Boys”), were erratic, marked by serial “retirements”. For that the functionaries and McCarthy share the blame. The Cape Town-born player has been excluded from this year’s World Cup squad, reportedly for disciplinary reasons. The song was released to coincide with the 1998 World Cup, the first in which South Africa took part. “Shibobo” means to dribble or play the ball through an opponent’s legs.

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Monty Webber and Friends – Love Song (1976).mp3
Earlier I mentioned the forced removals from Sophiatown in 1955. Eleven years later PW Botha, then the apartheid minister responsible for oppressing Coloureds (that is, the mixed race Afrikaans and English-speaking majority of Cape Town) declared the multi-racial slum District Six, on the outskirts of central Cape Town, reserved for whites. Over the next decade, families were moved to new ghettos far away from the city. These had few recreational facilities and no entrenched community to replace the close-knit one of District Six. The violent gang culture of the Cape Flats can be attributed in great part to the brutal destruction of a community. Almost three decades since the last streets and houses (other than a few churches and mosques) were razed, much of what once was District Six remains an uninhabited wasteland. I pass it on my way to work every day.

This song comes from a very rare jazz-fusion concept album titled Remember District Six, which I found through my good friends at the afrotastic Electric Jive blog. For the fans of Cape jazz, the line-up is star-studded, all at one time collaborators with Abdullah Ibrahim/Dollar Brand. Apart from the great drummer Monty Webber (now sadly without legs), it also includes the late Basil “Mannenberg” Coetzee (whose saxophone made Dollar Brand’s incorrectly spelt classic Mannenberg such a jazz classic), guitarist Errol Dyers, keyboardist Sammy Hartman, bassist Lionel Beukes and somebody credited as Monwabisi, whom I guess to be the late Winston Mankunku Ngozi. I don’t know who did the vocals on this lovely song.

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Vicky Sampson – African Dream (1995).mp3
This is one of those songs that get wheeled out whenever a dash of African pride is needed. I am sick of the song due to overexposure and its mongering in cliché, but there is something quite appealing to it. It was written by Alan Lazar of the group Mango Groove, who will still feature in this series, and became massive when South Africa hosted (and won) the continental football tournament, the African Cup of Nations, in 1996. Vicky Sampson, born in Cape Town, was once voted South Africa’s most beautiful woman. Her promotional blurb claims that she has performed with a roll call of music notables including Al Jarreau, Tina Turner, Joe Cocker, Grace Jones and Randy Crawford. The same blurb of ill-considered hyperbole likely written by an over-animated intern gushes, with just a touch too much gush: “Her latest release is ‘nothing short of world-class’. License To Sing [seriously?], is an adult contemporary masterpiece that provides a platform for Vicky’s quite astonishing voice, which must surely now be considered the best to ever grace the South African music industry.” But don’t blame poor Vicky for her PR team’s total absence of perspective.

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The Parlotones – Beautiful (2005).mp3
Apparently The Parlotones are being heavily promoted in Britain, and I think they have a decent shot at stardom. I suppose they will appeal most to the people who liked David Gray (note to Parlotones’ manager: get them on Irish TV) or, heaven forbid, the horrible Dave Matthews Band. Dave Matthews himself is a South African, of course. Though, unlike Charlize Theron, he does not seem to mention it much. And unlike Charlize Theron, we aren’t particularly proud of him. Anyway, the Parlotones’ sound is as good as that of any comparable international act, though I’m not a big fan of singer Kahn Morbee’s voice. They’ve been big in South Africa for a long time, and the catchy Beautiful has been something of a signature tune for them. Personally, I prefer Staring At The Sun, which was not a hit, but is available legally for download (direct DL link)

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Nelson Mandela and Francois Pienaar contemplate whether Wesley Snipes and Kevin Costner shall play them in the invictusable film of SA's 1995 World Cup win.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo – Shosholoza (1995).mp3
A post on SA music must include one of the country’s most famous exports singing the country’s most popular song, the Ndebele workers’ anthem Shosholoza. Don’t expect this to be huge in the townships, though. Ladysmith Black Mambazo (named after the town they are from; there have been loads of groups calling themselves Black Mambazo over the years) are very much a crossover act, and Shosholoza is the one African song that whites are most likely to know how to sing, perhaps better than the national anthem. In 1995 it became the unofficial anthem of the rugby World Cup, which SA hosted and won — the great Invictus story. The rousing song does sound magnificent when sung in a full stadium. Perhaps somebody will strike it up during World Cup; if so, it will probably a white guy. This version here is not very good, I’m afraid. But as I said, it must be posted for purposes of symbolism.

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Anneline Kriel – He Took Off My Romeos (1981).mp3
This might be a collectors’ item. Those in search for songs by former Miss Worlds will want this. And collectors of potential worst records ever will welcome the inclusion of this into their anthologies. Anneline Kriel was Miss World in 1974 — before even that horrible contest joined the international boycott of apartheid South Africa — after the British winner Helen Morgan resigned her crown for not being a virgin. Kriel subsequently became the wife of the diminutive South African hotel magnate Sol Kerzner, who built Sun City and more recently the obscenely extravagant Atlantis on the Palm in Dubai. Kriel then converted to Judaism for her new Jewish husband, and after divorcing him married a fellow called…Bacon. Apparently Kriel’s excursion into the world of pop in 1981 was not the result of a lost drunken bet. Whatever prompted a succession of people to decide that making this record was a good idea, sanity was not among them. Kriel couldn’t hold a tune if it was bolted to her vocal chords and the backing track must have been programmed by a tone deaf chimpanzee let loose on a bargain-basement synthesizer.

