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Songs about Radio on Capital Radio 604

On the 26th December 1979 Capital Radio began its official broadcasts from Port St Johns on the South African Wild Coast. The station made use of the apartheid government’s separate homeland policy to broadcast independent music playlists and news from the supposedly independent homeland of Transkei. This mixtape remembers Capital Radio with a selection of songs about radio which either charted or were playlisted on Capital Radio.

Despite Buggles claiming that video had killed the radio star, Capital revitalised the South African airwaves, not only with their much wider range of musical choice but also with their liberal news broadcasts. In both instances listeners got to hear things they wouldn’t hear on the apartheid government’s South African Broadcasting Corporation stations. Indeed, the Selector’s reference to ‘the same old show on the radio’, seemed to apply to the tired and conservative sounds of SABC’s Radio 5, rather than being applicable to Capital, who played reggae, ska, funk and other musical styles not heard on Radio 5 in 1980.

A few South African bands feature on this mixtape. Clout appear with a cover of Daryl Hall and John Oates’ “Portable Radio”, and Bite’s “Loud Radio” was the only featured song that did not chart on the Capital Top 40 Countdown, although it was playlisted in mid-1981. Nighthawk was a studio group put together to record a jingle for Capital Radio, with the words “The soundtrack of your life is playing on 604”. They turned the jingle into a fully-fledged song, changing the chorus from ‘on 604’ to ‘never ask for more’. And the Radio Rats achieved the only Shifty Records Top 40 chart song on Capital, with “Turn On The Radio”.

The full list of songs and month of entry onto the Capital charts is as follows:

  1. Video Killed The Radio Star – Buggles (Jan 1980)
  2. Pilot Of The Airwaves – Charlie Dore (Jan 1980)
  3. On My Radio – The Selecter (Jan 1980)
  4. On The Radio – Donna Summer (Feb 1980)
  5. Portable Radio – Clout (Mar 1980)
  6. Loud Radio – Bite (playlisted May 1981)
  7. Oh Yeah – Roxy Music (Sep 1980)
  8. Love On The Airwaves – Night (Jan 1981)
  9. Wired For Sound – Cliff Richard (Sep 1981)
  10. Radio Gaga – Queen (Feb 1984)
  11. The Soundtrack Of Your Life – Nighthawk (May 1985)
  12. We Built This City – Starship (Nov 1985)
  13. Radio Africa – Latin Quarter (Mar 1986)
  14. Make Me Lose Control – Eric Carmen (July 1988)
  15. Every Rose Has Its Thorn – Poison (Dec 1988)
  16. Radio Romance – Tiffany (Jan 1989)
  17. Turn On The Radio – Radio Rats (Apr 1991)
  18. Radio Song – R.E.M. (Dec 1991)
  19. Heartbreak Radio – Roy Orbison (Nov 1992)
  20. Hello (Turn Your Radio On) – Shakespears Sister (Nov 1992)
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Death On The Road

The previous two mixtapes featured songs about roads and road trips respectively and in putting these together we got to thinking about how many South African musicians have died while travelling in their cars. Some of these accidents have taken place as the musicians have travelled to concerts while other accidents have been part of musicians’ day to day lives. In at least two instances – Gito Baloi and Lucky Dube – the deaths were the result of carjackings, while Tebego Madingoane was shot dead in a road rage incident following a car accident. Travelling anywhere in a motor vehicle in South Africa is more risky than in most parts of the world. And given the vast distances between South Africa’s major cities, the potential danger for South African musicians travelling to and from performances adds to the many sacrifices which they make in order to ply their trade. This mixtape is dedicated to all South African musicians in an acknowledgement of the many hours, days, weeks and months they end up spending on our roads, and in memory of those who have died on these roads.

Below is a list of musicians who have died on South African roads. The list is not definitive because – unfortunately – there are other South African musicians who have undoubtedly died in car accidents. If there are any names missing please let us know and we can add their details to the list, in remembrance. And if you know any or all of the names of the members of Sankomota who were killed in a car accident in April 1996 please get in touch with us. Finally, if any of the details listed are incorrect also please do get in touch with the correct information.

We have tried to include a song which features the musician(s) in question, and where possible, include a song which that musician wrote. In the case of Roger Cumming we could not locate a Silver Creek Mountain Band recording of a song on which we were sure he performed, and so we included a very fitting tribute to the Silver Creek Mountain Band by Bill Malkin, which includes a reference to Roger Cumming.

We thank Jonathan Handley of the Radio Rats for drawing and designing a special cover for this mixtape.

In remembrance:

  1. Don Christie of Dickie Loader and the Blue Jeans 1965
  2. Roger Cumming of the Silver Creak Mountain Band 1977
  3. Tuza Mthetwa and Pompie Sofibo of the Soul Brothers 1979
  4. Tony Hunter of the Uptown Rhythm Dogs 1980 (check when died?)
  5. Koos Du Plessis 15 January 1984
  6. Zakes Mchunu of the Soul Brothers 1984
  7. Adam Reinecke of Winston’s Jive Mix Up 17 December 1989
  8. Penny Power of Peach 24 April 1994
  9. Kevin Van Staden of Celtic Rumours 26 December 1994
  10. James Phillips 31 July 1995
  11. Four members of Sankomota 12 April 1996
  12. West Nkosi August 1998
  13. Johnny Mair of Sweatband 11 November 2002
  14. Bles Bridges 24 March 2000
  15. Gito Baloi 4 April 2004
  16. Tebego Madingoane of Mafikizolo 14 February 2004 (shot dead in a road rage
  17. incident following car accident)
  18. Lebo Mathosa of Boom Shaka Shaka 23 October 2006
  19. Lucky Dube 18 October 2007
  20. Tulsa Pittaway of Watershed (and Evolver One and Brotherly) 21 May 2017
  21. Jacques de Coning solo Afrikaans singer 9 June 2019
  22. Jethro Butow of Morocko and …. 19 January 2020
  23. Emmanuel “Mjokes” Matsane of Trompies 22 May 2021
  24. Sakhile Hlatshwayo (Killer Kau) 8 August 2021
  25. Mpura 8 August 2021 (Same accident as above)
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South African Road Songs

For many people music and road trips are synchronous. Hardly ever is a road trip portrayed in a film without accompanying music as a soundtrack to the road stretching out ahead into the unfolding landscape. Music creates travel moods which cannot be captured in any other way. It can make one want to go on a road trip or perhaps it’s the other way round: road trips require music. Certainly, for many music lovers a road trip is cause for long deliberations over what music to pack in the cubby hole or add to a digital playlist. In the days when cassette players were regular features in cars, some of us spent ages putting together mixtapes, searching for that perfect road trip soundtrack. We knew to be careful to avoid songs with lots of ultra-quiet segments which were easily drowned out by the hum of the engine, or with volume swings that would necessitate continual groping for the volume control. One could become an expert in the road trip mixtape.

