Weeping, the freedom song
Click here to visit my "Weeping" Homepage
Click here to view the lyrics of "Weeping"
Click here to see the story of Bright Blue
Click here to view some details about Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Click here to read something about Josh Groban's career
Click here to read a little about Vusi Mahlasela's story
Click here to view a very compressed history of the anti Apartheid movement in South Africa
Click here to read my story
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Josh Groban's first recording of Weeping was released internationally, early in November, 2006.
Weeping had its debut in South Africa in 1987, as a protest song about the oppressive white government.
The writer of of Weeping, Dan Heymann, was an unwilling white soldier, drafted into the Army.
Weeping began as an instrumental piece, expressing his unhappines at being drafted by the regime,
and later he wrote words to Weeping when the government declared a State of Emergency and imposed a ban on media-coverage of the situation in South Africa.
The first recording of Weeping was by Bright Blue, the South African band in which Dan Heymann played keyboards.
That version of Weeping included a brief instrumental reference to "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika", the anthem of the African National Congress, which was banned by the government at the time; However, the official censors didn't act, and the radio DJ's had a field-day with the song,
so Weeping spent two weeks at number one on the government radio-station.
There have been several recordings of Weeping released since then.
The second version of Weeping to appear wasn't by any particular band, but was done by a crew of South African session-musicians for the soundtrack of the movie "Ipi Tombi".
Weeping was next recorded by Qkumba Zoo, in a "techno" style,
followed by the Soweto String Quartet version of Weeping.
Later, Coenie de Villiers translated Weeping into Afrikaans for his version, with a theme about poverty,
while James Stewart chose to give Weeping somewhat more of a rock treatment.
The Kearsney College Choir had a choral flavor,
then Jinny Sagorin, in Boston, did Weeping for a cabaret setting.
Still later, Weeping received the attention of the Soweto Gospel Choir.
Josh Groban's 2006 version of Weeping featured additional vocals by the South African choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo,
and an appearance by Vusi Mahlasela, who previously was the guest vocalist on the Soweto String Quartet's recording of Weeping.
That studio recording of Weeping made use of the extraordinary producer, Glen Ballard,
while the subsequent (2008) live recording of Weeping was produced by Humberto Gatica.
Here's the cover-artwork for existing releases of "Weeping", as far as I know:
1987: Bright Blue (on the flip-side of our "forty-five" Yesterday Night)
1993: Various personnel (recorded for Ipi Tombi movie soundtrack)
1996: Qkumba Zoo (on their CD Wake Up & Dream)
1996: Soweto String Quartet (on their CD Renaissance, with guest vocalist Vusi Mahlasela)
Around 1997: Coenie de Villiers (with lyrics in Afrikaans, on his CD Solo)
2000: Kearsney College Choir (on their CD Road to the Olympics)
Around 2002: James Stewart (on his CD Eklektik)
2004: Jinny Sagorin (on her CD It's For You)
2004: Soweto Gospel Choir (on their CD Blessed)
2006: Josh Groban (on his CD Awake)
2008: Josh Groban, a second time (on his CD-DVD package Awake Live)
Click here for "Weeping" Homepage
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.