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More South African stuff

Today South Africans go to the polls to elect their new parliament, which in turn will elect the president. It’s a foregone conclusion that the African National Congress will win a majority; the only question is whether they will repeat their two-thirds plus majority of 1999 and 2004. Of interest will be also how the smaller parties, especially the ANC-breakaway Congress of the People will fare, and whether the ANC will lose, as expected, the regional government of the Western Cape (the province that includes Cape Town).

But I did the political thing on Monday. To mark the South African elections, let’s have some randomly chosen South African pop music. I covered the SA jazz angle a couple of months ago with this mix (did anyone like it?).

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Farryl Purkiss – Better Days.mp3
An appropriate title for today, even if the certain election of the misogynist homophobe Jacob Zuma is not a cause for extravagant optimism (though he can’t be much worse than Aids denialist, Mugabe-supporting Thabo Mbeki) . I’ve pushed the fare of Durban’s Farryl Purkiss in the past. This track, from his wonderful eponymously-titled 2006 album, is absolutely beautiful, in the singer-songwriter vein. He cites as an influence Elliott Smith, and at times sounds a lot like him, as well as the likes of Iron & Wine, Joe Purdy, Sufjan Stevens and Calexico. I have a hunch that Purkiss might have listened also to ’70s folkie Shawn Phillips (who, incidentally, now lives in South Africa) and the majestic Patty Griffin. I wrote about a Purkiss gig I saw in July 2007 (here), where I took the photo on the right; oddly, I have missed all his subsequent gigs in my area. Purkiss on MySpace.

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Josie Field – Every Now And Then.mp3
The same year, the lovely Josie Field had a radio hit (singles aren’t widely sold in SA, so charts are based on radio airplay) with this excellent song. I’m waiting for Natalie Imbruglia or somebody like that to cover it. Her debut album apparently sold 7,000 copies, which in her genre in South Africa is a very respectable number. With figures like that, I don’t know why anyone with Field’s obvious talent would bother to release albums in South Africa. (Homepage)
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Bright Blue – Weeping.mp3
A real South African classic from 1986 which I think had some influence on the anti-apartheid struggle by way of conscientising young white South Africans. The song is about apartheid-era president PW Botha’s antics and features the strains of the then-banned struggle hymn Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrica. Strangely the state-owned radio stations played Weeping prodigiously. Songs had been banned for much less (a year previously, all Stevie Wonder music was banned from the airwaves after the singer dedicated his Grammy to Nelson Mandela).

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Juluka – Impi.mp3
Juluka’s frontman Johnny Clegg — the “White Zulu” — did a great deal for the struggle by integrating himself into Zulu culture, with sincerity and respect for Zulu culture. His groups, first Juluka and then Savuka, where multi-racial at a time when that was virtually unheard of. I have seen many concerts by Clegg’s groups, including a fantastic one in London’s Kentish Town & Country Club. Invariably, these were incredibly energetic. As a live performer, Clegg was not far behind Springsteen. The highlight always 1981’s Impi, which would send the crowd wild, especially when Clegg did those high-kicking, floor-board shattering Zulu wardance moves.

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Brenda Fassie – Vuli Ndlela.mp3
Recently a contestant in South Africa’s Idols show was favourably compared to the late Brenda Fassie. Such compliments are not offered lightly, not by sensible people. Fassie was a superstar, throughout Africa. People have compared her to Madonna (minus Fassie’s drug abuse, violence, lapses into madness, financial difficulties, lesbian affairs, and premature death). The comparison flatters Madonna. Fassie was a superstar but yet still one with the people, of the people. She showed that talent and charisma trumps vacant beauty. Vuli Ndlela was Fassie’s huge dance hit from 1998, an infectious number that by force of sheer energy compensates for some regrettable production values.

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Freshlyground – Castles In The Sky.mp3
Despite rumours of an impending break-up, Freshlygrounds remain South Africa’s most popular group. The multi-ethnic group transcends boundaries of race and genre. The group’s first hit, 2002’s Castles In The Sky, is a good example of veering between genres. This remixed version received the airplay; the original is a slightly African-inflected pop song which Everything But The Girl might have sung. The superior remix adds to it a House feel which turns the song into a slow-burning dance track. (Freshlyground homepage)

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Niki Daly – Is It An Ism Or Is It Art.mp3
In 1984, artist and author of children’s books Niki Daly had one of the more bizarre South African hits with this song, doubtless inspired by the likes of Bowie, Roxy Music, Gary Numan and Thomas Dolby. A great slice of mid-80s new wave. Like so much of great South African songs, it made no impression on the international charts. At least one of his books, Not So Fast, Songololo, is a children’s book classic. Many of the Capetonian’s books published in the 1980s promoted interracial relations, thereby helping to instil a mindset among those who were then children (and are now young adults) that colour ought not be a social barrier. Read more on Daly’s books.

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André de Villiers – Memories.mp3
I have posted this before, and it proved a very popular song. When the link went dead, I received a few requests to please re-upload it. Memories, by a Cape Town-based songwriter of folk and gospel material, scored a lovely South African TV commercial for Volkswagen, perhaps my all-time favourite ad. I suppose it has special appeal for those who are experiencing the nostalgic musings that accompany middle-age. (André de Villiers’ homepage)

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Next week is the 15th anniversary of South Africa’s first democratic election (obviously, racially exclusive elections should not be called democratic). If the above proves to be of any interest at all, I will mark that day with another eight randomly chosen South African songs. And if anyone has tried unsuccessfully to download the Mandela soundclips I posted last July, I’ve reuploaded them.

