Digging for Some Words

[Kush]

3 songs about Africa by Johnny Clegg


Digging for Some Words

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFcOWrs6pFI&

- Johnny Clegg


Wanderers and nomads have gone to see their chieftains
Will this be the end of the rain and the birds?
Who can send an emissary to speak to the seasons?
For the ravens and the crows already soak up the skies...

I'm digging for some words beneath the stones in Zimbabwe
I'm searching for a drum song in the jungles of Zaire
I'm groping for the blood-moon in the mountains of Malawi
Looking for the Lion of Ethiopia...

The setting dusk is darkened by the bark of the baboon
The frogs and the owls no longer call to the moon
The warlords have gathered, blue smoke hiss from teeth of chrome
And the baobab lies trembling in the boiling blood-loam

The fireplace is broken and the grinding stone too
Its million pieces flung across the plains of Africa
Each dusty fragment a seed from which grows
The memory of a debt that only you and I will know

Seven seasoned soldiers have been summoned from Saigon
A craven walkie talkie puts their bloodshot armor on
Some drink beer milk, some drink kinky-kola
Sheep dogs live in Outeniqua, Gun dogs in Angola

Flames lick the corners of each hungry horseman's smile
They have locusts in their scabbards and deserts in their eyes
Passing through the air they leave a sea of fetid rumors
As they ride across the skyline on a secret trail of lies

I found some words beneath a stone in Zimbabwe
I heard a distant drum song in the jungles of Zaire
The blood-moon spoke of war in the mountains of Malawi
But I never found the Lion of Ethiopia




Heart of the Dancer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdLzzWDsz44

I want to look into the heart of the dancer
His movements have a magic mystery
They must have a message and a meaning
'cause he's doing something to me
Please don't let the drum stop beating
I have to understand
How he dances our future and our destiny
And how we became part of this land

Chorus Sizodlala! nani 'mabungu! Sizodlala! nani 'mabungu, helele!
(repeat) Dlala wemadlalingo... Dlala wemadlalingoma
(repeat) Dlala wemadlalingo-yo-yo-yo Dlala wemadlalingoma

When you were just a witless child of wonder
He showed you the glory of his past
He weaved for you a dance of the thunder
That shook the mountains and the craglands
He dances the children playing in the rubble
He dances the hollow victory
He dances the powerful people
Ambushed by history

The dance wants to dance the dancer
But the dancer wants to dance the dance
There's a war between the puppet and the master
Between the master and the puppet-dancer's heart
Have you seen the gunfire flash across the news in the night?
Have you seen the bedroom scene in the ballet?
The dancing bear can't bear to dance much longer
Soon the puppet will be the dance's master
Soon the puppet will be the dance's master

Wemagith' ingoma! Wemagith' ingoma!



Woman Be My Country

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT4A0wbImFQ

Here we stand on the edge of the day
Faces melting in the african rain
So many seasons of silent war
So many drowned before they reached the shore
Nothing is clear to me any more in this sad and strange landscape
I've got no defense, I've got no attack
I can't leave, I can't stay and I've got no way back
Hard to deal with the way things have been
I can't lie but the truth is so extreme

Chorus:
Woman be my country, 'till my country can be mine
Hide me deep inside your borders in these dark and troubled times
Remember me my innocence before I drowned in the sea of lies
Woman be my country, 'till my country can be mine

Too many seasons of quiet rage
Too many young people just wasted away
Too many futures hanging in the balance
Too much owing nothing left to pay
A lonely flag flutters in the breeze
for the hardened hearts who still want to believe
Am I the witness or am I the crime
A victim of history or just a sign of the times
Across my heart questions and shadows still fly
But in the dead of the night I know where the answer lies

Chorus:
Woman be my country, 'till my country can be mine
I have no flag, I sing no anthem, I no longer carry an armalite
Bathe me in you sweet rivers, anoint me with your touch and your smile
To your colours I give my allegiance, I lay it on the line

Ngikhathele ngifile wena weqat' izwe
(I am dead tired of you who causes friction in the land)
Ngikhathele ngifile zindaba zakho
(I am dead tired of you, and your matters)
Yash' imizi yobada
(The homes of my fathers are burning)

Chorus

Back

[Diane]

So good to be reminded of that fantastic dancer/songwriter Johnny Clegg, Kush! Esp. enjoyed Heart of the Dancer.

A fave, Asimbonanga, for Nelson Mandela's 90th, with Joan Baez (didn't realise she had covered this song on one of her albums):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvquMw1aKAs

seems they are having trouble singing in the same key or something, but still lovely.

[Kush]

Thanks Diane. I had not heard them together before. Asimbonanga is his signature song because of the obvious association, but I think I prefer Soweto Gospel Choirs version of it.
the song has an interesting story.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIqlfVcNE_0

p.s. J Clegg does the "bump dance" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBuPvhx2tvk&

[Kush]

Will be seeing Johnny Clegg next month 3rd time for me which I think is more than any single artiste I have seen, probably tied with Willie Nelson -

he doesnt move like he used to -
this is how he used to go (1989)
Siyayilanda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVIl3-7ks4U

I call Your Name
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3KdlvnmATs

when I feel the hidden power that lies inside your sound
like the ghost inside the atom that spins it round and round
there's magic in some words that you can't explain
conjures up that feeling of the sun inside the rain

this is how he goes now
Dela
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z44UHnpp0qI


another great song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv4wtU9cU_w

Warsaw 1943 (I Never Betrayed the Revolution)

Amambuka, amambuka azothengisa izwe lakithi, izwe lakithi
(The betrayers, the betrayers will sell our land, our land)

He was taken in the night
They came without any warning
No time to hide or fight
They came like bees a-swarming
The questions start to fly
Will he break or will he defy?
Can he withstand the worst that is to come?
A child in a man's clothing
Resisting the fascist' ploy
The underground puts iron in the heart of any boy
Swimming in a sea of pain, he knows this is the end
He hears himself whisper the name of his best friend


I never betrayed you, and I never betrayed the revolution
I just didn't want to die alone, I needed you to see me home
And if I could save you, and if I could find a solution
I would die a thousand times, to get you out of here

Sharing the same cold cell
Betrayer and betrayed
An island with two frightened castaways
Not a word is spoken,
How can he explain?
Through swollen eyes they watch the dawn's first rays
It's all over now
They stand backs to the wall
Waiting for the fascist's sword to fall
In the desperation of a young life about to end
He turns before the bullet
And forgives a friend

[Kush]

Johnny Clegg's address to the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa on being awarded a Doctorate in Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YFs2lu4TQQ