Fifty years ago, Bob Dylan made his first television appearance in the U.S. on WBC-TV, New York. The show was taped in March 1963 but didn’t air until May of that year.
“Blowin’ in the Wind”:
“Man of Constant Sorrow”:
“Ballad of Hollis Brown”:
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
In todays New York Times Paul Simon has written an article, “Remembering Days of Miracle and Wonder” about Nelson Mandela, some of Simon’s experiences regarding his Graceland album and the African musicians he worked with and the behind the scenes tensions that arose from the musicians differing politics.
Simon writes:
This week, as we mourn Mr. Mandela and celebrate his life, I am thinking once again of my life-altering experiences with “Graceland.” There was the almost mystical affection and strange familiarity I felt when I first heard South African music. Later, there was the visceral thrill of collaborating with South African musicians onstage. Add to this potent mix the new friendships I made with my band mates, and the experience becomes one of the most vital in my life.
Most, but not all, of the “Graceland” troupe were fervent supporters of the African National Congress, and many had known Mr. Mandela personally or had meaningful memories of him. Hugh, exiled from his homeland since the early 1960s, recalled growing up with the Mandela family as close friends. Hugh’s former wife, Miriam Makeba, also a South African exile, was a longtime friend of Mr. Mandela and his second wife, Winnie.
Bakithi Kumalo, our bassist and the man responsible for that magical and impossible-to-play bass lick on “You Can Call Me Al,” SaveFrom.net recalled growing up in a house in Soweto not far from where the Mandelas lived. He remembered standing outside their home, singing freedom songs and, using Mr. Mandela’s clan name, chanting, “Madiba come home!”
Ray Phiri, our extraordinary guitarist, was a friend and follower of the anti-apartheid leader Steven Biko. Barney Rachabane, who played sax and pennywhistle, had to move his family from their home in Soweto to a nearby hotel every night, while his brother and cousins defended their goods from looters and anti-A.N.C. blacks. On long bus rides after gigs, passionate political debate alternated with music talk.
But then there was Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Its founder and leader, Joseph Shabalala, was from the Township of Ladysmith in KwaZulu, governed by the Inkhatha Freedom Party, led by the Zulu chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi. Mr. Shabalala was a proud Zulu and essentially apolitical, but there was a long history of tribal animosity, dating back centuries, between the Zulus and the Xhosa peoples. Most of the African National Congress leadership, including Oliver Tambo and Thabo Mbeki, were Xhosa, as were both Mr. Mandela and Miriam, who wouldn’t speak to the members of Black Mambazo.
To read the rest of Simon’s article, head to the New York Times.
Hugh Masekela – “Bring Him Back Home (Nelson Mandela)”
(Thanks for hipping me to this clip, John Hatzis)
“Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes”:
“You Can Call Me Al”:
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
A review of the guilty sentences for Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has been ordered by Russia’s Supreme Court, according to an Agence France-Presse story.
The two women are currently serving two-year sentences in Russian prisons after being convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for performing an anti-Kremlin protest stunt in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.
Agence France-Presse reports:
With just three months remaining in their sentence, the Supreme Court ruled that the “hatred” was never proven and their status as young mothers of underage children was ignored.
“The court did not provide any proof that Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were motivated by hatred toward any social group in its verdict,” the Supreme Court said in a decision posted on its official website.
The lower court also failed to review “extenuating circumstances”, namely the fact that Alyokhina’s son is only six years old and Tolokonnikova’s daughter is five, it said.
The court also ignored that the pair had no prior convictions, the “non-violent nature of their illegal actions” and the fact that victims of their actions never wanted to punish them so harshly, the document said.
For more on this story, head here.
Both women are to be released in March 2014. However they could be released sooner do to an amnesty that Russian President Putin has submitted to the Russian parliament, or if the review of their verdicts finds that they are not guilty.
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
When we last heard from Iggy Pop, he was working to save the wolves in Michigan. Now he delivers a “Guitar Stooge Version” of “White Christmas” off the new various artists album, Psych-Out Christmas.
Enjoy… or not.
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Neil Young will perform four “Honor The Treaties” benefit shows in Canada to raise money for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) Legal Defense Fund.
The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation is suing Shell Oil to stop the corporation from undertaking additional oil sands extraction projects the Indian group says will encroach on lands and resources protected by an 1899 treaty.
In September Young spoke at a press conference in Washington D.C. with Senators Harry Reid and Debbie Stabenow.
”I am against the Keystone pipeline in a big way,” Young said. “The fact is, Fort McMurray [Alberta] looks like Hiroshima. Fort McMurray is a wasteland. The Indians up there and the native peoples are dying. People are sick. People are dying of cancer because of this. All of the First Nations peoples up there are threatened by this. Their food supply is wasted, their treaties are no good. They have the right to live on the land, like they always did, but there’s no land left that they can live on. All the animals are dying.”
Supporting Young at all four dates is Diana Krall.
The shows will take place in Toronto (Jan. 12), Winnipeg (Jan. 16), Regina (Jan. 17) and Calgary (Jan. 19).
For more on this story, head to the Edmonton Journal or this the Calgary Herald.
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It now appears that Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina of Pussy Riot are likely be pardoned on December 12th as part of a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Russian constitution, the Russian newspaper Izvestia reports.
In total, some 25,000 prisoners will be pardoned including 30 or so Greenpeace activists, Izvestia reports.
