Hello everybody on HIVE, and especially the Music Community. My name is Jasper and I'm writing (and singing) to you from Cape Town, South Africa.
This is my eleventh week contributing to "Three Tunes Tuesday", started by @ablaze. It is week 76 overall!
I am trying to stick to a set pattern, where I perform 2 cover songs (written by famous artists) and 1 original song (written by me) around a theme. This week I've chosen the theme of Songs about Politics and Oppression!
For the first cover song I'm really excited to talk about Bright Blue, a South African band and their amazing song "Weeping" which was released in the mid-80s when Apartheid and racial discrimination in South Africa was at its most violent. The anti-Apartheid song is famous for disguising the melody of "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" into the song. "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" was seen as the anthem of the freedom fighting ANC party, and is now part of the official South African National Anthem since Apartheid ended. You can read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weeping(song). "Weeping" has been covered a lot by local South African artists, and even by Josh Groban.
Here is a video of the original:
By the way, I sang South Africa's National Anthem for Hive Open Mic a while back... here: @jasperdick/nebtqjwy
For the second cover song, well I seem to be having a bit of a Tracy Chapman feast at the moment. I played one of her songs last week for Three Tunes Tuesday, last week Thursday I played one for my weekly cover request post, this week's HIVE Open Mic theme was "Fight Oppression" and I did one then and I remember being sad that I couldn't do two of them so decided to make my theme for today's set very similar! So here is "Across the Lines" by Tracy Chapman, which sadly feels like it could have been written yesterday...
Here is a video of the original:
Finally, for my own song - well it is a work in progress called "Mamela", which means "Listen" in both isiXhosa and isiZulu, the two most widely spoken first languages in South Africa. It is a song that laments how the ANC ruling party has been taken over by corrupt Politicians who are not delivering on their promises any more, and how the youth of South Africa are feeling disappointed and despondent. I say it is a "work in progress" because I would like to try and give it a more hopeful ending. Something to do with how if we ignore Politicians and their attempts to make us hate each other, then we could probably do better without them, and work together in our communities to improve our situation in South Africa... I'd love to hear some ideas of how that might sound by the other writers on HIVE!
Before I go: Please look out for my weekly cover request post on Thursday! If you make a song request in the comments, and then I attempt the song, you get rewarded with 50% of that post's rewards in HP! Please have a think about what song you would like me to tackle for you?
Lyrics for "Mamela" (So far) by Jasper Dick
*Your father was a poor man, my friend
He struggled to survive
They said it would get better, in the end
But the jobs did not arrive...
Mamela, my brother
Feel the anger that burns within you
They let us down...(repeat)
Your heart is full of anger today
We will not forget
They've made you the same promise before
They have not kept it yet...
Mamela, my brother
Feel the anger that burns within you
They let us down...(repeat)
They tell us lies... don't believe them
They don't hear our cries... they don't receive them...
Mamela, my brother
Feel the anger that burns within you
They let us down...(repeat)
▶️ 3Speak