Pink Floyd - Another Brick In The Wall (HQ)

Honky Tonk Woman Sheryl Crow with The Rolling Stones

Honky Tonk Women"


I met a gin soaked, bar-room queen in Memphis,
She tried to take me upstairs for a ride.
She had to heave me right across her shoulder
'Cause I just can't seem to drink you off my mind.

It's the honky tonk women
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues.

I laid a divorcee in New York City,
I had to put up some kind of a fight.
The lady then she covered me in roses,
She blew my nose and then she blew my mind.

It's the honky tonk women
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues.

(Yeah!) It's the honky tonk women.
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues.

(Yeah!) It's the honky tonk women.
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues.


"Honky Tonk Women" is a 1969 hit song by The Rolling Stones. Released as a single only release (although a country version was included on Let It Bleed), on 4 July 1969 in the United Kingdom and a week later in the United States, it topped the charts in both nations.

Inspiration and recording

The song was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards while on holiday in Brazil from late December 1968 to early January 1969, inspired by Brazilian "caipiras" (inhabitants of rural, remote areas of parts of Brazil) at the ranch where Jagger and Richards were staying in Matão, São Paulo.Two versions of the song were recorded by the band: the familiar hit which appeared on the 45 single and their collection of late 1960s singles, Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2); and a honky-tonk version entitled "Country Honk" with slightly different lyrics, which appeared on Let It Bleed (1969).

Thematically, a "honky tonk woman" refers to a dancing girl in a western bar who may work as a prostitute; the setting for the narrative in the first verse of the blues version is Memphis, Tennessee, while "Country Honk" sets the first verse in Jackson, Mississippi.


I met a gin soaked bar-room queen in Memphis

I'm sittin' in a bar, tippin' a jar in Jackson

The band initially recorded the track called "Country Honk", in London in early March 1969. Brian Jones was present during these sessions and may have played on the first handful of takes and demos. It was his last recording session with the band. The song was transformed into the familiar electric, riff-based hit single "Honky Tonk Women" sometime in the spring of 1969, prior to Mick Taylor's joining the group. In an interview in the magazine Crawdaddy!, Richards credits Taylor for influencing the track: "... the song was originally written as a real Hank Williams/Jimmie Rodgers/1930s country song. And it got turned around to this other thing by Mick Taylor, who got into a completely different feel, throwing it off the wall another way." However, in 1979 Taylor recalled it this way: "I definitely added something to Honky Tonk Women, but it was more or less complete by the time I arrived and did my overdubs."

"Honky Tonk Women" is distinctive as it opens not with a guitar riff, but with a beat played on a cowbell. The Rolling Stones' producer Jimmy Miller performed the cowbell for the recording.

The concert rendition of "Honky Tonk Women" on Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! (1970) differs significantly from the studio hit, with a markedly dissimilar guitar introduction and the first appearance on vinyl of an entirely different second verse.

Live visuals

During the North American leg of the 1989 Steel Wheels tour, a giant inflatable woman was cued to appear just before the first chorus. There was an animated live visual for this song when it was performed in concert around 2002 and 2003. It featured a topless woman riding on the Rolling Stones tongue who was seen in the beginning of the concert.
Release[edit]

The single was released in the UK the day after the death of founding member Brian Jones where it remained on the charts for 5 weeks peaking at No. 1. "You Can't Always Get What You Want" was the single's B-side. The song topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks from 23 August 1969. It was later released on the compilation album Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) in September. Billboard ranked it as the No. 4 song overall for 1969.

At the time of its release Rolling Stone hailed "Honky Tonk Women" as "likely the strongest three minutes of rock and roll yet released in 1969". It was ranked No. 116 on the list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in April 2010. The song was later put into the track listing for the video game Band Hero.