I failed to realise that the 19th instalment of The Originals last week marked the 100th song to be, erm, covered in the series (remember, the first part included ten songs, part 2 featured six). Since it can be argued that the story of Bitter Sweet Symphony wasn’t really a tale of an original and its cover, we enter the second century of the series with a South African song with a most remarkable history (and pardon the length of the entry; it’s worth reading anyhow, I hope), as well as the originals of the Kingsmen‘s Louie Louie, Glen Campbell‘s By The Time I Get To Phoenix, Deep Purple‘s Hush and the bizarre Tiny Tim‘s Tip Toe Through The Tulips.

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Solomon Linda’s Original Evening Birds – Mbube.mp3
The Weavers – Wimoweh.mp3
Miriam Makeba – The Lion Song (Mbube).mp3
The Tokens – The Lion Sleeps Tonight.mp3
Pete Seeger – Wimoweh (live).mp3
Soweto Gospel Choir – Mbube.mp3
One of the most foul stories of songwriting theft must be the story of Mbube (the song known more widely as The Lion Sleeps Tonight or Wimoweh), with even the venerable Pete Seeger involved in the deceit; though he comes out of it a lot better than others.

The man who wrote and first recorded it, Solomon Linda, died virtually penniless, having been duped into selling the rights to the song for a pittance to the Italian-born South African record label owner Eric Gallo. Gallo pocketed the royalties of the prodigious South African sales, in return allowing Linda to work in his packing plant. Apart from performing on stage in South Africa, where he was a musical legend in the townships, Linda worked there until his death at 53 in 1962 — nine years after Seeger and the Weavers had a US #6 hit with it, and a year after The Tokens scored a huge hit with the song in a reworked version. No laws were broken in this deplorable story of plagiarism, but the rules of ethics and common decency certainly were.

Solomon Linda

Mbube was introduced to American music by Pete Seeger, who adapted a fairly faithful version of the song. Still, Seeger didn’t even transcribe the word “uyiMbube” properly, even though he had received a record of the song (from the great music historian Alan Lomax), which had a label stating the title on it. And surely it should have been possible to research a song which sold a 100,000 copies in South Africa, especially if Alan Lomax is your friend, in such a way as not to render “uyiMbube” as “wimoweh”.

Seeger later pleaded ignorance about the intricacies of music publishing, and, to his credit, deeply regretted not insisting firmly enough that Linda be given the songwriting credit. He had sent his initial arrangers’s fee of $1,000 to Linda and insisted that the song’s publishers, TRO, should keep sending royalties to the South African. Apparently they periodically did so, though Linda’s widow had little idea where the money — hardly riches (about $275 per quarter in the early ’90s) — came from. Some family members say the payments started only in the 1980s. Whatever the case, neither Linda nor Seeger were credited for the song now known as Wimoweh. The credit went to Paul Campbell, a pseudonym used by TRO owner Harry Richmond to copyright the many public-domain folk songs which TRO published.

The Tokens’ version took even greater liberties. But this time nobody could claim ignorance because Miriam Makeba, who grew up with the song, released it in the US in 1960, a year before The Tokens’ version was created, as Mbube, or The Lion (mbube means lion). It is fair to say that George David Weiss, who rearranged the song for The Tokens, at their request, should not be denied his songwriter credit (that would be the same Weiss who co-wrote Elvis’ Can’t Help Falling In Love with mafia associates and RCA producers Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore ). Weiss dismantled and restructured the song, turning a very African song into an American novelty pop song. As so often, the future classic was first relegated to the b-side; a disc jockey, not impressed with the a-side, flipped over the single and so created a massive hit.

Peretti and Creatore claimed co-writing credit and the rights to the song, deciding that Mbube was an old African folk song and therefore in the public domain. They might well have thought so in good faith, but a minimum of research would have established the facts, even before the age of Google. Or perhaps not: they pulled the same stunt with Miriam Makeba’s Click Song (the clicking is a distinctive sound in the Xhosa language), which the Tokens released as Bwanina. They got away with that, because Makeba’s number was based on an old folk song. Not so with The Lion Sleeps Tonight, to which Gallo, the record label owner from South Africa, had asserted his US rights in 1952 and then sold it to TRO. A whole lot of wheeling and dealing took place, with the upshot that the credit now included TRO’s fictitious Paul Campbell. Again, Linda was left out in the cold.

It was only at the beginning of the present decade that Linda’s family took legal action, and that only after Richmond, Weiss and the mafia pals started to wrangle about the ownership to the song. Solomon Linda’s family eventually won a settlement which entitles them to future royalties and a lump sum for royalties going back to 1987, largely due to an extensive Rolling Stone exposé by South African one-book wonder novelist Rian Malan. By some estimates, Mbube/Wimoweh/The Lion Sleeps Tonight has accrued royalties in the region of $15 million. Linda’s family initially sued Disney for $1.5 million for the song’s use in The Lion King – happily they are now due royalties from other versions. Malan and the family’s lawyers are still trying to find versions of the song against which to claim royalties.

Here’s the kicker: Solomon Linda was quite delighted at the international success of his song; he didn’t realise that he should have received something for it — even if that something was just an acknowledgment that he wrote the song.

