Picture: gillstrawberry.co.za
Dan Heymann was a founder-member of the South African band, Bright Blue, during 1983, playing keyboards and writing songs in the band until 1990.
Weeping
, written by
Dan Heymann
(sometimes mis-spelled as
Dan Heyman
), is a
famous protest song
that emerged from the
South African anti Apartheid movement
during the mid-1980's, and this
song of freedom
has been recorded by many artists, including noted South African band
Bright Blue
and, more recently,
Josh Groban
, in a collaboration with
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
and
Vusi Mahlasela
, who has previously released a solo recording of this
song of protest
. The
anti Apartheid
lyrics Weeping
contains are among the most-recorded
freedom song lyrics
of any
protest song
to have come out of South Africa.
The Weeping song
(rights to which are partially controlled by
Muffled Music
) led to a February, 2006, encounter between singer Josh
Groban
and songwriter Dan
Heymann
(occasionally mis-spelled as
Heyman
) at New York City's Sony Studios, a legendary institution which has given many a
song freedom
to soar. It was a thrill for Dan to hear his anti
Apartheid song
being recorded by such a high-caliber team. Having been a musician in contact with various
anti-Apartheid movements
during the Freedom-Struggle in South Africa, when examining the
Weeping lyrics
, Dan was thrilled to feel the connection of his
lyric to protest song
tradition. When the time came to add backing vocals, nobody needed to teach
Vusi Mahlasela lyrics
to the
Weeping song
, having already performed it live so many times, and this new rendition of Dan's familiar rhyming-
lyric protest song
should give
the song freedom
to reach many new listeners. Many
protest songs
were inspired by the
anti Apartheid movement
and Dan is proud that his
freedom song
has been so well-received, particularly when there are already so many wonderful
anti-Apartheid
protest song lyrics
in existence.
Hailing from Cape Town, Dan Heymann was born in 1960, and took classical piano lessons at school, until the age of about 14.
During that time, Dan Heymann never mastered the art of reading music fluently, preferring to figure pieces out by ear,
which naturally was an obstacle in Dan Heymann's classical-music progress!
However, after ending his classical lessons, Dan Heymann did a lot of listening to rock-'n-roll music, and occasionally jammed with schoolmates, two of whom would later work with Dan Heymann as members of Bright Blue.
At that time, Dan Heymann played an old electric organ, handed down from a cousin.
Following high school, Dan Heymann studied engineering at the University of Cape Town, where his continued interest in music led him to keep playing the piano.
For his 21st birthday, he used the money he'd saved to buy himself a Wurlitzer electric piano, which enabled him to make some vacation-money playing background-music in restaurants,
and that led to a few gigs with a hastily-assembled jazz band, after being heard by guitarist Tom Fox, who was also to become a founder-member of Bright Blue!
The influence of traditional South African music was hard to resist, and the solo improvisations of Dan Heymann soon took on some local flavor.
In mid-1983, his final year on campus, Dan Heymann was invited by those former high-school-mates (the brothers Ian and Peter Cohen) to lend his musical style to founding a band,
where Dan Heymann first met singer-songwriter Robin Levetan, who fronted the band, and was re-united with Tom Fox, his former crony from the short-lived jazz band.
After a busy first year with the band, Dan Heymann found his musical career on hold, when he was drafted into the Army of the oppressive Apartheid regime.
However, Dan Heymann was able to continue developing his musical ideas, using any pianos that were available on army bases, and that's where Dan Heymann wrote the music of "Weeping".
At that time, Dan Heymann intended only to capture his anti-army feelings in a melancholy instrumental piece;
But many months later, the declaration of a State of Emergency by the white regime gave Dan Heymann the idea for the lyrics of "Weeping".
Upon being discharged from the army in 1986, Dan Heymann moved to Johannesburg with the band (minus Robin Levetan), where he lived for his final five years in South Africa.
During that period, the band recorded "Weeping", and saw it spend two weeks at number one on the government-run station, Radio Five.
After the band split up, Dan Heymann worked as a free-lance keyboard-player around Johannesburg,
until 1992 when Dan Heymann moved to New York City, where he now lives, and continues to write.
Click here for "Weeping" Homepage