Izvestia is basing the news on a draft of an amnesty bill by Russian President Vladimir Putin that has been submitted to the Russian parliament that the newspaper obtained.
Although the bill does not name individuals, according toe the draft version, among those who will be pardoned are women who have young children and who have not committed violent crimes. That would include Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina.
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“Free Nelson Mandela”) was written by Jerry Dammers and performed by his band, The Special A.K.A. The singhle was released in 1984.
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The two incarcerated members of Pussy Riot are not likely to get amnesty, The Guardian reports.
An amnesty bill expected to be passed by the Russian parliament in the next week or so is not expected to apply to Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina.
The two members of the group are serving a two-year prison sentence for ‘hooliganism’ for the “punk prayer” protest against Putin in Russia’s main cathedral in February 2012.
The Russian prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev said today on Russian television that Russians were “not inclined” to grant amnesty to those who had committed violent crimes and “crimes against society including hooliganism.”
Both members of Pussy Riot are due for release in March of 2014.
For more, head to The Guardian.
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Nelson Mandela, who fought to free South Africa from apartheid and became a symbol of freedom throughout the world, died Thursday, He was 95.
“He no longer belongs to us,” President Obama said at the White House. “He belongs to the ages.”
Transcript of Obama’s comments on Mandela:
At his trial in 1964, Nelson Mandela closed his statement from the dock saying, “I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
And Nelson Mandela lived for that ideal, and he made it real. He achieved more than could be expected of any man. Today, he has gone home. And we have lost one of the most influential, courageous, and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this Earth. He no longer belongs to us — he belongs to the ages.
Through his fierce dignity and unbending will to sacrifice his own freedom for the freedom of others, Madiba transformed South Africa — and moved all of us. His journey from a prisoner to a President embodied the promise that human beings — and countries — can change for the better. His commitment to transfer power and reconcile with those who jailed him set an example that all humanity should aspire to, whether in the lives of nations or our own personal lives. And the fact that he did it all with grace and good humor, and an ability to acknowledge his own imperfections, only makes the man that much more remarkable. As he once said, “I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.”
I am one of the countless millions who drew inspiration from Nelson Mandela’s life. My very first political action, the first thing I ever did that involved an issue or a policy or politics, was a protest against apartheid. I studied his words and his writings. The day that he was released from prison gave me a sense of what human beings can do when they’re guided by their hopes and not by their fears. And like so many around the globe, I cannot fully imagine my own life without the example that Nelson Mandela set, and so long as I live I will do what I can to learn from him.
To Graça Machel and his family, Michelle and I extend our deepest sympathy and gratitude for sharing this extraordinary man with us. His life’s work meant long days away from those who loved him the most. And I only hope that the time spent with him these last few weeks brought peace and comfort to his family.
To the people of South Africa, we draw strength from the example of renewal, and reconciliation, and resilience that you made real. A free South Africa at peace with itself — that’s an example to the world, and that’s Madiba’s legacy to the nation he loved.
We will not likely see the likes of Nelson Mandela again. So it falls to us as best we can to forward the example that he set: to make decisions guided not by hate, but by love; to never discount the difference that one person can make; to strive for a future that is worthy of his sacrifice.
For now, let us pause and give thanks for the fact that Nelson Mandela lived — a man who took history in his hands, and bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice. May God Bless his memory and keep him in peace.
Bono wrote about Mandela for Time magazine:
As an activist I have pretty much been doing what Nelson Mandela tells me since I was a teenager. He has been a forceful presence in my life going back to 1979, when U2 made its first anti-apartheid effort. And he’s been a big part of the Irish consciousness even longer than that. Irish people related all too easily to the subjugation of ethnic majorities. From our point of view, the question as to how bloody South Africa would have to get on its long road to freedom was not abstract.
Over the years we became friends. I, like everyone else, was mesmerized by his deft maneuvering as leader of South Africa. His cabinet appointments of Trevor Manuel and Kadar Asmal were intuitive and ballsy. His partnership with Sowetan neighbor Desmond Tutu brought me untold joy. This double act—and before long a triple act that included Mandela’s wife, the bold and beautiful Graca Machel—took the success of the anti-apartheid fight in South Africa and widened the scope to include the battle against AIDS and the broader reach for dignity by the poorest peoples on the planet.
Read the rest of Bobo’s Mandela obit at Time.
For more on Mandela’s life here’s a Chicago Tribune story.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that he backed proposals for an amnesty for thousands of prisoners, and his rights advisor says that could free the two imprisoned Pussy Riot women, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina.
“I agree… that such actions must be pacifying,” Putin said in televised comments.
“This amnesty can only apply to individuals who did not commit grave crimes or crimes involving violence against representatives of the authorities, by this I mean law enforcement officers,” Putin told Mikhail Fedotov, head of the presidential rights council, an independent advisory body, and Russian human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin.
“I agree with you that such actions should underscore the humanism of our state,” Putin said, “but they certainly must not … give anyone the impression they can commit a crime today and count on forgiveness from the state tomorrow.”
Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina are due for release in March after serving two-year sentences for Pussy Riot’s “punk prayer” protest against Putin in Russia’s main cathedral in February 2012.
The amnesty could free up to 100,000 prisoners, Fedotov said, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.
Fedotov told journalists the amnesty could free the Pussy Riot members.
“I think that yes of course,” Fedotov said. “After all that [what the Pussy Riot members did] was not a violent crime.”
For more, head here.
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