Picture: gillstrawberry.co.za
Picture: gillstrawberry.co.za
Dan Heyman was present at the birth of the South African band, Bright Blue,
and continued playing keyboards and songwriting in the band until its
demise in 1990.
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.
Raised in Cape Town, Dan Heyman received lessons in classical piano while
at school, until he was a teenager in the mid-seventies.
However, Dan Heyman never learned to read music properly, as figuring
pieces out by ear took less effort,
and this naturally hampered Dan Heyman's progress in calssical music!
However, after quitting classical music lessons, Dan Heyman listened to
plenty of contemporary music, and sometimes jammed with schoolfriends, two
of whom later were later fellow-members of Bright Blue with Dan Heyman.
A primitive electric organ, passed down from a cousin, was the only mobile
instrument Dan Heyman could get his hands on during that time.
In the years after high school, Dan Heyman attended the University of Cape
Town, studying engineering, and continuing to experiment on the piano
informally, whenever an opportunity presented itself.
When he turned twenty-one, he bought himself a new instrument with his
savings; a Wurlitzer electric piano, with which he was able to earn a
little cash providing background-music in restaurants,
and thus he met guitarist Tom Fox, which led to a couple of hasty jazz-band
gigs;
Later, Tom Fox would also be present at the founding of Bright Blue!
Traditional South African music was an inescapable influence, and the
piano-style of Dan Heyman soon grew some local accents.
During 1983, his last year as a student, those old friends from high-school
(the brothers Ian and Peter Cohen) invited Dan Heyman to add his sound to a
band they were starting,
and there Dan Heyman encountered Robin Levetan, the singer-songwriter
fronting the band, as well as getting re-acquainted with Tom Fox, his
former partner from the informal jazz band two years before.
But in mid-1984, Dan Heyman had to give up regular musical activity for two
years, when he was conscripted into the Army of the authoritarian Apartheid
government.
However, Dan Heyman would occasionally find pianos to play in the army, and
thus Dan Heyman came up with the music of "Weeping".
It was meant to be a sad instrumental piece, in which Dan Heyman expressed
his anti-army sentiments;
But later, the white regime imposed a State of Emergency, thus giving Dan
Heyman the idea for the words of "Weeping".
Following his 1986 discharge from the army, Dan Heyman plus the rest of the
band (with the exception of Robin Levetan) moved to Johannesburg, where
they remained until the band split up in 1990.
It was during that time that they recorded "Weeping", which proceeded to
spend two weeks in the top position on the government-controlled station,
Radio Five.
After the band broke up, Dan Heyman performed free-lance keyboard-work in
Johannesburg,
until 1992 when Dan Heyman journeyed to his current home, New York City,
where he still writes.
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