| inu-liger 12.10.2005 17:06 |
I have two questions about this song: 1) What or who is "Amandla" about? 2) In the chorus, are they singing "Amandla, Amandla, a way to..."? (It's the "a way to..." part I'm not sure of) |
| Daburcor? 12.10.2005 18:12 |
I'd like to help you, but I haven't heard it... Is it any good? |
| inu-liger 12.10.2005 18:15 |
I like it. It's not so much a Queen track, in terms of involvement (though Brian did co-write the song), and Brian doesn't have much of a presence on the track (I believe he was even away when the track was finished?), and Roger's drum parts seem to be digitally sampled, but it's a very nice track. |
| FriedChicken 12.10.2005 18:55 |
they're singing Amandla Amandla, Amandla Amandla yeah, Lets sing it together |
| inu-liger 12.10.2005 19:02 |
I'm not talking about that line, I'm talking about the backing chorus vocals, cos they don't obviously say "Let's sing it together" (Anastacia does though). I'm talking about where it sounds like they're either singing "A way to..." (as in a way to Amandla), or "Aweigh to..." (??? Would not make sense there). It's on the 46664 DVD too, including the part where Anastacia gets just the audience to sing the chorus part. |
| egret 12.10.2005 21:58 |
Amandla means "freedom." They are probably saying "Soweto" rather than "a way to." So.... freedom for Soweto. Disclaimer: I haven't heard the actual song. Just an educated guess. --Egret |
| akindofmagic 13.10.2005 00:30 |
I think i readed somewhere that Amandla is a nickname to Mandela. Brian started to write it with Dave Stewart. then they thought they lost the tape, but found it a did a loop[actualy the one that you hear in the begining of the song]. Roger added the drums[could be sampled,indeed] and then Dave finished in New York With anastacia. a Fantastic song i may say... an obviously hit, if ever come out as a single! |
| Bohardy 13.10.2005 07:46 |
Nope. Mandela's nickname is 'Madiba'. According to Anastacia herself: "Amandla is African. I wrote the song with Dave Stewart. It means together, it means we are going to be together in music. It almost means harmony and together". According to this link it means 'power'. According to most of this link it means 'power'. I reckon Anastacia doesn't know what she's on about. |
| inu-liger 13.10.2005 08:05 |
akindofmagic wrote: I think i readed somewhere that Amandla is a nickname to Mandela. Brian started to write it with Dave Stewart. then they thought they lost the tape, but found it a did a loop[actualy the one that you hear in the begining of the song]. Roger added the drums[could be sampled,indeed] and then Dave finished in New York With anastacia. a Fantastic song i may say... an obviously hit, if ever come out as a single!Yeah, I remember it was sort of an improvisation they did, while they were in South Africa, and they realized that the studio apparently wasn't equipped to record properly or something, so they thought that they would never be able to use the bit that they played/wrote, but a man had recorded them playing on his microcassette tape, so using that tape, they ProTooled it, overdubbed it and sampled it, and that was how the song began. I wasn't aware of how the song was finished (was it really in New York?), but I do remember Brian wrote that he wasn't even sure if his guitar parts were left in, but they were. So that's all I remember. ED: I agree it would've done well as a single, but only if they did a radio edit to remove the spoken middle section. |
| Paul Mark 13.10.2005 13:28 |
Actually they are singing "Amandla awethu." This was a rallying cry during the struggle against apartheid. It means "power to the people". Obviously AIDS is the new struggle that the people of Africa are facing. I believe it was co-written by Johnny Clegg (an extremely popular musician) in South Africa and who has also performed at all the 46664 concerts so far. |
| inu-liger 13.10.2005 17:01 |
Paul Mark wrote: Actually they are singing "Amandla awethu." This was a rallying cry during the struggle against apartheid. It means "power to the people". Obviously AIDS is the new struggle that the people of Africa are facing. I believe it was co-written by Johnny Clegg (an extremely popular musician) in South Africa and who has also performed at all the 46664 concerts so far.Actually, it wasn't co-written by Johnny Clegg. He had nothing to do with the song. The credits according to the 46664 DVD are: Stewart / Anastacia / May / Louw / Prayers by Andrews Bonsu |
| Paul Mark 14.10.2005 06:19 |