Personnel The Rolling Stones
Mick Jagger – lead vocals
Keith Richards – lead guitar (incl. solo), rhythm guitar, background vocals
Mick Taylor – lead guitar
Bill Wyman – bass
Charlie Watts – drumsAdditional personnel
Reparata and the Delrons – background vocals
Nanette Workman – background vocals (credited as "Nanette Newman")
Doris Troy – background vocals
Ian Stewart – piano
Jimmy Miller – cowbell
Steve Gregory and Bud Beadle – saxophones

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts Chart (1969) Peak position Australia (Go-Set) 1 Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40) 4 Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders) 5 Canada Top Singles (RPM) 2 Germany (Official German Charts) 2 Ireland (IRMA) 1 Netherlands (Single Top 100) 4 New Zealand (Listener) 1 Norway (VG-lista) 2 Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade) 1 UK Singles (Official Charts Company) 1 US Billboard Hot 100 1

Year-end charts Chart (1969) Rank Canada 16 US Billboard Hot 100 4 Certifications Region Certification Certified units/Sales United States (RIAA) Gold 1,000,000^ *sales figures based on certification alone ^shipments figures based on certification alone

Releases on compilation albums and live recordings

• Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) (1969)
• Hot Rocks 1964–1971 (1971)
• Rolled Gold: The Very Best of the Rolling Stones (1975)
• 30 Greatest Hits (1977)
• Singles Collection: The London Years (1989)
• Forty Licks (2002)
• Singles 1968–1971 (2005)
• GRRR! (2012)

Concert versions of "Honky Tonk Women" are included on the albums 'Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!' (recorded 1969, released 1970), Love You Live (recorded 1976, released 1977), Live Licks (recorded 2003, released 2004), Sweet Summer Sun: Hyde Park Live (2013), and Totally Stripped (recorded 1995, released 2016). The song has appeared in numerous Stones concert films and boxed sets, including Stones in the Park, Some Girls: Live In Texas '78, Let's Spend the Night Together, Stones at the Max, Voodoo Lounge Live, Bridges to Babylon Tour '97–98, Four Flicks, The Biggest Bang, and Sweet Summer Sun: Hyde Park Live.

Personnel

The Rolling Stones

• Mick Jagger – vocals
• Keith Richards – acoustic guitar, backing vocals
• Mick Taylor – slide guitar
• Charlie Watts – drums

Additional personnel

• Byron Berline – fiddle
• Nanette Workman – backing vocals (credited as "Nanette Newman")

• This song is about a prostitute - Mick Jagger would sometimes introduce it as being "a song for all the whores in the audience."
  
