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My introduction to Johnny Clegg was a cover of the song "Great Heart" played by Jimmy Buffett at a concert in 1987. He told the audience that songs like this reminded him of his own early work. That put the hook into me. I tried to find all of the Johnny Clegg music I could. On the way, I found out that Clegg had been arrested in South Africa for playing on the same stage as Black South Africans, and that disguises were used to fool the authorities. He had also been a professor of anthropology in South Africa, as I was lucky enough to learn from one of his students. Also, for those who would like more of a feeling for the man and his music, I suggest hunting down a copy of "VH1's One 2 One" regarding Clegg.
Although apartheid is dead in South Africa, the message of Clegg's music is still quite valid. The history of a proud people and their struggle to be accepted by a world that draws racial lines. Songs like "Scatterlings of Africa" (heard both on Saturday Night Live and in the movie "Rain Man"), "Asimbonanga" and "Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World" (a song written after the birth of Clegg's son) reflect the yearning for a better life. Clegg's music seems to me to be a reflection of Bob Dylan's music from the early 1960's. In a time when South Africans could not say what was on their minds, Johnny Clegg and Sipho brought the struggle to the young, to those with a conscience and did it with both love and grace.
Usually, I stay away from "collection" or "best of" albums, but this is truly an amazing album. One which every collector of "World Beat" should own.