You're right my memory is failing me. Johnny Clegg wasnt involved in the song. Here the excerpt from Brians soapbox where he talks about recording the song that I think turned in to Amandla: "We got straight off the plane in glorious sunshine, Roger and I, were whisked off to the hotel, and then after a shower and almost nodding off (it was a pretty uncomfortable 12 hour flight) we had a wonderful lunch at the beach, and our first real in-depth discussions with Mr. Dave Stewart, we moved straight into the studio, where Dave and I found ourselves playing together for the very first time - he strumming a strangely tuned acoustic guitar, and me joining in on piano, because it suggested a riff to me - (it just seemed appropriate). We immediately found ourselves locked into a haunting sequence - and felt 'something was happening'. Then we realised that the studio was not yet set up to record (quite a tough job for the guys to make an ancient desk hook up with modern Pro Tools) - so we took a break which turned into a few hours - not wasted since we had many useful and fun discussions, about - EVERYTHING! But when the time came to put down what we had been playing instinctively - it had evaporated - it no longer had its magic. LUCKILY our new friend, singer Muddy (Mr. MudBones to me!) had recorded our original version of the groove on a tiny dictation machine on mini-cassette. We played it back through a microphone, and liked the sound so much we kept it as a sample!! I won't go into ALL the ensuing details, but a couple of hours later, after some overdubs from Roger on Drums, Dave on Synth, me on Electric Red Special (the Old Lady is still singing!), and a few of us on Backing vocals - we were able to adjourn to dinner with a VERY promising track started ..." |
| Mr Drowse 14.10.2005 08:34 |
Thanx, that was really interesting. I guess I'll have to watch the DVD when I get home :) |
| inu-liger 14.10.2005 11:12 |
Paul Mark wrote: You're right my memory is failing me. Johnny Clegg wasnt involved in the song. Here the excerpt from Brians soapbox where he talks about recording the song that I think turned in to Amandla: "We got straight off the plane in glorious sunshine, Roger and I, were whisked off to the hotel, and then after a shower and almost nodding off (it was a pretty uncomfortable 12 hour flight) we had a wonderful lunch at the beach, and our first real in-depth discussions with Mr. Dave Stewart, we moved straight into the studio, where Dave and I found ourselves playing together for the very first time - he strumming a strangely tuned acoustic guitar, and me joining in on piano, because it suggested a riff to me - (it just seemed appropriate). We immediately found ourselves locked into a haunting sequence - and felt 'something was happening'. Then we realised that the studio was not yet set up to record (quite a tough job for the guys to make an ancient desk hook up with modern Pro Tools) - so we took a break which turned into a few hours - not wasted since we had many useful and fun discussions, about - EVERYTHING! But when the time came to put down what we had been playing instinctively - it had evaporated - it no longer had its magic. LUCKILY our new friend, singer Muddy (Mr. MudBones to me!) had recorded our original version of the groove on a tiny dictation machine on mini-cassette. We played it back through a microphone, and liked the sound so much we kept it as a sample!! I won't go into ALL the ensuing details, but a couple of hours later, after some overdubs from Roger on Drums, Dave on Synth, me on Electric Red Special (the Old Lady is still singing!), and a few of us on Backing vocals - we were able to adjourn to dinner with a VERY promising track started ..."Thank you!!! I've been looking for that story!! Now another mystery to solve is who the 'Louw' guy is? |
| Paul Mark 14.10.2005 11:22 |
His name is Steve Louw. According to his website: link: "Louw's last live performance took place in Cape Town as part of the 46664 concert in aid of the Nelson Mandela Foundation. The show at Green Point Stadium raised millions for AIDS relief in South Africa. Louw co-wrote and performed the anthem 'Amandla' with Dave Stewart, Anastacia and Brian May, after which they were joined on stage by Bono, Beyonce and Youssou N'dour in a finale to the show." I also found this article from the South African Sunday Times newspaper: "Singer-songwriter Louw, who first hit the spotlight in the mid-1980s with his band, All Night Radio, and is now with Big Sky, composed Amandla with Dave Stewart, formerly of Eurythmics, and Queen's Brian May. "It was a wonderful experience working with them and an honour to have been involved in writing a song for the incredible 46664 concert," said Louw yesterday. The writing of the music happened spontaneously in Cape Town in March. Louw had arranged a studio for Stewart and May who had come to record South African singers and musicians. Stewart said: "Let's write something together." May sat down at the piano and started playing chords, and the magic happened. Dave Stewart completed the production of the song in the UK. Pop star Anastacia wrote the lyrics for Amandla, except for the chorus, which is Louw's creation." |
| inu-liger 14.10.2005 11:52 |
Excellent! Thank you so much, Paul! |