I had no idea what a tape recorder did, but I decided that I also wanted one with all my heart. Lucky for me, my birthday was close & my parents decided to fulfil my deepest wish & obsession. Of course, when I got it, I discovered that it was even more wonderful than I had imagined: Not only could I listen to whatever radio station I wanted to: I could tape things off the radio...or even my own voice talking - or singing! (not a great idea)
Within the next year or so, 5FM finally came to George - We only had "serious" radio stations [like SAFM which we could listen to the English version of Afrikaans programs] - & Kfm [which I didn't enjoy] before that. I discovered a whole new world of music. At that time, DJ's got to play what they wanted to play instead of record-company driven playlists. It was fantastic.
I became an avid listener of Barney Simon's hard rock/metal slot which I looked forward to with great anticipation. I had to listen to as quietly as the sound slider could go as not to let my family know that I was awake past my bed time. I loved recording my favorite songs - I particularly remember waiting up night after night for 'Stairway to Heaven' to come on - finger ready in anticipation on the record button. It finally did come on and I managed to tape it. That tape, like so many others, eventually got so stretched from repeated listening, but I would still listen to it.
During this time, I started hearing the name Valiant Swart mentioned. I always pictured this amazing guy who was so unbelievably talented...& elusive as I never actually found out what he had done that was so wonderful. Over the last 20 or so years, I have heard his name pop up time and time again but I somehow still had not found out properly who he is or what he does.
One of our friends in Stillbay, Annabel, invited us to join their table at a dinner & show at a place called 'Stables' last night. I was pleased to find out that the 'show' bit was a performance by Valiant Swart. What a treat! Although his music [mostly blues] is not the type I would choose to listen to regularly, his most awesome stories between songs & his poetic lyrics had me quite spellbound.
His words painted pictures in my head so beautiful that I can't even describe how awesome they were. It made me wish that I understood Afrikaans much better than I do - there are so many descriptive words that just can't be expressed in English.
Some of the songs are realy fun - like the one about the girl who wears too much eyeshaddow...to more serious ones where he touches on real issues - such as the one about a beggar called 'kleingeld' where he sings about the circumstances of how that little person came to beg. One of the lines is so poetically put: 'Jy breek jou heelgeld & pass jou vlenters aan' [You break your 'whole-money' and pass your {rags/broken bits} on]The chorus from "waar die dromers dwaal" [where dreamers wonder] goes:
net links van die ewewig en regs van die balans
[just left of the {another word for balance} and right of the balance]
tussen die vorige geleentheid en die laaste kans
[between the previous opportunity and the last chance]
daar waar die eggo teen die weerklank slaan
[where the ego collides with the {weather-sound / lightning}]
daar kom jou drome vandaan
[is where your dreams come from]
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