Clearly, car trip mixtapes can include music about anything and which capture any mood. But for this South African road trip mixtape we have chosen twenty songs by South African musicians which specifically refer to road trips in one form or another. From Bright Blue’s reference to “Taking a trip on a freeway, trying my best to escape” to All Night Radio’s song about driving at dusk, “with my windows open wide, lights are getting brighter as the sun is going down. There’s two more hours until I stop.”

Perhaps the song which most captures the spirit of road trips on this mixtape is “Lifetime On The Road” by Josie Field and Laurie Levine. These two singer songwriters formed a duo and promoted their debut and subsequent album by embarking on several road trip tours, travelling from town to town, day after day. The song captures the freedom of the road: “Rolled down the window, turned on the radio”, but at the same it expresses the drudgery of too much time on the road, travelling from gig to gig: “Left a town I barely know … so many places I’ll never call my own. A lifetime on the road.”

The tv show Going Nowhere Slowly romanticised the South African road trip, as the presenters journeyed from place to place, travelling down tar roads and gravel tracks, often to the accompaniment of music. It is therefore fitting that two songs from that programme are featured here: Liesl Graham’s “All Roads” and Seven Day Story’s “Going Nowhere Slowly” both of which capture the feeling of travelling on the road, music in our ears.

Many of the songs featured here use travel and the road as metaphors for aspects of our journey through life. Juluka often sang in metaphors and in this instance Johnny Clegg sings, “Spirit is the journey, body is the bus, I am the driver from dust to dust … Across this distance, this divide, I will be with you forever.” In “The Road Is Much Longer” Roger Lucey also uses metaphors to express his desire to cross the distance between himself and a loved one, although in this instance he is on the side of the road, trying to thumb a ride: “And now the night’s fallen and I’m nearer to home. And I hear you calling are you feeling alone? Well it’s up and down highways always returning.” The Gereformeerde Blues Band and Big Sky also sing about hitchhiking along the road while the unfortunate character in David Kramer’s “Matchbox Full of Diamonds” has to settle for walking along the road for hours, “under a sky that never cries”, yet he is nevertheless “happy as a hotel in the springtime, when the flowers bloom again.”

Also featured on this mixtape are Jack Hammer’s “Stay At The Wheel”, “Automobile” by the Blues Broers, Baxtop’s “Golden Highway”, Falling Mirror’s “Highway Blues”, “Rearview Mirror Blues” by the Radio Rats, McCully Workshop’s “Fast Car”, “Seat By The Window” by John Kongos, “Kelly’s Song” by Bobby Angel, Johnny Clegg’s “Ride In Your Car” and “Padkos” by Tony Cox, which is his acknowledgment of that very South African road trip tradition: of packing or stopping to buy food for the road.

If you can’t listen to this mixtape in your car we hope you can at least grab some padkos, sit back, imagine the road ahead of you and escape into the music.

  1. Window On The World – Bright Blue
  2. Hopetown 1975 (Stolen Gasoline) – All Night Radio
  3. Stay At The Wheel – Jack Hammer
  4. Ry – Gereformeerde Blues Band
  5. Hitch-Hike – Big Sky
  6. Automobile – Blues Broers
  7. Golden Highway – Baxtop
  8. Highway Blues – Falling Mirror
  9. Rearview Mirror Blues – Radio Rats
  10. Fast Car – Mccully Workshop
  11. Seat By The Window – John Kongos
  12. Spirit Is The Journey – Juluka
  13. Padkos – Tony Cox
  14. Life Time On The Road – Josie Field & Laurie Levine
  15. Kelly’s Song – Bobby Angel
  16. The Road Is Much Longer – Roger Lucey
  17. Ride In Your Car – Johnny Clegg
  18. All Roads – Liesl Graham
  19. Matchbox Full Of Diamonds – David Kramer
  20. Going Nowhere Slowly – One Day Remains
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Songs About South Africa

Our theme of South African places continues. This mixtape features songs about South African towns and cities performed by foreign musicians. As expected, during the apartheid era there were many songs which linked South African places to apartheid human rights violations. This mixtape begins with those before ending with a series of songs released in the post-1994 era.

In most of the apartheid era songs the name of a specific urban area is used to represent apartheid South Africa more generally, with the exception of Mari Pavone’s “Sharpeville” which is a mournful tribute to people slain by the apartheid police at the Sharpeville massacre. Some of these songs used lyrics to draw attention to apartheid atrocities and supported the struggle against the unjust system including songs by Gil Scott Heron, the Anti-Nowhere League, Love Like Blood, Little Steven, Sonny Okosun, Jeffrey Osborne and Pierre Akendengue. While in “Tears For Johannesburg” by Max Roach, Abey Lincoln’s sorrowful vocals draw attention to the pain caused by apartheid atrocities.

Malcolm McLaren’s “Soweto” and Harry Belafonte’s “Paradise in Gazankulu” do not focus on apartheid injustices but “Soweto” itself was an injustice, with McLaren plundering the music of the Boyoyo Boys for his own gain. Nevertheless, the song drew the attention of many listeners to Soweto and to South African music.

The end of the apartheid era brought with it a new musical attitude towards South Africa, where places can be celebrated for their way of life and sense of space rather than for the injustices they represent (even if injustices do continue). The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger sing about missing a flight to Johannesburg while Clubfeet sing “Let’s fly to Cape Town, baby” as both cities become part of the international leisure globetrotting circuit.