Read the full story of Mbube.
Also recorded by: Karl Denver (1962), Henri Salvador (as Le lion est mort ce soir, 1962), Roger Whittaker (1967), The New Christy Minstrels (1965), Eric Donaldson (1971), Robert John (1972), Dave Newman (1972), Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus (as Rise Jah Jah Children, 1974), Brian Eno (1975), Flying Pickets (1980), Roboterwerke (1981), Tight Fit (1981), The Nylons (1982), Hotline (1984), Sandra Bernhard (1988), They Might Be Giants with Laura Cantrell (as The Guitar [The Lion Sleeps Tonight], 1990), R.E.M. (as The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite, 1993), Nanci Griffith (1993), Lebo M (1994), Steve Forbert (1994), *NSYNC (1997), Helmut Lotti (2000), Laurie Berkner (2000) a.o.

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Billy Joe Royal – Hush.mp3
Deep Purple – Hush.mp3
In Volume 19 we looked at Joe South’s original of Rose Garden. South enjoyed chart success himself with Games People Play, and wrote a couple of hits for Billy Joe Royal, including Royal’s signature hit Down In The Boondocks (1965, originally intended for Gene Pitney) and Hush (1967). Royal — it is his real name — had a country background, though one influenced by the soul stylings of Sam Cooke and Ray Charles. He performed with the country singer likes of Jerry Reed and George Stevens, but aimed for a pop audience. For a while he succeeded, but when his pop star waned, he successfully crossed back into traditional country. His final pop charts entry, a 1978 version of Under The Boardwalk which peaked at #82, was followed in 1985 by his first country charts entry (Burned Like A Rocket, #10).

Hush was not a big hit for Royal, peaking at #52. But it became the first hit for hairy hard rock legends Deep Purple, in 1968 — even though initially nitially the group was not really interested in the song. Since then, Hush has been recorded in various styles, most of them taking as their template Deep Purple’s version rather than Royal’s gospel-tinged original which evokes the source of South’s inspiration for the song: a spiritual which included the line “Hush, I thought I heard Jesus calling my name.”

Also recorded by: Johnny Hallyday (as Mal, 1967), I Colours (1968), Merrilee Rush & Turnabouts (1968), The Love Affair (1968), Jimmy Frey (1969), Funky Junction (1973), Deep Purple (1985), Milli Vanilli (1988), Killdozer (1989), Gotthard (1992), Kula Shaker (1997)

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Richard Berry & The Pharoahs – Louie Louie.mp3
The Kingsmen – Louie Louie.mp3
There are people who like to designate the Kingsmen’s 1963 version of Louie Louie as the first ever punk song. One can see why: it’s production is shambolic, the drummer is rumoured to be swearing in the background, the singer’s diction is non-existence, the modified lyrics were investigated by the FBI for lewdness (the feds found nothing incriminating, not even the line which may or may not have been changed from “it won’t be long me see me love to “stick my finger up the hole of love”), and by the time the song became a hit – after a Boston DJ played in a “worst songs ever” type segment — the band had broken up and toured in two incarnations.

Originally it was a regional hit in 1957 for an R&B singer named Richard Berry, who took inspiration from his namesake Chuck and West Indian music. In essence, it’s a calypso number of a sailor telling the eponymous barman about the girl he loves. It was originally released as a b-side, but quickly gained popularity on the West Coast. It sold 40,000 copies, but after a series of flops Berry momentarily retired from the recording business, selling the rights to Louie Louie for $750. In the meantime, bands continued to include the song in their repertoire. It was a 1961 version by Rockin’ Robin Roberts & the Fabulous Wailers which provided the Kingsmen with the prototype for their cover.

It is said that Louie Louie has been covered at least 1,500 times. It has also woven itself into the fabric of American culture, having been referenced in several movies, as diverse as Animal House and Mr Holland’s Opus. In the terribly underrated 1990 roadtrip film Coupe de Ville, three brothers (including a young Patrick Dempsey) have an impassioned debate about whether Louie Louie is a sea shanty or a song about sex.

Also recorded by: Rockin’ Robin Roberts (1961), Paul Revere & The Raiders (1963), Beach Boys (1963), The Kinks (1964), Joske Harry’s & The King Creoles (1964), Otis Redding (1964), The Invictas (1965), Jan & Dean (1965), The Ventures (1965), The Sandpipers (1966), Swamp Rats (1966), The Ad-Libs (1966), The Sonics (1966), The Troggs (1966), Friar Tuck (1967), The Tams (1968), Toots and the Maytals (1972), Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids (1973), Skid Row (1976), The Flamin’ Groovies (1977), The Clash (live bootleg, 1977), The Kids (1980), Joan Jett & the Blackhearts (1981), Barry White (1981), Stanley Clarke & George Duke (1981), Maureen Tucker (1981), Black Flag (1981), Motörhead (1984), Lyres (1987), The Fat Boys (1988), The Purple Helmets (1988), Young MC (1990), Massimo Riva (as Lui Luigi, 1992), Pow Wow (1992), The Outcasts (1993), Iggy Pop (1993), Robert Plant (1993), The Queers (1994), The Stingray (1996), The Alarm Clocks (2000), Mazeffect (2003), Angel Corpus Christi (2005) a.o.

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Nick Lucas – Tip Toe Through The Tulips With Me.mp3
Tiny Tim – Tip Toe Through The Tulips.mp3
Whatever mind-altering substance it was that possessed the record buying public to turn Tiny Tim’s bizarre rendition of Tip-Toe Through The Tulips into an international hit, I want some. Usually a baritone, Tiny Tim sang the old standard in a bizarre falsetto which he had “discovered” by accident when singing along to a song on the radio as a young man in the early ’50s. Somehow he built up a loyal cult following with that falsetto shtick, ultimately leading to his novelty hit (possibly aided by his cryranoesque physiognomy) following its performance on the comedy variety show Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.

