blake 3:17
1st February 2014, 01:06
When Steven Van Zandt convinced AZAPO to take Paul Simon off a hit list and what Paul Simon really thought of Nelson Mandela
SEAN JACOBS | JANUARY 26TH, 2014
http://africasacountry.com/when-steven-van-zandt-convinced-azapo-to-take-paul-simon-off-a-hit-list-and-what-paul-simon-really-thought-of-nelson-mandela/
To coincide with this historic moment, Backstreets.com, a site focusing on New Jersey music, posted the transcript of a radio interview with Steven Van Zandt (Little Steven), Springsteens longtime guitar player. In the interview, Van Zandt recalls his longtime involvement with South Africa, and his role in uniting American musicians against Apartheid. The highlight of the campaign was the 1985 song Sun City, which featured at least 50 odd musicians, including Springsteen, Run-DMC, Pete Townsend, Joey Ramone and Afrika Bambataa, and whichvia MTV and BET (radio didnt want to play it: It was too black for white radio, too white for black radio)introduced a whole new generation of Americans to what was going on in South Africa. A lot of this is known from a book, Sun City: The Making of the Record (1985), written by Dave Marsh, a Van Zandt collaborator. But it is when Van Zandt starts talking about Paul Simon that it gets interesting. Ive embedded that section below.
Basically, the set up is this: In the early stages of the project, Van Zandt traveled to South Africa, where he met with black activists and experienced the effects of Apartheid first hand. In one scene, he goes to Soweto (check his description of 1980s Soweto: youd see, like, two or three feet of fog all over the ground. No lights) to meet more people and talk about the cultural boycott. Paul Simon, meanwhile had defied the cultural boycott, and traveled to South Africa to record with South African musicians for his Graceland album. The interviewer, whose contributions are in bold, is Marsh:
So I snuck in and met with AZAPO, the Azanian Peoples Organisation, who were like a more radical, violent version of our Black Panthers. They were actually on the front lines blowing shit up and stuff like that. And I had to plead my case to them, because they were sort of the hard line. And I said to them, Look, all due respect, man, youre not gonna win this fight. I dont blame you for picking up guns and defending yourselves. Because it was brutal; the regime down there was brutality. I dont blame you, but youre not gonna win. You cannot win this way. Let me please try my idea, and Im gonna win this war for you in the media, on TV.
Now this already wouldve been a stretch for most people, but when youre trying to tell this to people who dont have electricity, that youre about to win their war on a box that you plug in somewhere, they looked at me like, This guy is really nuts. [laughter]
If you thought Stevies kidding the truth of the matter is that South Africa, for a very, very long time, well into the 70s or early 80s, did not have television for exactly this reason. There was no television if youd been talking to a white South African.
Yeah, because when youd go into Soweto, which was this huge area I mean, its huge youd see, like, two or three feet of fog all over the ground. No lights. And it just had this very, very surreal feeling to it, because that was all from the coal-fires and whatever they were burning for heat. So it was like a really interesting movie-scenario sort of thing.
And I met with AZAPO, who had a very frank conversation I was talking to the translator about whether they should kill me for even being there. Thats how serious they were about violating the boycott. I eventually talked them out of that and then talked them into maybe going kinda with my thing.
http://africasacountry.com/when-steven-van-zandt-convinced-azapo-to-take-paul-simon-off-a-hit-list-and-what-paul-simon-really-thought-of-nelson-mandela/
SEAN JACOBS | JANUARY 26TH, 2014
http://africasacountry.com/when-steven-van-zandt-convinced-azapo-to-take-paul-simon-off-a-hit-list-and-what-paul-simon-really-thought-of-nelson-mandela/
To coincide with this historic moment, Backstreets.com, a site focusing on New Jersey music, posted the transcript of a radio interview with Steven Van Zandt (Little Steven), Springsteens longtime guitar player. In the interview, Van Zandt recalls his longtime involvement with South Africa, and his role in uniting American musicians against Apartheid. The highlight of the campaign was the 1985 song Sun City, which featured at least 50 odd musicians, including Springsteen, Run-DMC, Pete Townsend, Joey Ramone and Afrika Bambataa, and whichvia MTV and BET (radio didnt want to play it: It was too black for white radio, too white for black radio)introduced a whole new generation of Americans to what was going on in South Africa. A lot of this is known from a book, Sun City: The Making of the Record (1985), written by Dave Marsh, a Van Zandt collaborator. But it is when Van Zandt starts talking about Paul Simon that it gets interesting. Ive embedded that section below.
Basically, the set up is this: In the early stages of the project, Van Zandt traveled to South Africa, where he met with black activists and experienced the effects of Apartheid first hand. In one scene, he goes to Soweto (check his description of 1980s Soweto: youd see, like, two or three feet of fog all over the ground. No lights) to meet more people and talk about the cultural boycott. Paul Simon, meanwhile had defied the cultural boycott, and traveled to South Africa to record with South African musicians for his Graceland album. The interviewer, whose contributions are in bold, is Marsh:
So I snuck in and met with AZAPO, the Azanian Peoples Organisation, who were like a more radical, violent version of our Black Panthers. They were actually on the front lines blowing shit up and stuff like that. And I had to plead my case to them, because they were sort of the hard line. And I said to them, Look, all due respect, man, youre not gonna win this fight. I dont blame you for picking up guns and defending yourselves. Because it was brutal; the regime down there was brutality. I dont blame you, but youre not gonna win. You cannot win this way. Let me please try my idea, and Im gonna win this war for you in the media, on TV.
Now this already wouldve been a stretch for most people, but when youre trying to tell this to people who dont have electricity, that youre about to win their war on a box that you plug in somewhere, they looked at me like, This guy is really nuts. [laughter]
If you thought Stevies kidding the truth of the matter is that South Africa, for a very, very long time, well into the 70s or early 80s, did not have television for exactly this reason. There was no television if youd been talking to a white South African.
Yeah, because when youd go into Soweto, which was this huge area I mean, its huge youd see, like, two or three feet of fog all over the ground. No lights. And it just had this very, very surreal feeling to it, because that was all from the coal-fires and whatever they were burning for heat. So it was like a really interesting movie-scenario sort of thing.
And I met with AZAPO, who had a very frank conversation I was talking to the translator about whether they should kill me for even being there. Thats how serious they were about violating the boycott. I eventually talked them out of that and then talked them into maybe going kinda with my thing.
http://africasacountry.com/when-steven-van-zandt-convinced-azapo-to-take-paul-simon-off-a-hit-list-and-what-paul-simon-really-thought-of-nelson-mandela/