Instrumental pieces by Herman Benjamin, Plaid, Soothsayers, Lawson Rollins, Brink Man Ship and Werken capture post-apartheid South African spaces through music. They can take you on a journey without specifying what that journey entails. Although Werken’s “Port Elizabeth” doesn’t sound like you will necessarily enjoy your stay …

  1. Johannesburg – Gil Scott Heron
  2. Johannesburg – Anti-Nowhere Road
  3. Johannesburg – Love Like Blood
  4. Johannesburg Blues – Les Baxter
  5. Tears For Johannesburg – Max Roach
  6. Sharpeville – Mario Pavone
  7. Pretoria – Little Steven
  8. Fire In Soweto – Sonny Okosun
  9. Soweto – Jeffrey Osborne
  10. Espoir A Soweto – Pierre Akendengue
  11. Soweto – Malcolm Mclaren
  12. Paradise In Gazankulu – Harry Belafonte
  13. Johannesburg – The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger
  14. Durban Poison – Herman Benjamin
  15. Durban Pain – Plaid
  16. Umtata – Soothsayers
  17. Cape Town – Clubfeet
  18. Cape Town Sky – Lawson Rollins
  19. Gugulethu – Brink Man Ship
  20. Port Elizabeth – Werken
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Songs About South African Streets

Music has the ability to capture the spirit of a place. This is a theme we have been exploring in the past few mixtapes about music and place names in South Africa. This mixtape continues that theme, but takes us right down to street level. Musicians have regularly been inspired to compose songs about the street they live or work in, a road they drive along, or to commemorate someone a street is named after.

Simphiwe Dana begins this mixtape with such a song: an ode to Steve Biko and the black consciousness ideas he encouraged. Biko said that, “A people without a positive history are like a vehicle without an engine.” And Dana seems to suggest that when black South Africans find that engine, they drive down Bantu Biko Street, celebrating their pride and dignity.

Also exploring principles through the metaphor of street names, in “Ambush Street” the Kalahari Surfers comment on South Africans being ambushed by corruption, some trying to beat the Jo’burg heat, discreetly breaking the law in Ambush Street. The woman in Jennifer Ferguson’s “In Judith Road” also breaks the law, doing what she needs to get by: “She feeds the fat boys ginger biscuits and masturbates the rest”.

The singer in Beatenberg’s “M3” thinks about how the freeway he drives along connects him to the person he sings to in the song, following the road wherever it takes him. Also in Cape Town, Bright Blue’s “2nd Avenue” is where the singer stops to make a bane, on the way to the station to catch a train.

Many of the songs on this mixtape capture the feel of streets solely through music, not using lyrics at all. From the upbeat vibe of the Boyoyo’s song about Eloff Street in the Jo’burg city centre to the mellow rural folksiness of Nibs van der Spuy & Guy Buttery’s Lobombo Mountain Drive in KwaZulu-Natal.

So many moments and places are aptly captured in songs, allowing us to remember or perhaps just to imagine …Wherever these songs take you, we hope you enjoy the journey!

  1. Bantu Biko Street – Simphiwe Dana
  2. New Street – Dave Goldblum
  3. M3 – Beatenberg
  4. Nuttall Street – Basil Coetzee
  5. Hanover Straat – Anton Goosen
  6. 2nd Avenue – Bright Blue
  7. Eloff Street No 2 – Boyoyo Boys
  8. 10th Avenue – African Jazz Pioneers
  9. WD 46 Mendi Road – Dick Khoza
  10. In Judith Road – Jennifer Ferguson
  11. Down Rockey Street – Moses Molelekwa
  12. Ntuli Street – Bheki Mseleku
  13. London Drive – Jo’burg City Stars
  14. Freeway to Soweto – David Thekwane & the Boyoyo Boys
  15. Ambush Street – Kalahari Surfers
  16. Armitage Road – The Heshoo Beshoo Group
  17. N3 East – Nishlyn Ramanna
  18. Lobombo Mountain Drive – Nibs van der Spuy & Guy Buttery
  19. 9 Aldershot Road – Government Car
  20. Mampuru Street – Sakhile
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South African Songs About Political Places

Music has the ability to capture moments and sentiments. On occasion it reminds us of places and also of events which transpired in those places. This mixtape includes a selection of musical pieces written about political events which unfolded in specific places in South Africa. Some of these focus on particular events such as the Rivonia Treason Trial, the Mdantsane bus strike, and the Marikana Massacre, while the majority reflect in one way or another on that especially heartless apartheid practice of forced removals: moving people against their will from the place they called home to a different, hostile, and unfriendly place: away from one’s community, away from all the familiar associations of home. Because forced removals were so painful it is no surprise that there are so many compositions about places from which people were forced to move by the apartheid state. Sophiatown, Cato Manor, Crossroads, and District Six are covered in this mixtape . People lost their homes and their communities but held onto their memories … and the songs remain.

One of the songs included here captures the mood of most, if not all, the pieces featured on this mixtape. In Mdantsane in July 1983, in response to severe price increases, a boycott was called, of buses partly owned by the Ciskei government. The apartheid Ciskei security forces, supported by vigilantes, attempted to force people to use the buses, resulting in bloody assaults, injuries and death. Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu wrote the song “Mdantsane” about the bus boycott. They asked, “Why don’t you sing about the African moon; Why don’t you sing about the leaves and the dreams; Why don’t you sing about the rain and the birds?” And they answered, “’Cause mister I’ve seen mud coloured dusty blood; Bare feet on a burning bus; Broken teeth and a rifle butt; On the road to Mdantsane.”

All the musicians on this mixtape similarly chose to document government and employer atrocities rather than to only sing about the leaves and the dreams.

Mzwakhe Mbuli contemplated the apartheid legislative capital, Pitoli, Dolly Rathebe & the Elite Swingsters commemorated the accused at the Rivonia treason trial, and Lesego Rampolokeng and the Kalahari Surfers reflected on the Sebokeng siege. The Junction Avenue Theatre Company (who performed the musical Sophiatown), the African Jazz Pioneers, and Miriam Makeba & the Skylarks all lament the forced removals from and bulldozing of Kofifi/Sophiatown, while Nancy Jacobs & her Sisters sang about people’s reluctance to be moved from Sophiatown to Meadowlands, established by the apartheid state as an alternative township to Sophiatown. In a song named after Soweto, Barry Gilder sings of the struggle to live and work in South Africa, in a society where people were expected to travel vast distances under the migrant labour system, yet whose lives were not valued by business owners and the government. Stimela’s “Soweto save the children” alerted listeners to the detrimental effects apartheid was having on the children of Soweto.