But Tiny Tim, known to his mother as Herbert Khaury, was more than a bit of a court jester. In his real life, which ended in 1996 at the age of 64, he was a serious student of American music history. He didn’t do Tip-Toe as a parody but as a tribute to the song’s original performer, Nick Lucas. Indeed, Lucas sang it at Khoury’s 1969 wedding to one Miss Vicky on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show (Video of Tiny Tim and Miss Vicky crooning on the show).

Nick Lucas, known in his prime as “The Crooning Troubadour” and later as “the grandfather of the jazz guitar”, topped the charts with the song — written in 1926 by Joe Burke and Al Dubin — for ten weeks in 1929 on the back of its inclusion in the early colour film Gold Diggers Of Broadway (video).

Also recorded by: Jean Goldkette (1929), Johnny Marvin (1929), Roy Fox (1929) a.o.

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Johnny Rivers – By The Time I Get To Phoenix.mp3
Glen Campbell – By The Time I Get To Phoenix.mp3
Isaac Hayes – By The Time I Get To Phoenix (full ).mp3
Johnny Rivers is mostly remembered as the ’60s exponent of rather good rock & roll covers, especially on his Live At The Whiskey A Go Go LP. He was also the owner of the record label which released the music of The 5th Dimension. In that capacity, Rivers gave the budding songwriter Jimmy Webb his first big break, having The 5th Dimension record Webb’s song Up, Up And Away and thereby giving Webb (and the group and the label) a first big hit in 1967. By The Time I Get To Phoenix is another Webb composition, and this one Rivers recorded himself first for his Changes album in 1966 (when Webb was only 19!).

Rivers’ version made no impact, nor did a cover by Pat Boone. The guitarist on Boone’s version, however, picked up on the song and released it in 1967. Glen Campbell scored a massive hit with the song, even winning two Grammies for it. In quick succession, Campbell completed a trilogy of geographically-themed songs by Webb, with the gorgeous Wichita Lineman (written especially for Campbell) and the similarly wonderful Galveston.

Another seasoned session musician took Phoenix into a completely different direction (if you will pardon the unintended pun). Isaac Hayes had heard the song, and decided to perform it as the Bar-Keys’ guest performer at Memphis’ Tiki Club, a soul venue. He started with a spontaneous spoken prologue, explaining in some detail why this man is on his unlikely journey. At first the patrons weren’t sure what Hayes was doing rapping over a repetitive chord loop. After a while, according to Hayes, they started to listen. At the end of the song, he said, there was not a dry eye in the house (“I’m gonna moan now…”). As it appeared on Ike’s 1968 Hot Buttered Soul album, the thing went on for 18 glorious minutes.

Also recorded by: Pat Boone (1967), Floyd Cramer (1967), Vikki Carr (1968), Roger Miller (1968), Andy Williams (1968), Eddy Arnold (1968), Conway Twitty (1968), Marty Robbins (1968), The Lettermen (1968), David Houston (1968), Tony Mottola (1968), Al Wilson (1968), The Main Attraction (1968), King Curtis (1968), Jack Jones (1968), Julius Wechter & Baja Marimba Band (1968), Ace Cannon (1968), Harry Belafonte (1968), Jack Greene (1968), Jim Nabors (1968), John Davidson (1968), Four Tops (1968),  Ray Conniff (1968), Frankie Valli (1968), Larry Carlton (1968), Johnny Mathis (1968), Frank Sinatra (1968), Dean Martin (1968), The Intruders (1968), Bobby Goldsboro (1968), Ray Price (1968), Engelbert Humperdinck (1968), Claude François (as Le temps que j’arrive à Marseille, 1969), A.J. Marshall (1969), Mantovani (1969), José Feliciano (1969), Nat Stuckey (1969), The Mad Lads (1969), William Bell (1969), Young-Holt Unlimited (1969), Erma Franklin (1969), Dorothy Ashby (1969), Nancy Wilson (1969), Wayne McGhie & the Sounds of Joy (1970), Winston Francis (1970), Mongo Santamaría (1970), The Ventures (1970), Wanda Jackson (1970), Fabulous Souls (1971), The Wip (1971), New York City (1973), The Escorts (1973), Susannah McCorkle (1986), Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (1986), Eric Miller & His Orchestra (1991), Reba McIntyre (1995), Jimmy Webb (1996), Detroit Underground (1997), Heather Myles (2002), Thelma Houston (2007), Maureen McGovern (2008) a.o.

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A cover produced by http://cheapgasmusic.wordpress.com for this mix, utilising an artwork titled 'Township Jazz' by Lorraine Marcus.

If I mentioned Jazz Fusion or Smooth Jazz I might hear you running. Please don’t. South African jazz evokes neither Miles Davis nor the dreaded Kenny G-led brigade of monotonomeisters. It draws from jazz: from Davis, from George Benson (the Benson who made that insane fusion cover of White Rabbit, not the smooth soulster), from Grover Washington Jr et al. But more than that, it draws from the many sounds of the townships.

So a guitarist like the late Allen Kwela (1939-2003; the featured track was released a year before his death) drew from the mbaqanga style he knew in the Durban townships, while the Tony Schilder Trio, led by the eponymous veteran (and now sadly retired) keyboardist, borrowed from the imported international flavours of Cape Town’s harbour, the sounds of fellow Capetonian Abdullah Ibrahim/Dollar Brand, the langarm (roughly ballroom) music of the Cape, the rhythms of the Kaapse Klopse.

