Artists United Against Apartheid "Sun City"

There is wall-to-wall coverage of the passing of Nelson Mandela, and many wise and informed folks are offering their thoughts.  So I'll leave the job of remembering Mandela to them.

Instead, I wanted to write about how I even knew who Nelson Mandela was in the first place.

I could literally count, on my fingers, the number of non-white people I knew that lived in my town, growing up. 

I understood the concepts of racism and prejudice and oppression, but in the very, very white suburbs north of Boston, they were abstract concepts, not daily struggles that took place before my eyes.

By 1985, a number of charity songs had hit the airwaves and MTV, led by "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and "We Are The World."  But I was intrigued by the video and song for "Sun City."

First, it was really the first instance I'd seen of rock artists working with artists from the relatively new, strange and curious world of rap music (the song pre-dates Aerosmith/Run-DMC's "Walk This Way" by a year).  "We're Rockers And Rapper united and strong . . ." was something completely unprecedented.

Second, I was struck by the kind of artist who appeared in the video.  While bonafide superstars like Bruce Springsteen and Bono did appear, there was a lot of focus on some real esoteric and/or underground names like Lou Reed, Ruben Blades and Gil-Scott Heron.

But mostly, I was fascinated by the politics of it all.  I mean, I'd never really heard an artist call out the President in a popular song like Joey Ramone does.

I'd never heard of Sun City, the place.  I'd not seen images of violence, protest and strife as shown in the video.  The song inspired me to learn what exactly Apartheid was, what "constructive engagement" meant, why they were showing images of Martin Luther King Jr. in a video about South Africans, and why all these artists weren't going to play "Sun City."

Baby Boomers can go on and on about how images like these, and songs on these subjects were nothing new---they lived through the Vietnam era.  But the fact is that despite whatever accomplishments they might have made in the late 60s and early 70s, now that they were the adults, they were not doing a damn thing to teach social justice, or even contemporary history, to the next generation.

I learned it from a song.

Nelson Mandela will be remembered in a number of ways.

One person can make a difference.

Education makes a difference.

Speaking truthfully and never turning a blind eye makes a difference.

Encouraging people to reject violence, but demand change, will make a difference.

Nelson Mandela's struggles were half a world away from where I lived.

But thank God there were people like Steven Van Zandt who could take his message, and make it mean something to a little White kid living in a little White world.


Hear the original song on Youtube.


Hear the live version on Youtube.

Postscript:

This post was about Nelson Mandela and the power of song, and I didn't want to fill it with silly and snarky comments and observations.  But HOLY SHIT does the video need to be watched with live commentary.

Just a few observations . . . It is VERY worth your while to read about the background of the song on Wikipedia . . . Miles Davis was only supposed to do a few seconds, he played for 7 minutes so they made a full jazz version of the song . . . (:58) DJ Kool Herc wants you to know his sunglasses flip up . . . (1:08) Steven Van Zandt looks like he should have been a vampire on "True Blood" . . . (1:16) blink and you miss it---Pete Townshend was involved in this project . . . (1:48) it makes some sense to put Springsteen with 2 former Temptations (I'm sure Bruce was psyched), but Pat Benatar as the fourth in the foursome is weird, right? . . . (2:13) scratch that, weirder quintet---George Clinton, Joey Ramone, Jimmy Cliff, Daryl Hall and Darlene Love . . . (2:55) Bonnie Raitt's mainstream success was still a few years away, in the context of this video she was another "esoteric" artist . . . (3:10) I think the world is a sadder place not having heard a full album from "Reed N Oates" . . . (3:28) What's happening on the wall behind Bobby Womack?!?!? . . . (3:39) Does Ruben Blades give a slow motion "fuck off"?  . . . (4:02) DJ Kool Herc really wants you to know his sunglasses flip up . . . (4:14) Daryl Hannah??? . . . (4:28) Peter Wolf hand dance! . . . (4:30) Does Jackson Browne have his shirt buttoned only at the top?  How very LA-in-the-80s . . . (4:42) Bono, auditioning for the role of The Devil . . . (5:00) Ringo! And your first peek at future drummer-in-high-demand Zak Starkey . . . (6:19) Bono kisses a Fat Boy! . . . (6:22) Weird, context-less, and inexplicably-slow-motion shot of Michael Monroe of Hanoi Rocks . . . (7:17) The most powerful singing yet . . .

Joey Ramone "What Did I Do To Deserve You?"

I hate to do this to the late Joey Ramone, but I have to play "Let Me Ruin This Song For You" with his new single.

Before reading any further, you might want to read the "Let Me Ruin This Song For You" guidelines, so you can bail on this post, if you don't wish to think ill of the dead.

Yes, sadly, it's been over a decade since Joey Ramone (born Jeffry Ross Hyman) passed away, after a 7 year battle with lymphoma.  Within a year of his death, the record he'd been working on, "Don't Worry About Me" was released.  And that was the last I'd expected to hear from Joey Ramone.

But this Spring, a project guided by Ramones' producer Ed Stasium and Joey's brother Mickey Leigh was released.  Stasium and Leigh found a host of Joey's demos, stripped out everything but Joey's vocals, and then rebuilt the tracks.  The project includes load of Joey's personal friends, like Joan Jett, Steven Van Zandt and members of Cheap Trick.

I guess I have some reservations about anyone but the artist himself/herself completing a record, but I can appreciate that this was guided by family and friends.  And I loved Joey Ramone, so I'm rooting for this record.

But check out the single.  Musically, does it not sound a more than a little like The Traveling Wilburys?


Hear Joey Ramone on Youtube.


Hear The Traveling Wilburys on Youtube.

U2 “In A Little While”

What a weird experience it must be, for heroes to become fans.

U2 has been the biggest band in the world for so damn long, that it’s hard think of them as anything but a monolith that has always existed in the middle of the Rock N Roll square.

But they have always been generous in citing and sharing their influences, including the ones that are hard to hear any more.

When they were given an MTV Award, they used their time and their power to bring out a band they claimed was essential to the creation of U2: The Ramones.

It was a good time to recognize the band, as Joey Ramone had recently passed away, the band was no longer touring or recording and their heyday was so far removed that “the kids these days” probably knew little or nothing about the band.

A couple of years later, U2 contributed a track to a Ramones tribute record.

And you felt like U2 had done right by their forerunners honoring a group so close to their hearts.

What an amazing tribute to the band, then, to hear this news.

When Joey Ramone was in the last stages of his battle with lymphoma, on the edge of death, he asked that his favorite song be put on the stereo: U2’s “In A Little While.”

He passed while the song played.

What a tribute, when the hero honors the fan.