  Like many Rolling Stones songs, it has highly suggestive lyrics, but they are just subtle enough to keep it from getting banned by radio stations. British rock bands often wrote lyrics that were ambiguously offensive, falling just in line with BBC guidelines for airplay. A good example in this song is "She blew my nose and then she blew my mind," which implies both cocaine and sex, but didn't give the BBC any specific reason to ban it.
• The Stones started recording this as a country song based on Hank Williams' "Honky Tonk Blues." They made it into a rocker for release as a single and released the country version, "Country Honk," a few months later on Let It Bleed.
• Keith Richards: "'Honky Tonk Women' started in Brazil. Mick and I, Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg who was pregnant with my son at the time. Which didn't stop us going off to the Mato Grasso and living on this ranch. It's all cowboys. It's all horses and spurs. And Mick and I were sitting on the porch of this ranch house and I started to play, basically fooling around with an old Hank Williams idea. 'Cause we really thought we were like real cowboys. Honky tonk women. And we were sitting in the middle of nowhere with all these horses, in a place where if you flush the john all these black frogs would fly out. It was great. The chicks loved it. Anyway, it started out a real country honk put on, a hokey thing. And then couple of months later we were writing songs and recording. And somehow by some metamorphosis it suddenly went into this little swampy, black thing, a Blues thing. Really, I can't give you a credible reason of how it turned around from that to that. Except there's not really a lot of difference between white country music and black country music. It's just a matter of nuance and style. I think it has to do with the fact that we were playing a lot around with open tunings at the time. So we were trying songs out just to see if they could be played in open tuning. And that one just sunk in." >>
• Lead guitarist Brian Jones was a founding member of the group and was considered their leader in their early years. Unfortunately, drug abuse made him pretty much worthless, and when The Stones finished recording this on June 8, 1969, they drove to his house and fired him. This was released July 3, 1969, the same day Jones was found dead in his swimming pool.
• Mick Taylor had taken over for Brian Jones on lead guitar, and this was his first appearance on a Stones recording. Taylor claims he came up with the famous guitar riff, even though Richards plays it.
• The distinctive cowbell used to open the song was played by producer Jimmy Miller. He set the tempo for the song by venturing into the studio and hitting the two small cowbells his had set up on a prong.
• Young drummers often practice playing this song because it requires them to play different patterns at the same time with the hands and feet working independently.
• Reparata & The Delrons, an early '60s girl group, sang the backup vocals.
• There is no bass on the verses.
• The single was given away to all the fans who helped clean up after The Stones free concert in Hyde Park on July 5, 1969. This was the first concert Mick Taylor played with the band. A life-size cutout of Brian Jones, who died three days earlier, was kept on stage and the show was dedicated to him.
• The Stones played this at most of their live shows, usually with great theatrics. The Steel Wheels tour in 1989 featured giant inflatable women during the performance.
• This was banned in China. When the group made arrangements to play there for the first time in 2003, they had to agree not to play this, "Brown Sugar," "Let's Spent The Night Together," and "Beast Of Burden." They ended up not playing because of a respiratory disease that was going around China.
• Chrissie Hynde, the lead singer of The Pretenders, joined The Rolling Stones on stage in Leipzig on June 20, 2003 and sang this as a duet with Jagger.
• Rick Nelson released a cover of this song on his 1971 album Rudy The Fifth. His version, which is in more a country style akin to "Country Honk," is the song that got him booed off the stage when he played a "Rock & Roll Revival" show that year at Madison Square Garden. Nelson had never played one of these nostalgia shows, and he thought he could play something new in his set. The crowd, there to hear the hits, didn't like it and let him know. The experience led Nelson to write "Garden Party," which became a hit song the following year and got his career back on track. In that song, he included this line:
  
  When I sang a song about a Honky Tonk
  It was time to leave
• "Honky Tonk Women" was used as the title for a session of the amime series Cowboy Bebop. Along with other classic rock songs, this was used to introduce the "Femme Fatale" character. >>

Honky Tonk Woman Sheryl Crow with The Rolling Stones

Free Nelson Mandela - Amy Winehouse @The 46664 Concerts AIDS Charity Events

"Free Nelson Mandela"


Free Nelson Mandela
Free, free, free, free, free
Nelson Mandela

Free Nelson Mandela
Twenty-one years in captivity
Shoes too small to fit his feet
His body abused but his mind is still free
Are you so blind that you cannot see?
I said free Nelson Mandela
I'm begging you, free Nelson Mandela

Pleaded the causes at the ANC
Only one there in a large army
Are you so blind that you cannot see?
Are you so deaf that you cannot hear his plea?
Free Nelson Mandela
I'm begging you, free Nelson Mandela

Twenty-one years in captivity
Are you so blind that you cannot see?
Are you so deaf that you cannot hear?
Are you so dumb that you cannot speak?
I said free Nelson Mandela
I'm begging you, free Nelson Mandela
Free Nelson Mandela

Begging you, begging you please
Free Nelson Mandela
You've got to, you've got to
You got to free
You got to free
You got to free
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
I'm telling you, telling you, telling you
You've got to free, you've got to free
You've got to free, you've got to free
Nelson Mandela
Amy Winehouse sings “Free Nelson Mandela” at the 46664 Concert on this YouTube video. The 46664 concerts are a series of AIDS charity events played in honour of Nelson Mandela by South African musicians.

Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island in 1964, and was the 466th prisoner to arrive that year. “Free Nelson Mandela” is a song written by Jerry Dammers and performed by his Coventry-based band The Special A.K.A. released on the single Nelson Mandela / Break Down The Door in 1984 as a protest against the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela.