Tony Schilder (Photo from music.org.za)

The Schilder Trio’s signature song Montreal is the sound of a party in Cape Town’s Coloured community (that is, those of mixed racial heritage thus classified under apartheid). Montreal was the name of the city’s premier jazz club of the ’80s, located in the township of Manenberg (made famous, albeit in its misspelled form, by Dollar Brand’s classic), among whose regular live performers were vocalist Robbie Jansen — an absolute legend in Cape Town’s jazz circles, whose version of What’s Going On needed to be heard more widely, but was never recorded — and house bandleader Schilder. Expect no lyrical greatness on Montreal, but experience the joyful soundtrack of the Cape’s party mood as Jansen is joined on vocals by fellow Capetonian Jonathan Butler.

Also from Cape Town but younger and from a different background are saxophonist McCoy Mrubata, vocalist Sylvia Ncediwe Mdunyelwa, and Durban-born and classically trained Musa Manzini. Their names give it away that they are from an African background. Their township experience, the rhythm of their lives’ soundtracks, are very different from those of Schilder, Jansen or Butler — or, indeed, other featured Capetonians such as Errol and Alvin Dyers or Allou April (whose Bringing Joy may be this set’s most uplifting track). In Langa township or Gugulethu, the jazz was tinged with the gospel music of African inculturation, the traditional rhythms and the beats of kwela and mbaqanga and jive, R&B and the traditions of American jazz.

If there is one artist here who transcends all regional and local distinctions, it is Gito Baloi, who was so cruelly taken from us at the hands of criminals in 2004 just as his career was beginning to flourish at the age of 39. A Mozambican-born bass player and vocalist, Gito cut his musical teeth in the non-racial jazz trio Tananas, which was based in Cape Town, the country’s jazz capital, but enjoyed great popularity elsewhere, especially in Johannesburg.

I’ve mentioned Durban’s Allen Kwela and Cape Town’s Tony Schilder as representatives of an older generation. In Johannesburg, their equivalent — besides Hugh Masekela — was saxophonist Ratau Mike Makhalemele, whose Soweto Dawn from 1990 is a thing of beauty. Makhalemele played on records by the likes of Curtis Mayfield, Champion Jack Dupree and Paul Simon (on Graceland), died some nine years ago.

The best-known name of this lot probably is Pretoria’s Vusi Mahlasela, a wonderful acoustic guitarist with a lovely voice whose earlier albums were quite beautiful. Alas, like Ladysmith Black Mambazo before him, he has benefited too much from the attention of international recording superstars. I can’t blame the man, by all accounts a superb human being, for paying his bills, but collaborations with Josh Groban and the Dave Matthews Band won’t do his street cred much good. Except in South Africa, where any brush with foreign celebrity is considered admirable. Or perhaps the magnificent guitarist Jimmy Dludlu is South Africa’s biggest jazz name, at least locally. If the man was American, he’d wallpaper his living room with Grammies. Stuck in the musical ghetto that is South Africa, he may glance with admiring jealousy in Vusi’s direction.

One performer on this selection pulls together the strings of South African jazz and pop history over the past three decades: Pretoria-born keyboard player Don Laka, who made his first appearance on vinyl as a 14-year-old, was a member of the influential Afro jazz-funk groups Sakhile and SA/Lesotho outfit Sankomota (who were decimated in a car crash), played with Sipho Mabuse and wrote for Brenda Fassie, and finally founded South Africa’s first profitable black-owned label.

TRACKLISTING
1. Tony Schilder Trio – Montreal
2. Allou April – Bringing Joy
3. Don Laka - Ilang Sekolong
4. Gito Baloi - Hinkwafo
5. Vusi Mahlasela – Antone
6. Solly Mabena - Pehilindaba
7. Jimmy Dludlu - Zavala
8. McCoy Mrubata – Phosa Ngasemva
9. Ernie Smith – Lonely
10. Selaelo Selota – Painted Faces
11. Musa Manzini - Renaissance Song
12. Alvin Dyers – Wesley Street
13. Sylvia Ncediwe Mdunyelwa – Abazali
14. Ratau Mike Makhalemele – Soweto Dawn
15. Allen Kwela – Seven Days Ago
16. Errol Dyers – Kou Kou Wa

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The South African singing legend Miriam Makeba died last night of a heart attack after performing at an anti-Camorra concert in Italy. She was 76.

In South Africa she will be remembered as the country’s first black female international star and as an ambassador for the struggle against apartheid. While on an overseas tour, during which she came to prominence thanks to the patronage of Harry Belafonte and Steve Allen, the apartheid regime banned her from returning to South Africa and withdrew her citizenship. After a while, Makeba was not much welcome in the USA either on account of her marriage to Black Panthers leader Stokely Carmichael. So she settled in Guinea, governed by her friend Ahmed Sékou Touré, a strongman reviled by many as anti-democratic but regarded among many Africans as a liberator from colonialism. All the while, she spoke out against apartheid, for Africa and for human rights, receiving UN awards in recognition of her advocacy.

She returned to South Africa in 1990, the year of the ANC’s unbanning and Nelson Mandela’s release from prison (indeed, it was Mandela who called her home). Known as Mama Afrika, she continued to record, but she was much more to the nation than a performer. She acted as a moral conscience to the nation.

Her influence on black culture internationally was profound. The black Afro look of the late ’60s and early ’70s was in large part attributed to Makeba’s model.

Makeba had survived a plane crash and beaten cancer. How anti-climactic that a mundane heart attack should claim her life, and yet, how fitting that she should have died just after coming off stage.

