{"id":23340,"date":"2013-12-06T01:04:38","date_gmt":"2013-12-06T06:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=23340"},"modified":"2013-12-06T01:04:38","modified_gmt":"2013-12-06T06:04:38","slug":"music-for-nelson-mandela-1918-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2013\/12\/music-for-nelson-mandela-1918-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Music for Nelson Mandela (1918 &#8211; 2013)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nelson Mandela &#8212; anti-apartheid activist, South Africa&#8217;s first black president and a worldwide icon &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/12\/06\/world\/africa\/nelson-mandela_obit.html\" target=\"_blank\">died yesterday at age 95<\/a>. In July,<a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/throwback-thursday-madonna-and-her-keith-haring-denim-jacket\/\" target=\"_blank\"> on his 95th birthday<\/a>, I reflected a recent trip to<a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/what-wendy-wore-leopard-print-booties-in-leopard-country\/\" target=\"_blank\"> South Africa<\/a> in a post inspired by my rediscovery of a giant anti-apartheid Keith Haring poster from the mid-1980s.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_23341\" style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/throwback-thursday-madonna-and-her-keith-haring-denim-jacket\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-23341\" class=\" wp-image-23341\" alt=\"haringposter.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/haringposter.jpg.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/haringposter.jpg.jpg 750w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/haringposter.jpg-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-23341\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">For size perspective, the poster is held down by two sneakers, a MacBook Air and a cat.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The anti-apartheid college campus protests are some of my most vivid memories from that time. I clearly remember my awe when I first heard the protest song &#8220;Free Nelson Mandela&#8221; by <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Free_Nelson_Mandela\" target=\"_blank\">the Special AKA<\/a> in 1984.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AgcTvoWjZJU\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>That song educated me about South Africa the way Neil Young&#8217;s &#8220;Ohio&#8221; enlightened me about Vietnam. You can learn more about &#8220;Free Nelson Mandela&#8221; from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbcamerica.com\/anglophenia\/2013\/06\/nelson-mandela-and-the-most-potent-protest-song-ever-recorded\/\" target=\"_blank\">this June BBC America post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Another song that has always stuck with me is 1985&#8217;s &#8220;Sun City,&#8221; written by Steven Van Zandt (Little Steven of Bruce Springsteen&#8217;s E Street Band) and performed by a group of musicians under the name Artists United Against Apartheid. The song declared the musicians&#8217; intent to avoid performing at South Africa&#8217;s Sun City resort, which was then located in an &#8220;independent state&#8221; that the apartheid government created for a forcible relocation of blacks. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/lists\/100-best-albums-of-the-eighties-20110418\/artists-united-against-apartheid-sun-city-20110330\" target=\"_blank\">Rolling Stone has called the song<\/a> &#8220;one of the most fervent and forceful political statements to emerge from Eighties pop music.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aopKk56jM-I\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m still blown away by the eclectic group of musicians who participated on the songs. A partial list includes: Springsteen, Miles Davis, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Bob Dylan, Pat Benatar, Herbie Hancock, Ringo Starr, Lou Reed, Run\u2013D.M.C., Peter Gabriel, Bob Geldof and Bono (can&#8217;t keep those guys away from an &#8217;80s cause song!), Afrika Bambaataa, Kurtis Blow, The Fat Boys, Jackson Browne, George Clinton, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, Bonnie Raitt, Hall &#038; Oates, Stiv Bators of the Dead Boys, Gil-Scott Heron, Nona Hendryx, and Joey Ramone. Incredible! You&#8217;ve got a Beatle, two Stones, a jazz giant, a folk hero, many of hip-hop&#8217;s legendary innovators, punks, a blues queen, the hottest female pop star (Pat!), and &#8230; well, I don&#8217;t know how to describe Hall &#038; Oates.<\/p>\n<p>Mandela inspired numerous other songs &#8212; you can hear some of those on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/mixed-media\/2013\/06\/9-songs-nelson-mandela\" target=\"_blank\">Mother Jones<\/a> &#8212; but these two had the most profound effect on me. Great music for a great man. <\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nelson Mandela &#8212; anti-apartheid activist, South Africa&#8217;s first black president and a worldwide icon &#8212; died yesterday at age 95. In July, on his 95th birthday, I reflected a recent trip to South Africa in a post inspired by my rediscovery of a giant anti-apartheid Keith Haring poster from the mid-1980s. The anti-apartheid college campus&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2013\/12\/music-for-nelson-mandela-1918-2013\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42,47],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"category-obits","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23340"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23346,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23340\/revisions\/23346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}