Song of the Day 2/27: Peter Gabriel and Playing for Change, “Biko”
Playing for Change, the music-education non-profit that records musicians around the world playing the same song and edits them into videos, released this Peter Gabriel classic a couple of weeks ago, 40 years after its original release, repurposing the anti-apartheid anthem to address police brutality. The notion has legitimate connection to the issue — after Stephen Biko died of injuries inflicted during police interrogation in 1977, the cops involved were exonerated, claiming Biko had attacked one of them with a chair and had hit his head on the wall during the ensuing scuffle.
Gabriel wrote the song after Biko’s death generated worldwide headlines, and it had far-reaching impact. It was swiftly banned in South Africa, so few people there heard it. But Steve Van Zandt was so affected by it he formed Artists United Against Apartheid, which convinced most Western musicians to boycott South Africa’s Sun City casino. It was another 14 years before apartheid and the white-supremacist government of South Africa fell.
This isn’t the first time the PFC has tackled the song — the live-band version of the project played it in 2017 at a New York concert, but gave it an entirely different vibe.
On his third eponymous solo LP, dubbed “Melt” by fans for its cover image, Gabriel began and ended the song with funeral chants in Biko’s native Xhosa language. He typically uses it to close his concerts.
Paul Simon, who recorded much of his 1986 “Graceland” album in South Africa, covered the song for “And I’ll Scratch Yours,” the 2013 Gabriel tribute album.