The only song on this mixtape about a post-apartheid atrocity is Lilitha’s mournful “Marikana” about the Marikana Massacre. A reminder that the alliance between the government and capital continues to be problematic, even in a post-1994 government, and an even harsher reminder as to where exactly the state is prepared to draw a moral line.

Sipho Gumede & Pops Mohamed remembered Cato Manor in the Durban area and Juluka documented the violence surrounding the Mdantsane bus boycott. The mixtape ends with a series of songs related to the Western Cape. Winston Mankunku and Mike Perry, Sakhile, Syd Kitchen, and Roger Lucey all contributed songs about the apartheid state’s attack on the residents of Crossroads, targeted for forced removal. “Mooi River Textiles” is a song by workers at that factory, recorded and documented by Shifty Records. Finally Cyril Valentine (with a song from the District Six musical), Hugh Masekela (featuring Corlea) and Abdullah Ibrahim, remember District Six, another area which the apartheid state decided to bulldoze into oblivion and forcibly remove all its inhabitants because they decided to rezone it as a white area.

Sometimes the songs on this mixtape are a mournful and painful reminder of places, and sometimes they recall spirited community togetherness. They often remind us of defiance – that people resisted and continue to resist oppressive laws, policies and actions. Crucially, they are documents of the events that occurred and of the places where they took place. As long as this music plays we cannot be allowed to forget.

  1. Pitoli – Mzwakhe Mbuli
  2. Rivonia – Dolly Rathebe & The Elite Swingsters
  3. Sebokeng Siege – Lesego & Kalahari Surfers
  4. Kofifi Sophia – Junction Avenue Theatre Company
  5. Kofifi – African Jazz Pioneers
  6. Sophiatown Is Gone – Miriam Makeba & The Skylarks
  7. Meadowlands – Nancy Jacobs & Her Sisters
  8. Soweto Song – Barry Gilder
  9. Soweto Save The Children – Stimela
  10. Marikana – Lilitha
  11. Remember Cato Manor – Sipho Gumede & Pops Mohamed
  12. Mdantsane – Juluka
  13. Crossroads Crossroads – Winston Mankunku & Mike Perry
  14. Crossroads – Sakhile
  15. Crossroads – Syd Kitchen
  16. Crossroads – Roger Lucey
  17. Mooi River Textiles – Fosatu Worker Choirs
  18. Heart Of District Six – Cyril Valentine
  19. District Six – Hugh Masekela & Corlea
  20. District Six – Abdullah Ibrahim
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Songs About South African Places

To mark Heritage Day we have chosen a playlist of songs by South African musicians about South African places. Something homely to cuddle up with, or if you’re feeling active, to jive to. There are far more songs about South African places than we can fit on one mixtape, but we hope this is a good representation of songs and places. It’s a starting point: there will be more to come in this series where music and places meet.

There are all sorts of reasons someone could write and perform a song about a place. Often it is out of fondness, sometimes out of loathing or frustration, or simply because it is where one happens to be when a moment of song-writing inspiration hits. And at times it could be ironic, out of both loathing and attraction, where one isn’t entirely sure which it is.

The twenty songs on this mixtape begin in Cape Town, with Sabenza’s “CT Blues” and then Dollar Brand’s iconic “Mannenberg”, both of which feature Basil Coetzee. We end our stay in the Western Cape with Hotep Idris Galeta’s “Cape Town Before Midnight” before travelling north east along the coast to “Ebhayi”, as celebrated by Ami Faku. Then it is to the KwaZulu-Natal coast for Trans.Sky’s song about “Durban Poison” and Urban Creep’s “Sea Level”, both of those songs feature Brendan Jury and both are somewhat ambivalent about Durban, as many residents are. In 1977 Rabbitt were asked to write the theme tune for a new tv programme – The Dingleys – about a bookshop in Pietermaritzburg. Although the shop is fictional, Rabbitt nevertheless captured various aspects of Pietermaritzburg which remind us of the city at that time.

Next we move up to the Gauteng region for the remainder of the mixtape, starting with the Radio Rats’ celebration of Springs in “East Rand Town Called Springs” and then onto a series of Soweto-themed songs: “Orlando” by Miriam Makeba & the Skylarks, “Soweto Inn” by the Movers, Sipho Mabuse’s “Jive Soweto” and Tribe After Tribe’s “Suburb In The South”. Just a short drive from Soweto is the southern suburb of Rosettenville to which Van der Want/Letcher pay homage in the satirical “Rosettenville Blues”. The Julian Laxton Band contribute the offbeat “Johannesburg” and the Gereformeerde Blues Band pay tribute to Hillbrow with a classic Voëlvry song of that name. Then on to “Living In Yeoville” by the Aeroplanes, a song which will tweak on the heartstrings of lefties who lived in Yeoville in the 1980s and 1990s.

Lesego Rampolokeng & the Kalahari Surfers bring us back down to earth with “Johannesburg”, a city where dreams come to die. We move north east with Moses Molelekwa’s “Spirit Of Tembisa” and further north east again with Vusi Mahlasela’s tribute to Mamelodi, “Hello Mams”. James Phillips as Bernoldus Niemand ends things with his ironic tribute to Pretoria (as it was then), “Snor City”, about the growth of hair above the lip of every white man who passed him by on the street. As he lamented, the longer he waited, the more his hope diminishes.

Thanks to South African musicians for writing and performing songs that have become the soundtrack of our lives, and for those moments, celebrated on this mixtape, when creativity captures this place we come from.

  1. CT Blues – Sabenza
  2. Mannenberg – Dollar Brand
  3. Cape Town After Midnight – Hotep Idris Galeta
  4. Ebhayi – Ami Faku
  5. Durban Poison – Trans.Sky
  6. Sea Level – Urban Creep
  7. Dingley’s Bookshop – Rabbitt
  8. East Rand Town Called Springs – Radio Rats
  9. Orlando – Miriam Makeba & the Skylarks
  10. Soweto Inn – The Movers
  11. Jive Soweto – Sipho Mabuse
  12. Suburb in the South – Tribe After Tribe
  13. Rosettenville blues – Van der Want/Letcher
  14. Johannesburg – Julian Laxton Band
  15. Hillbrow – Gereformeerde Blues Band
  16. Living in Yeoville – The Aeroplanes
  17. Johannesburg – Lesego Rampolokeng & the Kalahari Surfers
  18. Spirit of Tembisa – Moses Molelekwa
  19. Hello Mams – Vusi Mahlasela
  20. Snor City – Bernoldus Niemand
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Censorship – Capital Played What SABC Would Not!

