One more Weekend Post from "Sun City."
Bono was involved in the "Sun City" song. And as Little Steven was about to being mastering the final tracks he had, Bono showed up with a newly recorded tune. One that features Keith Richards and Ron Wood as his bandmates. It arrived so late in the game, that it didn't even make the track listing, which had already been printed.
"Silver And Gold" would eventually be re-recorded by U2 and make its way to the "Rattle And Hum" record, but this is the original release.
Hear the song on Youtube.
Showing posts with label sun city. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sun city. Show all posts
Sunday, 8 December 2013
Saturday, 7 December 2013
Gil-Scott Heron "Let Me See Your ID"
A Nelson Mandela-related Weekend Post:
"The word causalities comes up a lot . . . Nothing casual about dying."
I wrote yesterday about the "Sun City" song, and how it was one of the first "political message" records I had ever tuned into. And that it was my first run-in with many artists that I would come to appreciate more deeply in the years to come (including Bonnie Raitt, Lou Reed, Joey Ramone and Little Steven himself).
Van Zandt's original intention was to just make a single. But as more and more artists came on board, he found himself with more and more material. Eventually, they stretched things out to a full length release. Though . . . there was a lot of filler---like 3 remixes of "Sun City."
There were also some really interesting and important pieces.
"Let Me See Your ID" was my first run-in with Gil-Scott Heron. And it was my first real experience with a sound collage. Heron's spoken parts to this piece were so clear and direct, that it helped explain the situation in both a contextual and moral way. The line I quote at the start of this post really struck me, and forced me to start thinking critically about the words we absorb, well, casually.
I think it's worth pointing out, again, that the work on this album is overlooked and under-appreciated as an early example of Rock musicians working with Rappers, and effectively bringing music that was associated with Black and Urban listeners to the White suburbs.
When you heard it for the first time, "Hey, what Peter Wolf is doing, is the same thing these rappers are doing," rap music made sense.
Definitely check out today's song. But if you have 45 minutes, stream the whole album below.
Hear the song on Youtube.
Hear the full album on Youtube.
"The word causalities comes up a lot . . . Nothing casual about dying."
I wrote yesterday about the "Sun City" song, and how it was one of the first "political message" records I had ever tuned into. And that it was my first run-in with many artists that I would come to appreciate more deeply in the years to come (including Bonnie Raitt, Lou Reed, Joey Ramone and Little Steven himself).
Van Zandt's original intention was to just make a single. But as more and more artists came on board, he found himself with more and more material. Eventually, they stretched things out to a full length release. Though . . . there was a lot of filler---like 3 remixes of "Sun City."
There were also some really interesting and important pieces.
"Let Me See Your ID" was my first run-in with Gil-Scott Heron. And it was my first real experience with a sound collage. Heron's spoken parts to this piece were so clear and direct, that it helped explain the situation in both a contextual and moral way. The line I quote at the start of this post really struck me, and forced me to start thinking critically about the words we absorb, well, casually.
I think it's worth pointing out, again, that the work on this album is overlooked and under-appreciated as an early example of Rock musicians working with Rappers, and effectively bringing music that was associated with Black and Urban listeners to the White suburbs.
When you heard it for the first time, "Hey, what Peter Wolf is doing, is the same thing these rappers are doing," rap music made sense.
Definitely check out today's song. But if you have 45 minutes, stream the whole album below.
Hear the song on Youtube.
Hear the full album on Youtube.
Thursday, 5 December 2013
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 . . .
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 . . .
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