Miriam Makeba – Pata Pata (1956)
Miriam Makeba – The Click Song (1959)
Miriam Makeba – The Lion Song (Mbube) (1960)

It is peculiar that even in South Africa, music from Africa commands its own section. Even rock acts from South Africa are liable to be relegated to the South Africa section, not in the (much bigger and more prominent) Rock shelves. Music retailers are idiots.

So, straight from the Africa section, this mix of music from the continent. When I compiled it, I had two constituencies in mind: those for whom such a mix might serve as an introduction to the wonderfully diverse yet synchronous sound of Africa, and those who already have an appreciation for it and might look for some new stuff. The former category of people is well-served, I think, with a very accessible selection. I hope the latter group might find a few tracks they had not previously heard.

While this mix is a sound of Africa, it cannot be ignored that in urban areas one is as likely, perhaps more likely, to hear the strains of American R&B or hip hop, or local music drawing their influence from these genres. In some cases, such as South Africa’s hugely popular kwaito, R&B and rap fused with local musical forms to create a sound which is distinctly indigenous. As an example, take Mandoza’s Nkalakatha (download). This mix does mostly exclude such musical forms – mainly, I must admit, because I’m not very well versed in that regard to create a representative mix.

Of course, many of these songs embrace Western influences. The guitar on Thomas Mapfumo’s Set The People Free owes something to Santana; Hugh Masekela is a jazz musician; Koffi Olomidé freely draws from pop and R&B, without compromising his African traditions; Cesaria Evoria’s Cape Verdan tradition is influenced by Latin sounds of Portugal and Brazil, and so on.

Some of these artists have remarkable stories. During the liberation war against Rhodesia’s racist regime, Thomas Mapfumo was the poet laureate for the armed struggle which would culminate in the birth of Zimbabwe in 1980. But by the mid-90s, the one-time supporter of Robert Mugabe became disillusioned with the tyrant, and made his opposition known. He now lives in exile in the US.

Salif Keita comes from a royal line which should have ruled out a career in music. But as an albino, he was ostracised by his family, and here he shares a mix with a man of the griot underclass, Mory Kanté, who was born in Guinea but grew up in Mali. Papa Wemba, who was a local chief in what was the Zaïre (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), was jailed a few years ago in France for smuggling illegal immigrants into Europe.

Algeria’s Khaled faced death threats from Islamic fundamentalists who objected to his progressive lyrics; they also issued death threats to other popular Algerian musicians, and proceeded to murder one. And South Africa’s Fortune Xaba, a saxophonist, won the country’s Road To Fame talent competition (which actually frequently realised its premise by producing gifted performers) in 1996, had a brief career in which he released two albums, and suddenly died in 2003.

If this mix proves popular, I have another one lined up. Let me know what you think. As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R.

1. Mory Kanté – Yeke Yeke (Guinea/Mali)
2. Cesária Évora – Nho Antone Escade (Cape Verde)
3. Touré Kunda – Wadini (Senegal)
4. Salif Keita – N B’I Fe (Mali)
5. Ismaël Lo – Tajabone (Senegal)
6. Fortune Xaba - Mi Fe Le Wa Kuti (South Africa)
7. Papa Wemba – Le Voyageur (DR Congo)
8. Khadja Nin – Mama Lusiya (Burundi)
9. Kampi Moto & George Phiri – Maio Maio (Zambia/Malawi/South Africa)
10. Habib Koité & Bamada – Wassiyé (Mali)
11. Hugh Masekela – Happy Mama (South Africa)
12. Thomas Mapfumo & the Blacks Unlimited – Set the People Free (Zimbabwe)
13. Remmy Ongala – Inchi Vetu (Our Country) (Tanzania)
14. Youssou N’Dour – Mame Bamba (Senegal)
15. Koffi Olomidé feat Coumba Gawlo – Si Si Si (DRCongo)
16. Khaled – Aicha (Algeria)
17. Tarika – Aretina (Madagacar)

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In the late ’80s, the apartheid Security Branch raided my place a couple of times. That sounds more grandiose than it really was: my part in the destruction of the racist regime was minute. The fact that the SB was investigating at all me shows just how pervasive the bastards really were. I also hasten to point out that by the second raid, they had dispatched the intellectual rejects from the absolute bottom of their inbreds’ gene pool. Captain Domgat’s line of interrogation included the question: “Are your friends European?”, employing the popular noun by which the racists liked to describe themselves. I could muster no greater wit than to reply that they were all born in South Africa. Captain Domgat was too feeble to rephrase his question. A fearsome interrogator he was not.

All the while a strong wind was blowing through the window, making the pages of my Marilyn Monroe calendar flutter. That made me nervous, because behind the calendar hung a picture of Nelson Mandela. That was contraband: it was illegal to own images or writings by banned persons, such as Mandela (especially Mandela), and illegal to publish these.

I got away with the pic, but had no such luck with a video film of Mandela’s life. Captain Domgat had instructed me to play all my videos. So by the time I got to the tape labelled something like Uncle Bert’s 60th Birthday Party, I knew I was in trouble. I remembered that last time I had stopped the video, it was at the scene of the Sharpville massacre. So I “accidentally” pressed the fast forward button, hoping to arrive at a non-descript scene, perhaps of Nelson and Winnie tasking a romantic stroll (without being stopped by a stupidly moustached cop like Captain Domgat demanding to see their passbooks). Of course, when I caught my “mistake” and pressed play, the film showed somebody building a bomb… I never saw the video again. But I got off lightly. People were persecuted for lesser things.