"Nelson Mandela" (known in some versions as "Free Nelson Mandela") is a song written by British musician Jerry Dammers and performed by band the Special A.K.A. – with lead vocal by Stan Campbell – released on the single "Nelson Mandela"/"Break Down The Door" in 1984 as a protest against the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela by the apartheid South African government. The backing vocals were performed by Molly and Polly Jackson, two girls the band's drummer John Bradbury had "met in a bar in Camden", while the chorus was performed by session singers including Claudia Fontaine and Caron Wheeler, who later went on to appear with Soul II Soul. Unlike most protest songs, the track is upbeat and celebratory, drawing on musical influences from South Africa. The song peaked at number nine on the UK Singles Chart and was immensely popular in Africa.

In December 2013, following the news of Nelson Mandela's death, the single re-entered at number 96 on the UK Singles Chart.

Dammers told the Radio Times: "I knew very little about Mandela until I went to an anti-apartheid concert in London in 1983, which gave me the idea for 'Nelson Mandela'. I never knew how much impact the song would have; it was a hit around the world, and it got back into South Africa and was played at sporting events and ANC rallies-it became an anthem."

Stan Campbell left the band right after the recording of the song and the release of the video for the song, and had to be persuaded to rejoin briefly for two live appearances on the BBC TV show Top of the Pops in 1984.[citation needed] Following those appearances, Campbell left for good.

In 1984 the students' union at Wadham College, Oxford, passed a motion to end every college "bop" (dance) with the song. The tradition continues to this day.

A Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute remake released in 1988 featured Elvis Costello, Dave Wakeling, Ranking Roger and Lynval Golding on backing vocals.[citation needed]

At the Nelson Mandela 90th Birthday Tribute in London's Hyde Park in June 2008, the song was performed as the show's finale, with Amy Winehouse on lead vocals. However, careful listening to the soundtrack revealed that, instead of "Free Nelson Mandela", she at times sang "Free Blakey, My Fella" (a reference to her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, a former drug dealer imprisoned for assault).[3][4] The song was featured on Peter Kay's spoof television programme Britain's Got the Pop Factor. In 2010, the New Statesman listed it as one of the "Top 20 Political Songs".[5]

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band opened with the song in January 2014, at the Bellville Velodrome in Cape Town, South Africa,[6] in the band's first ever concert in South Africa, which took place just six weeks after Mandela's death. Springsteen later dedicated "We Are Alive" to Mandela.

• In this song Jerry Dammers of the Special A.K.A demands the release of the leader of the African National Congress (ANC), Nelson Mandela. He had been imprisoned by the South African government since 1964 on charges of sabotage and attempting to overthrow the government. Unsurprisingly this song couldn't be played freely in South Africa, however it helped install optimism within the black community there. Its success in Britain sparked an increasingly vocal campaign by the rock world to free Mandela, which culminated in the 1988 Mandela 70th birthday concert at Wembley Stadium in London. Prisoner no 46664 was finally released in February 1990 and became State President of South Africa in 1994.
• Special A.K.A were fronted by former Specials songwriter and keyboardist Jerry Dammers. They were an offshoot of The Specials, after Terry Hall, Neville Staples and Lynval Golding had left the Ska band to form the Fun Boy Three. This was to be their only UK Top 40 hit.
• Jerry Dammers told the Radio Times June 21-27 2008 about this song: "I knew very little about Mandela until I went to an anti-apartheid concert in London in 1983, which gave me the idea for 'Nelson Mandela,' I never knew how much impact the song would have; it was a hit around the world, and it got back into South Africa and was played at sporting events and ANC rallies-it became an anthem."
• In the same Radio Times interview Dammers recalled finally meeting Mandela after a 1990 concert, which celebrated his release: "When I was introduced as the writer of 'Nelson Mandela,' he just said, 'Ah yes, very good.'"
• Dammers told Uncut magazine January 2010 the story of the song: "It was a bit like the end of The Specials. When 'Nelson Mandela' came along, the band was falling to pieces. But I had this idea that I knew was really important, like 'Ghost Town.' so there was that desperation to get it down on tape, before the thing disintegrated completely. I wrote the tune to 'Nelson Mandela' before the lyrics. By that time, especially in London, rock music was dead. It was all electro-pop, hip hop, jazz or Latin. And also, Joe Hagen had this African club at Gossip's. I was inspired by the spirit and positivity of that African music. I was trying to get in a few Latin rhythms, but also township jazz. It was a very simple melody, three notes: C,A and E. That meant the public could sing it. And then I went to Nelson Mandela's 65th birthday party at Alexandra Palace. I'd never really heard of him, to be honest. Various bands sang about him, particularly Julian Bahula. And that's where I had the idea to put this message into this tune I had hanging around."