The first mixtape in our censorship series featured songs which Capital Radio played but which were banned from airplay on the SABC. We end our censorship series with a sequel to that first mixtape: focusing on 20 more songs which charted or were playlisted on Capital but which were ‘avoided’ by the SABC.

Back in September 1980, Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” was playlisted on Capital Radio. It is not clear whether or not the SABC censors realized the drug reference in the song, or even if they checked the lyrics at all, because the entire album was banned by the apartheid government’s Directorate of Publications. And so the SABC shelved the whole bang shoot, including “Comfortably Numb”.

“Tyler” by UB40 reached number one on Capital Radio on the 20th of June 1981, and stayed there for one week. As far as the SABC censors were concerned, UB40 were guilty of recording a politically provocative song. The song was about the racially-biased trial of 17 year old Gary Tyler who was convicted of murder by an all-white jury in Louisiana, despite several irregularities in the prosecution’s evidence and the lack of a murder weapon. The chorus lamented, “Tyler is guilty, the white judge has said so; What right do we have to say it’s not so.” The censors believed that the song was too similar to the apartheid context to be spun on South African radio. And so it wasn’t.

“Ghost Town” by the Specials spent two weeks at number one on the Capital Countdown on the 19th and 26th of September 1981. It reflected the dire situation in inner cities in England, including urban decay, unemployment, and violence. Its release coincided with the riots in places like Brixton and so became a soundtrack to the riots. Lines like “Government leaving the youth on the shelf”, “No job to be found in this country, can’t go on” and “The people getting angry” also spoke to the South African situation. Out of fear the SABC censors decided not to play it.

“Reggae Man” by John Miles peaked at number 22 on the Capital Top 40 on the 2nd of January 1982. Despite John Miles claiming “the reggae man good for you”, the SABC censors banned the song from airplay because it mentioned marijuana use, especially because the reggae man was “growing weed” and could “take you so high”.

“Golden Brown” by the Stranglers spent one week at number one on the Capital Countdown on the 24th of April 1982. Many listeners regarded ‘golden brown’ as an ode to heroin, as did the SABC censors who consequently ‘avoided’ it. Perceptive listeners interpreted ‘golden brown’ as referring jointly to a woman and heroin, both of whom help the protagonist to escape into peaceful, distant places. Or perhaps the SABC censors DID realize that the song was about a white man singing about a black lover …

In late 1981, Epic released Dutch band Quick’s song “Zulu” in South Africa . It was playlisted on Capital Radio in May and June 1982 but banned from airplay on the SABC because the censors believed its contentious lyrics hinted at a Zulu uprising, even though the lyrics seem to be referring to a bygone colonial era: “Pick up that spear and fight; Now that the time is right; Zulu man; Sound of the burning flight; Run like the wind tonight; Zulu man.”

Third World’s “Try Jah Love” spent two weeks at number four on the Capital Countdown on the 19th and 26th of June 1982. The SABC censors viewed Rastafarianism as a false religion or cult, and being uptight conservative Christians they banned anything that promoted Rastafarianism, including songs with the word ‘Jah’ in them. So it was goodbye to “Try Jah Love”.

There was no doubt about the drug reference in Rita Marley’s “One Draw” which was playlisted on Capital in July 1982. Marley begins the song by singing “I wanna get high, so high, I wanna get high so high, I wanna get high, so high, I wanna get high, so high, one draw, one draw”. This also turned out to be the chorus, so the SABC prevented the song from getting anywhere near the South African airwaves.

Rita Marley’s late husband, Bob Marley, also got jilted by the SABC censors in 1982. His song “Natural Mystic” was playlisted on Capital in August 1982. The song warns of the approaching apocalypse as described in the book of Revelations, with reference to trumpets blowing and “a natural mystic blowing through the air”. While the song is quite vague it does have political undertones, especially to the paranoid ear. Marley refers to “Many more will have to suffer, many more will have to die” and “can’t keep them down”. The SABC censors must have feared that this could be interpreted as an overtly political song applicable to South Africa, so they banned it from airplay.

Pink Floyd’s “Not Now John” reached number 25 on the Capital Top 40 on the 18th of June 1983. It is a critique of western global politics and corporate greed. The SABC censors, primed as they were to detect swear words, would have had no need to go beyond the first two lines: “Fuck all that we’ve gotta get on with these; Fuck all that, Fuck all that”. Which pretty much summed up the SABC censors’ sentiments towards the possibility of airplay for the song.

“She’s Sexy (And 17)” by the Stray Cats peaked on Capital Radio at number 23 on the 29th of October 1983. The word ‘sexy’ no doubt raised the suspicions of the censors who went on to ‘avoid’ the song because of its rebellious tone and suggestions of promiscuity. This included mildly rebellious sentiments such as “I ain’t goin’ to school no more; It starts much, much too early for me; I don’t care about readin’, writin’, ’rithmatic or history” and slightly sexual allusions like, “Acts a little bit obscene; gotta let off a little bit of steam”. It would have been viewed as irresponsible to air such sentiments on public radio with a large school-going audience. So it was avoided.

Despite spending two weeks at number one on Capital on the 28th of April and 5th of May 1984, “Relax” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood was barred from airplay on SABC. The song was far too sexually overt for the narrow-minded censors to accept: “Relax don’t do it, when you want to come; Relax don’t do it, When you want to suck it, chew it” and then later in the song: “Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow uh, I’m coming, I’m coming yeah.” Well, Frankie my dear, not on the SABC.

Bright Blue’s “Window On The World” peaked at number 11 on the Capital Countdown on the 10th of November 1984. Given that the SABC was an ideological wing of the apartheid state it is not surprising that they objected to the song. It commented on the disquiet which many white South African males felt about being conscripted into a war they did not want to fight. While the rhythm is upbeat and even jovial, the lyrics lament the situation of “The young men marching everywhere, trying their best to escape” and “The young men marching everywhere, not sure how to cope.” Capital had the perceptive foresight to air the song.

“Steel Claw” by Dave Edmunds was playlisted on Capital in early 1985. While being a fairly cryptic song the SABC nevertheless objected to the political lines, “The politicians have forgotten this place”, and “So many people hanging onto the edge; Crying out for revolution, retribution.”