All this is to mark the 90th birthday of Nelson Mandela, the greatest man alive, on Friday, July 18. I’ve been in close proximity to Mandela only twice. I’ve met many famous people, but none with an aura like that man. I could almost cut it.

I have written before about the day Mandela was released (link here). Now that he is frail and very old, I dread the day he dies. Not because I expect that his death will unleash a torrent of civil unrest, but because a world without Mandela will be a world diminished. Rarely have the traits of idealism, principle, pragmatism, intelligence, integrity, honour, courage, charisma, charm and generosity of spirit coalesced in one man to such degrees as it has with Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. Whatever the man’s personal failings, and he certainly was no Gandhi, his peace building in South Africa was nothing less than heroic.

Sadly his legacy – a model democratic dispensation – is being distorted and wrecked by his successors in the ANC who display little by way idealism, principle, pragmatism, intelligence, integrity, honour, courage, charisma, charm or generosity of spirit. The current leadership, and that which it has replaced, is by and large morally tainted. What heritage of Mandela’s is being sustained when two leaders undertake to “kill for Zuma” should the presumptive future president of South Africa be made to answer charges of corruption and racketeering in court?

Still, even in this political climate, Mandela remains a hero. Everybody wants a piece of him. Every two-bit celebrity or slimy pol who comes to South Africa wants an audience with him. I suspect that these audiences are contingent on contributions being offered to the various foundations in Mandela’s name. If so, how much did it cost Gerri Halliwell to touch Mandela’s arse? And, speaking of fundraising, what sort of wankwit will shell out $17,000 for a platinum bangle bearing the numbers 46664, Mandela’s prison number which now is the name of his AIDS charity? Charity bling is just obscene. That is not to say that Mandelas’s foundations don’t do good work. But I am alarmed by the apparent commoditisation of Mandela (note that I don’t call him by his clan name Madiba, an overused name which at once indicates affection and lack of respect if not employed by those close to him). Oh, but Mandela has loads of pop pals. Ole Blue Shades is a good friend of Mandela’s too, the ingratiating tosser.

The world would be a poorer without Mandela, but a better place without those ghastly 46664 concerts. Before the first 46664 concert in Cape Town, Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics pontificated about how South Africa must address its poverty problem. Of course, being thus put in place by this man of stature and relevance, the government lurched into immediate action. And at a more recent 46664 concert in Johannesburg, Stewart’s erstwhile sidekick, the ghastly Annie Lennox, positioned herself next to Mandela as he made a speech about sexual responsibility as a way to fight AIDS et cetera. All the while Lennox was emphatically nodding her head, as if her consent to Mandela’s words would persuade “the kids” to “listen to this man”. Did that delusional cow think that a sign of her dissent would in any way impair the reception of Mandela’s speech?

I blame Mandela’s people who are obviously so clueless as to think that Annie Lennox or Sting are relevant. They probably are the kind of people who’ll profess a passion for soul music. You know, like Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. How difficult is it to round up two dozen authentically relevant acts for those 46664 gigs (if one must have them in first place). I’d be happy to invite Mandela around to my place to give him some guidance on the matter. As long as I don’t have to give money to his behemoth, overstaffed charities.

Here is some music to celebrate Mandela’s birthday. Hugh Masekela’s urgent and danceable Bring Him Back is a live version of his 1987 song (which could not have anticipated that Nelson and Winnie would one day divorce). Brenda Fassie was the queen of South African pop, which did not prevent her from making political statements such as this excellent song about Mandela, released in 1989 when the regime was making its last bitter stand. I posted the Bright Blue track a year ago: Weeping, from 1987, was the first big hit by a white South African group to blantantly criticise the apartheid regime. It features strains of the struggle anthem Nkosi Sikel’ iAfrica, yet it was not banned on state-owned radio. Peter Tosh’s Apartheid, from 1977, probably does not express Mandela’s mind (“You in me land” sounds more like Mugabe’s gig), but it was a popular song among anti-apartheid activists during the struggle. I needn’t introduce 1984’s Free Nelson Mandela (also reposted) or Sun City from the following year.

Brenda Fassie – Black President.mp3
Hugh Masekela – Bring Him Back Home (live).mp3
Artists United Against Apartheid – Sun City.mp3
Peter Tosh – Apartheid.mp3
The Special A.K.A. – Free Nelson Mandela.mp3
Johnny Clegg & Savuka – Asimbonanga.mp3
Bright Blue – Weeping.mp3

The other files are of historical interest. Two files of Mandela speaking, on recorded during the Rivonia trial which sentenced him to life imprisonment, the other from his first speech as a free man in February 1990 (on this clip he restates his iconic manifesto from the Rivonia trial). The other spoken file is the judge, Quartus de Wet, sentencing Mandela and his co-accused (including the saintly Walter Sisusulu). Note his use of the word non-European; perhaps he was Captain Domgat’s uncle. Then there are sounds from the struggle: the freedom song Rolihlahla (Mandela’s Xhosa name), the full anthem (compare to the hybrid version of South Africa’s current national anthem), and a clip of chanting to the wardance-like toyi toyi.

(Links below updated on March 16, 2009)

Nelson Mandela – Demand for equal rights for African People (Rivonia Trial).mp3
Rivonia Trial – Sentencing (Judge Quartus de Wet).mp3
Nelson Mandela – Day of release from prison, Cape Town 1990.mp3

Struggle Songs – Nkosi Sikel’ iAfrica.mp3
Struggle Songs – Rolihlahla.mp3
Struggle Songs – Toyi Toyi Beat.mp3