Africa Dancing with Nelson Mandela - Africannewslive.com

Gunning for Trump .....The Teflom Man spins with Chutzpa his yarns and lies of great success and says he can fix the Democratic Party & Obama caused mess

Democracy in those many States S&W of Canada  voted again
in that Pax America Symbol of Freedom and Capitalism  for  men
where every man  "is equal" especially he
who has missions and billions B.Franklin  money.
Step forward Donald Trump into the fray
in which he has a lot to bombastically  say.
He egotistically says he isn't like the rest
he's better than them all, he's simply hugely the  best.

 
The Teflom Man spins with Chutzpa his yarns and lies  of great success
and says he can fix the Democratic Party & Obama caused  mess
in which his great nation is now debt burdened and  quagmired
and for causing it many people to be underemployed and even fired.
He says that he is his own egomaniac man
He can't be bought, blackmailed or brided so he can
run the  country and ignore the $20 trillion deficit  with his zest and libedo
and yes  those Mexican and Arab immigrants and rapist will have to go.

Donny T  agrees  that although tens of thousands die,
shot dead every godforsaken year by
those in Constitution  possession of a gun
he will not intervene to spoil the mayhem and  fun
of all those proud Americans and illegals, friends and foe  who
own a pistol, automatic gun and even a tank ,  or maybe two,
or three or four and often even  more,
leading to the shocking and deadly annual score.

Donald Trump says2nd amendment carnage  simply lies
in the minds of the infants, kids, grannies and guys
who pull  the trigger and it is they alone
who are responsible for causing the war zone,
which the US has become,
a place where people seem to be numb
to the repeated scenes of carnage they see
reported daily in social media meas and  their tv.

If Donald is really his own man, and he
truly cares and wants to see
an end to the bloodbath and gore  in his land,
then he needs to see that guns are banned
from being sold to anyone who wants to buy
without any care about who may die,
he needs to introduce a bill
to stop the provision of the means to kill,
and if, as he says he cannot be bought
then he must fear absolutely nought,
especially those who have turned their hobby
into the powerful, All Mighty God , pro-gun lobby. 

Ipi Ntombi - Shosholoza

Shosholoza (Shosholoza)
Kulezo ntaba
Stimela Sipum'e South Africa
(2x)

Wen' Uyabaleka (Wen' Uyabaleka)
Ku Lezontaba
Stimela Sipum'e South Africa
(2x)
Shosholoza (Shosholoza)
Ku Lezontaba
Stimela Sipum'e South Africa
(2x)

Shosholoza Mama
Dig Dig Digging In The Sun
hia hia ho
Men Must Work For Me
Shosholoza
(x4)

Dum, dum ha dum dum ha dum dum ha dum (Shosholoza) (x2)

Shosholoza (Shosholoza)
Ku Lezontaba
Stimela Sipum'e South Africa
(2x)

Wen' Uyabaleka (Wen' Uyabaleka)
Ku Lezontaba
Stimela Sipum'e South Africa
(2x)

"Shosholoza" is a Ndebele folk song that originated in what is now Zimbabwe but was popularised in South Africa. The song is a traditional South African folk song that was sung by Ndebele all-male migrant workers that were working in the South African mines in a call and response style. The song is so popular in South African culture that it is often referred to as South Africa's second national anthem.

