Ain't Gonna Play Sun City
Just a quick post today - I'm one of those individuals who doesn't get a four-day weekend, but instead two off, work one, then one off. But whattaya gonna do?U2's original version of "Silver and Gold" comes from the Sun City-Artists United Against Apartheid benefit album that was released in 1985. It's the last track on side 2, and isn't credited on the album jacket. This version is slower than the version on the Rattle and Hum album.
Silver and Gold.mp3. I'm not going to use this space to get into a discourse on the evils of apartheid. Although the practice has been abolished, South Africa still struggles as a result of the years of sanctions.
There have been a huge number of books, magazine articles, and Web pages devoted to the history and consequences of apartheid. Please take the time to learn about it.
NPR’s Web site is a good, and reliable, place to start.
For background on the Artists United Against Apartheid benefit, Little Steven still has a link from his site. He organized the project and produced the album.
posted by aikin @ 9:56 PM
1 Comments:
Wow.... I stumbled upon your blog from a listing on garagepunk.... I loved the old Licorize Pizza store - I used to live across the street from one in West Hollywood.
ANYWAY - Sun City.... funny story and true story.
I am living in London, working at Island Records. Stiv Bators has somehow become my roommate because he and Michael Monroe are pyromaniacs and have been asked to leave many places they've rented. No problem. Stiv had been my house guest many times, and as I was once his tour manager, knew how to keep him from burning down my place. One day, we're tooling around London as we normally did. And this rock star is following us. "Stiv," I ask, "Why is this E Street Band guy hanging around with us?" Stiv informs me that Little Steven is a big Dead Boys fan. Yeah, right. Well, anyway, Steven buys us many dinners and starts telling us what he's doing. First he says how he's quit the E Street Band. "You're a fucking idiot," I tell him. We had only had a couple of transactions previously - when he contacted my office at Island a year or so prior when his solo outing, the Disciples of Soul were covering "Solidarity." So, I've gone from helpful A&R chick to hyper critic...somehow, we end up helping him. I wrangle a bunch of press and pundit people, Stiv & Michael sing on "Sun City" (me too, actually - "nah, nah, nah nah nah nah")and appear in the video, shot by Hart Perry. Steven takes up the offer to record bits of this at Island's studio, and various Island artists sing on this track also --- a coup in my mind was Linton Kwesi Johnson. U2 was already on the big "do good" bandwagon, so it was no surprise that they'd support this.
The big deal for us coming out of this was that we somehow got Little Steven to pay for (or obtain on the basis of his celebrity) studio time at Neal's Yard studios (where Monty Python and Cook & Moore recorded their comedy albums)and recorded some demos... Steven produced 3 tracks for the Stiv/Michael duo - pop songs. They are mastered on cassette!! I have them and someone may be putting them out in the next year.
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