Over the years, I have been privileged enough to witness some brilliant South African music live.
Having recently purchased the Lucky Dube – 'The Best Of' CD, I was struck by a big dose of nostalgia. I have been fortunate enough to witness live performances from seminal bands such as Sakhile, Stimela and Juluka. In fact, Sakhile’s show was the only time I have experienced my hair standing on end as a result of the collective band member’s musical virtuosity. Over the years I have been fortunate enough to see myriad bands come, some stay and others go, some brilliant and some rather average. I have been to concerts by Hotline where a young PJ Powers belted out Led Zeppelin covers accompanied by an awesome Alistair Coakley. I have seen Brenda and the Big Dudes dole out the soulful and funky, and then also witnessed the rise and (in some cases) fall of bands such as No Friends of Harry, Cinema, The Helicopters, Little Sister, Psycho Reptiles, Petit Cheval, Tananas, Dog detachment, Tribe after tribe, Seether (as Saron Gas), Wonderboom, Prime Circle, Henry Ate, the list goes on and on. Some were really good, other just OK and others really bad. What bothers me though is the lack of continuity and permanence of good bands and artists in South Africa. I think that there are probably numerous and complicated reasons for this (one being that people don’t go out and buy their albums), but what is sad is that we have this problem at all.
So it is even sadder when we have such seriously talented artists like Lucky Dube, who has been a relatively successful counterpoint to the inconsistency by becoming hugely popular throughout the world, and especially Africa, and releasing album after album of quality reggae music, who are cut down in their prime by mindless criminals. He has not been the only one, sadly there is a long list of highly talented musicians who have lost their lives to crime in South Africa.
It only takes one listen to this CD to realise that here was a hugely talented individual, surrounded by an extremely talented set of musicians, producing quality music time after time. The reasons for his continuous success is also obvious when you listen to the songs and realise just how good the musicians were, how much care was taken with the production of the songs and how much thought went into his lyrics. These songs are so much a part of South Africa’s radio airwaves that it is hard to understand why some of Dube’s underlying messages of Peace and Social Consciousness have not seeped into our ailing national psyche. Every home should have a copy of this CD, play it loud in your home and in your car, quote the lyrics to each other so that hopefully this contributes to South Africa becoming the beautiful nation that we all want so badly.
Having recently purchased the Lucky Dube – 'The Best Of' CD, I was struck by a big dose of nostalgia. I have been fortunate enough to witness live performances from seminal bands such as Sakhile, Stimela and Juluka. In fact, Sakhile’s show was the only time I have experienced my hair standing on end as a result of the collective band member’s musical virtuosity. Over the years I have been fortunate enough to see myriad bands come, some stay and others go, some brilliant and some rather average. I have been to concerts by Hotline where a young PJ Powers belted out Led Zeppelin covers accompanied by an awesome Alistair Coakley. I have seen Brenda and the Big Dudes dole out the soulful and funky, and then also witnessed the rise and (in some cases) fall of bands such as No Friends of Harry, Cinema, The Helicopters, Little Sister, Psycho Reptiles, Petit Cheval, Tananas, Dog detachment, Tribe after tribe, Seether (as Saron Gas), Wonderboom, Prime Circle, Henry Ate, the list goes on and on. Some were really good, other just OK and others really bad. What bothers me though is the lack of continuity and permanence of good bands and artists in South Africa. I think that there are probably numerous and complicated reasons for this (one being that people don’t go out and buy their albums), but what is sad is that we have this problem at all.
So it is even sadder when we have such seriously talented artists like Lucky Dube, who has been a relatively successful counterpoint to the inconsistency by becoming hugely popular throughout the world, and especially Africa, and releasing album after album of quality reggae music, who are cut down in their prime by mindless criminals. He has not been the only one, sadly there is a long list of highly talented musicians who have lost their lives to crime in South Africa.
It only takes one listen to this CD to realise that here was a hugely talented individual, surrounded by an extremely talented set of musicians, producing quality music time after time. The reasons for his continuous success is also obvious when you listen to the songs and realise just how good the musicians were, how much care was taken with the production of the songs and how much thought went into his lyrics. These songs are so much a part of South Africa’s radio airwaves that it is hard to understand why some of Dube’s underlying messages of Peace and Social Consciousness have not seeped into our ailing national psyche. Every home should have a copy of this CD, play it loud in your home and in your car, quote the lyrics to each other so that hopefully this contributes to South Africa becoming the beautiful nation that we all want so badly.
1 comment:
Excellent commentary and insights on local music industry. Immediately thought of Gito Baloyi.
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