History

Although the original author of the song is unknown, "Shosholoza" is a traditional miner's song, originally sung by groups of men from the Ndebele ethnic group that travelled by steam train from their homes in Zimbabwe to work in South Africa's diamond and gold mines. The Ndebele live predominantly in Zimbabwe (formerly, Rhodesia) near its border with South Africa, and they can also be found in the northern border of South Africa.^[1] The song mixes Ndebele and Zulu words and is Zimbabwean in origin even though the two ethnic groups are very similar.

Some people argue that the song describes the journey to the mines in South Africa, while others say it describes the return to Zimbabwe.It is also sometimes sung "stimela si phume Rhodesia". According to cultural researchers Booth and Nauright, Zulu workers later took up the song to generate rhythm during group tasks and to alleviate boredom and stress. The song was sung by working miners in time with the rhythm of swinging their axes to dig. It was usually sung under hardship in call and response style (one man singing a solo line and the rest of the group responding by copying him). It was also sung by prisoners in call and response style using alto, soprano part divided by row. The late former South African President Nelson Mandela described how he sang Shosholoza as he worked during his imprisonment on Robben Island. He described it as "a song that compares the apartheid struggle to the motion of an oncoming train" and went on to explain that "the singing made the work lighter".

In contemporary times, it is used in varied contexts in South Africa to show solidarity in sporting events and other national events to relay the message that the players are not alone and are part of a team.

Climate activists made the song the centrepiece of their Occupy COP17 rally on 9 December 2011, the final day of the United Nations climate treaty negotiations. Activists were calling on negotiators to "Stand With Africa" and agree to a legally binding and effective treaty.

Meaning

The song was usually sung to express the hardship of working in the mines. It expresses heartache over the hard work performed in the mines. The word Shosholoza or "chocholoza!" means go forward or make way for the next man, in Ndebele It is used as a term of encouragement and hope for the workers as a sign of solidarity. The sound "sho sho" uses onomatopoeia and reminiscent of the sound made by the steam train (stimela). Stimela is the Zulu word for steam train. "Kulezo ntaba!" means (At those far away mountains), "Stimela Siphume eZimbabwe" (the train come from Zimbabwe), "Wen' uya baleka" (Because you're running away/hurrying). In contemporary times, its meaning is to show support for any struggle.

Pop culture references

The song is also used in pop culture to convey messages of hope and solidarity for athletes during competitions or in other times of hardship and distress.

Recordings

The song has been recorded by a variety of artists, including Helmut Lotti, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, PJ Powers, Soweto Gospel Choir, Hemo, Peter Gabriel and Drakensberg Boys' Choir, as well as being a standard of most gumboots bands.^[1]

Rugby World Cup 1995

The song gained further popularity after South Africa won the 1995 Rugby World Cup, and is a favourite at sport events in South Africa. It was sung by the then Talk Radio 702 Breakfast Show co-host, Dan Moyane. The song was recorded, mastered and released in five days, having been mastered in the UK to get it ready in time for the first game in the 1995 RWC. It was conceptualised and produced by Famous Faces Management's CFF Stuart Lee. The record went gold in sales terms.

Hollywood

The South African a cappella group Overtone recorded the song for director Clint Eastwood's movie Invictus (2009).

FIFA World Cup 2010

The song was also sung by the South African football team as they came onto the field of play to open the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Other references

The first African challengers for the America's Cup, Team Shosholoza, took their name from the song; as did the Shosholoza Meyl, a long-distance passenger train service operating in South Africa. The song is also used as a campfire song by scouts in South Africa

Lyrics

The lyrics of the song vary, as do the transcriptions. In the older traditional styles, the words translate to "train from Rhodesia". Such is the version heard in the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy and as sung by Pete Seeger in his album We Shall Overcome. Here is one example:

Shosholoza

Kulezo ntaba

Stimela siphume South Africa

Kulezo ntaba

Stimela siphume South Africa

Wen' uyabaleka

Kulezo ntaba

Stimela siphume South Africa

A rough translation:

Go forward

Go forward

from those mountains

on this train from South Africa

Go forward

Go forward

You are running away

You are running away

from those mountains

on this train from South Africa

Brenda Fassie - Black President (Aye Nelson Mandela)

Brenda Fassie - My Black President (A Tribute To Nelson Mandela) video & lyrics

This post showcases Brenda Fassie's song "My Black President". This song was composed, recorded, and released in 1983 as a tribute to Nelson Mandela who was  imprisoned in South Africa for his anti-apartheid actions. Fassie added another verse to this song when Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa in 1994. She sang this song during Nelson Mandela's inauguration.