Don Henley’s “All She Wants To Do Is Dance” peaked at number 25 on the Capital Top 40 on the 27th of July 1985. The song is generally viewed as a critique of Reagan-era USA intervention in Central and South America. The woman in the song is seemingly oblivious to all the military shenanigans going on around her because “all she wants to do is dance”. The song includes lines like “Rebels been rebels since I don’t know when; But all she wants to is dance” and “Molotov cocktail – the local drink; When all she wants to do is dance”. For the SABC censors these references to war resembled the guerrilla warfare South Africa was involved in. They thus decided it was safest to ban the song from airplay.

Night Ranger’s “Sentimental Street” peaked at number 23 on the Capital Countdown on the 28th of September 1985. It is not immediately apparent why this song was ‘avoided’ by the SABC censors. It is about a person watching someone else walking down a street called Sentimental Avenue, and reflecting on their life. Perhaps the censors thought the line “Did you get your fill? Did you think you had to pay?” referred to prostitution. But it seems a flimsy reason to censor a song.

“Your Latest Trick” by Dire Straits peaked at number seven on the 14th of June 1986. The protagonist in the song describes the down town scene in a city: “And most of the taxis, most of the whores; Are only taking calls for cash”. That, together with reference to the prostitute’s “latest trick”, was enough for the SABC censors to ‘avoid’ the song.

Tone Loc’s “Wild Thing” went to number one on the Capital Countdown on the 3rd of June 1989, where it spent one week. The ‘wild thing’ referred to by Tone Loc was inconsequential sex for fun. The song describes various scenarios where this happened to the central character. In one scenario, for example, he describes how he “Couldn’t get her off my jock, she was like static cling; But that’s what happens when bodies start slappin’ from doin’ the wild thing.” The SABC censors promptly slapped the song with an airplay banning order.

In “Together As One” Lucky Dube asked the question, “Too many people hate apartheid, why do you like it?” The SABC censors’ answer was to ban the song from airplay. However, on Capital it reached number two, where it spent two weeks, on the 3rd and 10th of June 1989.

If anything, Salt N Pepa’s “Let’s Talk About Sex” is a positive song about the importance of sex education. It charted on Capital in late 1991, reaching number 6 on the 7th of December 1991 (we’re not sure if it moved further up the chart because we are missing some charts). In the song they sing, “Now we talk about sex on the radio and video shows; Many will know, anything goes; Let’s tell it like it is; How it was, and of course, how it should be; Those who think it’s dirty have a choice; Pick up the needle, press pause, or turn the radio off.” Talk about inviting the censors to the party! They needed no second bidding and couldn’t get to the record player quick enough … and picked up the needle for the entire nation.

Fortunately Capital Radio didn’t waste money and time on censorship committees and sticky pieces of paper with ‘avoid’ written on them. Capital listeners got to hear a wider array of music both musically and lyrically, often not even realizing that the SABC wasn’t playing some of their favourite songs. They were encouraged to be more open-minded and free. Which is exactly what the apartheid censors were trying to repress. This mixtape goes out to Capital Radio, for being there when South Africans needed you most!

  1. Window On The World – Bright Blue
  2. Not Now John – Pink Floyd
  3. Relax – Frankie Goes To Hollywood
  4. Let’s Talk About Sex – Salt N Pepa
  5. All She Wants To Do Is Dance – Don Henley
  6. Steel Claw – Dave Edmunds
  7. She’s Sexy (And 17) – Stray Cats
  8. Sentimental Street – Night Ranger
  9. Your Latest Trick – Dire Straits
  10. Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd
  11. Golden Brown – The Stranglers
  12. Ghost Town – The Specials
  13. Tyler – UB40
  14. Reggae Man – John Miles
  15. Natural Mystic – Bob Marley
  16. One Draw – Rita Marley
  17. Together As One – Lucky Dube
  18. Try Jah Love – Third World
  19. Zulu – The Quick
  20. Wild Thing – Tone Loc
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Censorship – To Get Played On The SABC, Watch What You Say

So far the censorship series has explored how the apartheid state’s Directorate of Publications and South African Broadcasting Corporation censored music in South Africa. This mixtape considers how state censorship in turn placed pressure on record companies and artists to regulate music in the form of self-censorship.

Immense pressure was placed on record companies to ensure that albums weren’t controversial. Failure to do so was likely to result in music either being banned outright by the Directorate and/or not receiving airplay on the SABC and independent radio stations. The buying public would be unlikely to hear the music, almost definitely resulting in financial loss for the record companies. As a consequence of the maze of formal censorship to be negotiated, record companies (especially the majors) were cautious about what they would record and, in turn, placed pressure on musicians to tone down their lyrics if they wanted their music recorded and released.

All the examples on this mixtape are of self-censorship in advance of government or SABC intervention. So we won’t be including instances such as songs left off an album after the album was banned by the Directorate of Publications in a censored re-release of the album, such as happened with Peter Tosh’s Equal Rights album after it was banned because of the song “Apartheid”. CBS then re-released the album without the banned track.

This mixtape begins with a bizarre example of self-censorship, where the South African distributor, Atlantic Recording Corporation, decided that the line “fuck a star” from the Rolling Stones’ chorus for “Star Star” (itself a censored title on the original UK release) could likely lead the album to be banned by the Directorate of Publications. As a compromise they decided to obscure the word ‘fuck’ by adding a drumbeat every time ‘fuck’ was uttered. The result was bizarre , as you can hear. Likewise, when the record company wanted to release Don Gibson’s Sensual Woman album they were concerned that the Directorate of Publications would ban the album because of the word ‘sensual’ (this was the early 1970s after all). They got Gibson to re-record the title track replacing ‘sensual woman’ with ‘beautiful woman’ and they also changed the album title accordingly.

In the case of Roger Lucey’s debut album, The Road is Much Longer, 3rd Ear Music received legal advice to the effect that, in terms of security legislation, some of the statements on the album could lead to long-term prison sentences and/or heavy fines for both Roger Lucey and Dave Marks of 3rd Ear Music. As a result two versions of the album were released. One of two omissions on the commercial release of the album was a verse of “You Only Need Say Nothing”:

There’s teargas at the funeral
Of a boy gunned down by cops
They say there’s too many mourners
And this is where it stops
Then they bring on the boots and the batons
And the blood runs fear and cold
And the moral of the story
Is to do what you are told

In several instances a song was simply omitted from an album in order to avoid possible censorship. In the mid-1960s Louis Armstrong’s “You are woman, I am man” was left off the South African release of his Hello Dolly album, presumably because of the line “You are woman, I am man. Let’s kiss”. For good measure, the first South African pressing also removed Louis Armstrong’s photograph from the album cover, presumably to hide the fact that he was black. This would have been more for sales than censorship reasons, London Records being afraid that (musically ignorant) racist whites would not buy the album if they knew the singer was black.

