Monthly Archives: December 2013

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Music of the struggle

Nelson Mandela, the first Black President, died last week aged 95.

The recent passing of Nelson Mandela, the man who embodied the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, has triggered a landslide of tributes paid from people across the world.

 

Here at Cruxx Music, we will pay tribute by remembering some “Liberation Music”, that fueled the resistance against apartheid, both in South Africa and across the globe. Our top five list is at the bottom of the article.

Song and music connected all age groups and across divides of education and wealth,

 

Former rebel, anti-apartheid campaigner and president of South Africa, passed away on December 5th, 95 years old.

Nelson Mandela (1918 – 2013) Photo: Georges DeKeerle, Getty Images, April 16, 1990

After Britain gained full control over South Africa following the South African wars (1879 – 1915), a series of laws where enacted to segregate different racial groups, for example requiring documentation proving authorization to live in white areas.The 1913 Native Land Act restricted the amount of land Africans could own to 7% of the national total. Apartheid was abolished and Nelson Mandela elected the country’s first non-white president in 1994.

Nelson Mandela was chosen to be the centerpiece of what would become a highly successful anti-apartheid campaign. He was picked among the prisoners of Robben Island to personify the struggle of all people oppressed in South Africa. Despite the fact that he sat in jail for decades and was therefore not seen in public, he became an world famous icon. When Jarry Drammers wrote the song Free Nelson Mandela thirty years ago, he was just one of many imprisoned ANC leaders. On his release in 1990, he had become a global icon, despite only a handful of people knowing what he actually looked like.

 

The movement against apartheid in South Africa expanded from South Africa itself into a international movement. The campaign influencing popular culture, but was also influenced by it. I Just Want to Break Fee by Queen, became a favorite song among activists in South Africa in the 1980s.

 

Video: Musicians discuss the importance of music in the anti-apartheid struggle.

 

TOP FIVE ANTI-APARTHEID SONGS:

The Specials. Free Nelson Mandela(1984)

Sonny Okouon – Fire in Soweto

Johnny Clegg – Asimbonanga (1987)

Stevie Wonder- It’s Wrong (1985)

 

Miriam Makeba – Ndodemnyama

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Walk the Line with Johnny Cash

Many would say that The king holds the title for Rockabilly smooth man. But there is a contender in the form of Johnny Cash, Tennessee blues God and drug addled 50’s heart throb. Living in the shadow of the great Elvis, Cash created new blues sound and a massive fan gathering where ever he went.

Johnny Cash Recording in Tennesee

Smoking and drinking was a big part of Cash’s life

So what separates him from Presley?

1. Cash and his bandmates were constantly stirring up trouble in the hotels they frequented while touring. In the late 1950’s, Cash and his band bought 500 baby chickens and let 100 loose on each floor of the hotel they were staying at. Another time, Cash and Co. flushed cherry bombs down a toilet, destroying the plumbing system. Cash also stabbed a reproduction of the Mona Lisa that was hanging in a hotel because it didn’t quite reach his standards.

2. Cash once broke his toes trying to kick the bars out of a jail cell. The incident happened during one of Cash’s seven arrests, and occurred at a jail in Starkville, Missouri, after Cash was incarcerated for trespassing. The leather clad bad boy spent quite a few nights in prison across the years.

3. Cash was allegedly the first person ever to be sued by the U.S. for igniting a forest fire. Cash would often take his camper, Jesse James, out to the desert for methamphetamine binges. One time, the camper had an oil leak that caused the Los Padres National Wildlife Refuge to catch fire. The blaze killed almost every endangered condor in the refuge, to which Cash replied, “I don’t give a damn about your yellow buzzards.”

4. When Cash felt his record label was ignoring him in 1984, he intentionally recorded a terrible album. The title of the album was ‘Chicken in Black,’ and the lead song was about Cash having his brain transplanted with that of a chicken.

5. Cash never did a performance where he wasn’t wearing black. Cash started wearing all-black suits as a good luck charm, because he wore a black T-shirt and jeans to his first live gig. He once told Larry King, “I’ve never done a concert in anything but black. You walk into my clothes closet. It’s dark in there.”

Here is the Man in Blacks official website.

Here are my Top Ten for Johnny Cash
1.Cocaine Blues
2.Ring of Fire
3.Walk the line
4.Jackson
5.It Ain’t me Babe
6.Home of the Blues
7.Folsom Prison Blues
8.Cry Cry Cry
9.You’re my Baby
10.Get Rhythm

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Motown Sound: Heard through our Grapevine

An infusion of hip-hop, blues, jazz and good old pop, Motown sound has formed the foundation of modern music, bringing together a pantheon of black musical Gods together on one label. Destroying the boundaries of race or class, The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, the Supremes, Lionel Ritchie. You name it, they had it under one record label. Its still hopping along slowly, as the music industry changes, but it seems absurd for it to die.

Montage collection of Motown artists

If you didn’t know how many people were signed to the Label…

So I set out to find out some more. And in my discovering, I came across some of the best facts so far:

1. Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown, was once a professional boxer who went on to fight in the Korean war. His boxing career was steadily rising,. He was a featherweight boxer in Michigan, winning 12 (5 by knockout), lost 3 by knockout and drew 2. This is a fairly impressive record for an amateur boxer,lasting 65 rounds in 17 matches. Unfortunately for him and his fans, the Korean war got in the way and he was conscripted. He went into the army and fought for his country. Having survived that ordeal, he came home with out much money. So he took an $800 loan from his dad to start up a record label.

2. Berry Gordy initially rejected the Jackson 5 from working with his record label. Children, apparently, were too difficult for him to work with so he was reluctant to sign the now world famous mega kids band. Luckily for him, he did sign them and they went on to produce perhaps the greatest artist of our time, Michael Jackson.

3. Motown had its own working set of background musicians to work with its stars. They are considered to be the unsung heroes of the music industry but in some ways they are more musically successful than any other artist ever. They have performed in more number one hits than Elvis, the Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys combined. They performed in some capacity with every major signing that ever worked with Gordy.

4. Meatloaf once signed for the label. Yes, Meatloaf. Bat out of Hell, metal rock, Meatloaf. He performed with Shaun Murphy under the name of Stoney and Meatloaf.

5. Stevie Wonder and Lionel Ritchie hold the title of best selling tracks. Stevie with “I just called to say I love you” and Lionel with “Hello”.

 

Want to fine out more? Check out their site.

Here are my Top Ten Tracks
1.I Heard it Through the Grape Vine – Marvin Gaye
2.I’ll Be There – Jackson 5
3.Baby Love – The Supremes
4.Fingertips pt2 – Stevie Wonder
5.Ain’t No Mountain High Enough – Diana Ross
6.War – Edwin Starr
7.I Can’t Help Myself – The Four Tops
8.My Guy – Mary Wells
9.The Love you Save – The Jackson 5
10.I Can’t Get Next to You – The Temptations