The content of this post is presented for cultural, historical, educational, and aesthetic purposes.

*
Nelson Mandela
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela
"[Nelson] Mandela served 27 years in prison, initially on Robben Island, and later in Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison. An international campaign lobbied for his release, which was granted in 1990 amid escalating civil strife [in the nation of South Africa]."
-snip-
From http://www.ask.com/question/when-did-nelson-mandela-become-president
"Nelson Mandela became president on 10th May 1994 after South Africa's first multi-racial elections were held on 27 April 1994. The African National Congress (ANC) won 62% of the votes in the election, and Mandela, as leader of the ANC, was inaugurated as the country's first black President. He presided over the transition from minority rule and apartheid, winning international respect for his advocacy of national and international reconciliation."


Brenda Fassie
From http://www.answers.com/topic/brenda-fassie#ixzz2mrnELZhT
"Known as the "Madonna of the Townships" or simply as the "undisputed queen of the vocals," and generally deemed one of South Africa's biggest female pop stars of recent years, Brenda Fassie [born in 1964] notched a long string of infectious pop hits. Her music was deeply woven into the fabric of South African life, and more than once her music played a role in the country's tumultuous political scene. A major talent whose popularity survived several waves of musical fashion and extended at its height to Europe and the United States, Fassie struggled with personal demons before dying a tragically early death in 2004.

By 1983 Fassie had formed an act of her own called Brenda and the Big Dudes, and that year she had a breakthrough hit with "Weekend Special," singing in the disco-flavored "bubblegum" style. "Weekend Special" sold over 200,000 copies and had an extended life in cover versions and remixes, including one by New York producer Van Gibbs in 1986 that spent eight weeks on Billboard magazine's Hot Black Singles chart. The song's international success led to a Fassie tour of the United States, Europe, Australia, and Brazil.

After parting ways with the Big Dudes, Fassie partnered with producer Sello "Chicco" Twala to record the 1989 album Too Late for Mama. Among several hits that became widely known in South Africa's black townships was "Black President," a single that looked forward to the dismantling of the country's apartheid system. That song was banned for a time by the South African government, but Fassie's popularity only increased."...


LYRICS: MY BLACK PRESIDENT
(Brenda Fassie)

The year 1963
The people's president
Was taken away by security men
All dressed in a uniform
The brutality, brutality
Oh no, my, my black president

Him and his comrades
Were sentenced to isolation
For many painful years
For many painful years
Many painful years
Of hard labor

They broke rocks
But the spirit was never broken
Never broken
Oh no, my, my black president

Hmm maa, hmm maa, hmm ma mama
Hmm maa, hmm maa, hmm ma mama
Hmm maa, hmm maa, hmm ma Madiba
Hmm maa, hmm maa, hmm ma Madiba
Ahh uyem-yem

They broke rocks
But the spirit was never broken
Never broken
Oh my black president

Let us rejoice for our president
Let us sing for our president
Let us pray for our president
Let us sing, let us dance
For Madiba, Madiba's freedom

Now in 1990
The people's president
Came out from jail
Raised up his hand and said
"Viva, viva, my people"

He walked the long road
Back, back to freedom
Back to freedom
Freedom for my black president

Let us rejoice for our president
Let us sing for our president
et us pray for our president
Let us sing, let us dance
For Madiba, Madiba's freedom

We thank You Lord,
For listening to our prayers
Oh, my president

I will die for my president
I will sing for my president
I will stand and say
Viva, viva, viva, viva, viva, viva my president


RIP Mandiba Nelson Mandela (18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013)