Jose Feliciano begins his 1969 Alive O album, with a short guitar rendition of “God Save the Queen” which was omitted from the South African release. Teal Record Company was clearly concerned that the British national anthem would irk the South African authorities, just years after the country’s departure from the British Commonwealth. In the 1980s EMI omitted “Burden of Shame” from UB40’s Signing Off album. The song criticized Britain’s supportive role of the apartheid government. In further examples, the songs “Tribute to Steve Biko” by Tapper Zukie and “South African Enlistment” by the Abyssinians were left off the South African releases of the Frontline II and Frontline III reggae compilations respectively. Both song expressed anti-apartheid attitudes. And “Mandela” was one of two songs which Mountain Records omitted from Aaron Davis’ Neon Bible album.

Anticipating problems at the SABC over Mi-Sex’s name, CBS released the group’s “Computer Games” single under the name ‘M.S.’ However, given that the Directorate was unlikely to ban an album on the basis of Mi-Sex’s name, the album Graffiti Crimes was released under the band’s full name. Culture Club’s “The Church of the Poison Mind” was released as a single entitled “Poison Mind” out of concern that the SABC censors would view the original title as blasphemous. When Santana’s Freedom album was released in South Africa the instrumental song “Mandela” was changed to “Mandel” to avoid using the name of South Africa’s most famous political prisoner.

Several South African musicians experienced record company pressure to censor their albums. For example, Neil Solomon, whose debut album The Occupant was released by WEA, changed the song “Strangler” to “Stranger” to improve the song’s chances of radio play. Juluka recorded their first album, Universal Men, in 1979, a few months before Zimbabwe’s independence. When recording the song “Sky People”, the line “The drums of Zimbabwe speak” was changed it to ‘The drums of Zambezi speak’ for fear that the reference to changes in Zimbabwe rolling into South Africa was too overt.

Rabbitt recorded a cover version of Jethro Tull’s “Locomotive Breath” for airplay, and changed the line “got him by the balls” to “got him by the horns”. Another Jo’burg Records band, the Radio Rats, were persuaded to change their song “Fucking About in the Dungeons All Day” to “Mucking About in the Dungeons All Day” in order to avoid censorship. Freedom’s Children were persuaded to change the name of the song “The Kid He Came From Nazareth” to the absurd “The Kid He Came From Hazareth” because Parlophone feared censorial repercussions for blasphemous reasons.

Some musicians avoided overt political references by writing symbolically about South African politics. One of the most famous examples was a play on wording by Chicco (Sello Twala) on his single “We miss you Manelow”, a slightly disguised reference to Nelson Mandela which was understood by many listeners.

Joseph Shabalala claimed to have written symbolic songs about the South African political situation. For example, Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s 1973 song “Nomathemba”, a song about a girl who Shabalala described as a symbol of hope. Shabalala said he was actually referring to South Africa though: that people should not lose hope and come together.
Equally cryptic was Steve Kekana’s song “The Bushman” about a hunter-gatherer who taught himself to shoot with a bow and arrow:

He lives under a tree
Hides himself and sleeps
His mind is tuned to be aware of danger
He never makes mistakes
Survival is his way
At nights he plays a song an a wooden kalimba
Wo ho the bushman
He fights like a man should do
He strives like a man should do…

These sentiments complied with apartheid notions of blacks as primitive and the song was played on SABC. However, Kekana explained that he wasn’t referring to a real “bushman” but rather to ANC guerrillas.

Nevertheless, the more cryptic the symbolism was, the less likely listeners were to realize there was anything resistant about the song at all, in which case, in terms of political sentiments, the song might as well have been left off the album altogether. The most troublesome aspect of formal censorship then, is the way censors’ actions begin to mess with artists’ creativity, so that they begin to police their own output. When this happens, censors have realized their ultimate goal.

  1. Star Star – Rolling Stones
  2. Mucking Around The Dungeons – Radio Rats
  3. Locomotive Breath – Rabbitt
  4. The Kid He Came From Hazareth – Freedom’s Children
  5. The Stranger – Neill Solomon 
  6. Sky People – Juluka 
  7. South African Enlistment – The Abyssinians 
  8. Tribute To Steve Biko – Taper Zukie
  9. Burden Of Shame – UB40
  10. The Bushman – Steve Kekana
  11. We Miss You Manelow – Chicco
  12. Church Of The Poison Mind – Culture Club
  13. Computer Games – Mi Sex
  14. Mandela – Santana
  15. Mandela – Aaron Davis
  16. You Are Woman, I Am Man – Louis Armstrong
  17. Nomathemba – Ladysmith Black Mambazo
  18. You Only Need Say Nothing – Roger Lucey
  19. Beautiful Woman – Don Gibson
  20. God Save The Queen – Jose Feliciano
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Censorship – World Politics Avoided On The SABC

A glance through the political songs banned from airplay by the SABC censors reveals how many broad political issues, which do not relate directly to South Africa, were nevertheless included on the ‘avoid’ lists. The censors, politically conservative and paranoid about anything controversial, tended to err on the side of political caution when deciding whether or not to grant airplay. This mixtape features a variety of such political songs, regarded as too contentious for the South African airwaves.

“Modern Times” is the title track off Latin Quarter’s debut album, with reference to Modern Times, the  satirical Charlie Chaplin film. The song is a critique of the effects of McCarthyism on Hollywood: “So get up! Go on! Grip that stand! And press your hand to your heart. Big Mac is asking the questions. And this is only the start…”. It is not clear whether or not the SABC censors realized what the song was about, but the beginning of the song – about protest not being allowed – would have been too political, regardless of the rest of the song.

“Black In America” by Jesse Johnson also focuses on politics in the USA, this time dealing with racial inequality, noting that “still we fight for the rights to be black and brown and set free”. For the SABC censors, the parallels with South Africa were too strong to ignore. The same can be said for “Wounded Knee” by Booker T and Priscilla and “White Fool” by Clannad. The former refers to the loss of nearly three hundred Lakota people and their land at the hands of the United States Army in the Wounded Knee Massacre of December 1890: “Bury my heart at Wounded Knee … and when you stole their land you stole their bones”. The latter song describes the experience of an unnamed tribe whose land has been stolen by imperialists: “Greed and lust, it stripped the earth bare; When the white fool came to a new land”.

The Flying Pickets were named after mobile strikers who travelled around the United Kingdom to join striking workers picketing at different workplaces. Their song, “Remember This”, is a protest against the countless Chilean citizens who disappeared and were killed by the military junta, leading the band to conclude “too many people have disappeared to doubt what has been done”. Perhaps in the minds of the censors the disappearance of political activists opposing the Chilean regime was too similar to what was happening to activists fighting the apartheid government, so the song was banned from airplay.

Any reference to revolutions was simply far too contentious for the censors to accommodate and so Tracy Chapman’s “Talkin’ ‘bout a revolution”, Culture’s “Revolution Time” and The Cult’s “Revolution” didn’t stand a chance of airplay. While the first two songs were overtly about political revolution it is not clear whether the Cult’s song is about political revolution at all, with lines like, “Joy or sorrow. What does revolution mean to you?” Meanwhile, Sam Cooke’s cover of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ In The wind” asked politically uncomfortable questions like “How many years can some people exist before they’re allowed to be free?”

Hotline’s “Freedom” was a call for personal freedom against everyday regulations (“We’ve got no bloody freedom”) and was also banned from airplay, for good measure. In Def Leppard’s “Run Riot”, listeners are encouraged to escape the boredom of following rules and urged to “break a rule or two” and ultimately to run riot. The message in “The Knife” by Genesis was that violent revolutions lead to the rise of dictators. It includes lines like “Stand up and fight for we know we are right” and “We are only wanting freedom”. Both songs were regarded as too politically contentious for the South African airwaves.

The Style Council’s “With Everything To Lose” is a general critique of Thatcher’s Tory government, especially providing a critique of the British racist class system and was met with disapproval by the SABC censors who took  exception to lines like “The shit goes to the blacks; a generation’s heart torn out”. Joe Jackson’s “Tango Atlantico” refers to the Falklands War, referencing the atrocities of the war: “Sorry Tommy. Lost a foot? Bloody land mines. No more soccer for you”. Once again, the parallels to the South African context were too similar to be ignored by the censors, who felt that any sort of anti-war message would potentially harm the apartheid war effort.

Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” is also an anti-war song, although on a generic level: the generals who organise wars are the ‘war pigs’ who declare wars and then hide away while poor people are dispensed with like pawns on the battle grounds. John Fogerty explores a similar theme in “Violence Is Golden”  but in this instance the protagonist is an arms dealer who sells arms to both sides of any war that’s happening. He doesn’t care about the issues but just wants to make money. The SABC censors were probably most irked by lines in which the arms for sale were listed, “Pass another plate of shrapnel; sprinkle it with TNT; Gotta have another grenade salad; split it with your enemy”.

Ironically “Union Man” by the Cate Brothers is sung from the point of view of a worker who is “working like a fool for my pay” and is told by the ‘union man’ that he has to go on strike, but he doesn’t want to, because he is worried about the bills he has to pay. Such was the paranoia of the SABC censors that they appeared to ban it from airplay simply because it referred to trade union activities, even though in South Africa trade unions were legal.

Similarly to Hotline’s “Freedom”, Depeche Mode’s “Black Celebration” was about personal issues, not political issues, but the SABC censors were afraid that the title might be misunderstood in South Africa, even though the lyrics clearly state: “Let’s have a black celebration, black celebration, tonight; To celebrate the fact, that we’ve seen the back, of another black day”.

Carte Blanche’s “Killer In The Crowd” is a fairly general and cryptic song about a policeman, a ‘killer in the crowd’, who is there to “stop the fighting”. Even though Carte Blanche tried to slip the song passed the censors by adapting the lyric sheet, changing “I’m just a policeman, a martyr in blue, to “I’m just a please man, a tomato in blue” the censors nevertheless objected to lines like “My hand is a pistol, my foot … a grenade”.

“Fight” by the Rolling Stones is a song about … well, fighting. It includes gory descriptions of what the protagonist plans to do to people: “There’s a hole where your nose used to be; Gonna kick you out my door” and “Gonna blow you to a million pieces; Blow you sky high, I don’t care”. While the sheer violence of the songs was enough for the SABC censors to ban it from airplay, the reference to someone being blown up in a bombing was also politically contentious.

Closer to home than all the other songs on this mixtape is Nana Coyote’s “Namibia 435”, an upbeat celebration of the United Nation’s Security Council Resolution 435 which called for the withdrawal of South African forces from Namibia in the build up to Namibian independence. Even though the South African government had agreed to the process and Namibia was to be granted independence, the censors seemingly objected to a song which celebrated the event.

Just as the apartheid regime could not stem the winds of change blowing across the African continent, the SABC censors ultimately could not prevent the liberation of the South African airwaves. The SABC wasted years of working hours and large sums of money trying to stop South Africans from hearing music which they deemed unacceptable, and then the entire charade ended. We can now listen to what we want to and broadcasters can play whatever they like, provided they observe broadcast regulations which outlaw songs promoting hate speech and which keep overtly offensive songs to watershed periods: between 21h00 and 05h00. And on the internet pretty much anything goes no matter what time it is. Enjoy!

  1. Modern Times – Latin Quarter
  2. Black In America – Jesse Johnson
  3. Talkin’ Bout A Revolution – Tracy Chapman
  4. Remember This – Flying Pickets
  5. Tango Atlantico – Joe Jackson
  6. With Everything To Lose – Style Council
  7. Union Man – Cate Brothers
  8. Blowin’ In The Wind – Sam Cooke
  9. Wounded Knee – Booker T & Priscilla Jones
  10. Violence Is Golden – John Fogerty
  11. Killer In The Crowd – Carte Blanche
  12. Black Celebration – Depeche Mode
  13. White Fool – Clannad 
  14. Revolution – The Cult
  15. Freedom – Hotline
  16. Fight – Rolling Stones
  17. Run Riot – Def Leppard
  18. Namibia 435 – Nana Coyote 
  19. The Knife – Genesis
  20. War Pigs – Black Sabbath