Heat, Dust and Dreams

Artist: Johnny Clegg & Savuka
Label: EMI Int'l
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 077779879526
EAN: 0077779879526
ASIN: B000008ECV

Release Date: 1999-02-04

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Listmania:

Essential Albums of the 1990s
My Favorite Johnny Clegg albums

Tracks:

These Days
Crossing
I Can Never Be (What You Want Me to Be)
Tough Enough
Promise
Inevitable Consequence of Progress
In My African Dream
Emotional Allegiance (Stand by Me)
Foreign Nights (Working Dog in Babylon)
Your Time Will Come
Your Time Will Come - Johnny Clegg

Similar Items:

Shadow Man
Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World
Third World Child
Scatterlings of Africa
In My African Dream

Customer Reviews:

Sadly, the last Savuka album, possibly Johnny Clegg's last strong offering.......2006-08-08

Heat, Dust & Dreams, by Johnny Clegg & Savuka. Release date: 1993. Currently out of print in the U.S., so you'll have to buy used or as an import. But do buy it if you like worldbeat or African music at all.

The opening track, "These Days", kicks off with the buzz of bagpipes and immediately informs the listener that they are listening to some serious fusion here. The styles blended by Johnny Clegg are South African mbaqanga, Western pop, Western rock, Celtic, reggae, and even Indian music, which makes it very hard to define. "These Days" is pretty heavy, with Clegg belting out the lyrics in one of the angriest, most biting tones he's ever done on any song. It makes "Soweto", off of 1982's Ubuhle Bemvelo, sound gentle. And, considering what South Africa and the world have just been through and what the future seems to hold for the tattered Africa, it's appropriate. What is surprising is the absence of hope or celebration even in the wake of the release of Nelson Mandela and the fall of apartheid.

The next song is one of the group's best. It's a short, softer piece in memory of a friend and former bandmate - the little note on the lyrics reads simply "For Dudu" - entitled "The Crossing (Osiyeza)". The song deals with the crossing from life into death, and how Clegg feels that it's like "coming home". It also deals with the impression that the departed leave behind. The Zulu chorus is effective, as usual.

"I Can Never Be (What You Want Me To Be)" has the subject matter of a man who feels inadequate and unsuitable for the woman that he loves and is bitter that she will never accept him because she's always want him to be someone who he can't be, which is oddly at ease with the uptempo, happy-go-lucky bounce of the instrumentation. Somehow, it works - it's charming and, most important of all, it's honest. Works for the Goo Goo Dolls; works here, too.

The next song is...well, it's honestly one of the best songs I've heard recently. "When The System Has Fallen" - even the name is promising. It starts off strong, with the always-awesome jaw harp and then the introduction of excellent, sharp vocals from Clegg, and just gets better, featuring a powerful Zulu-language chorus, which is almost always excellent and is brilliant here. Later in the song, the English and Zulu chorus lines are layered; the ending has downright majesty as the Zulu chorus is chanted over and over. The instruments drop down to drums, then finally the drums fall out and the last ten seconds are chanted a cappella. Definitely a "whoa" moment.

The fifth song on the album, "Tough Enough", kicks into gear with some cool concertina playing by Clegg. The lyrics aren't classic, but they work for the song. It's not a brilliant piece, but it's worth listening to and it's on my iPod, even if "When The System Has Fallen" and "The Crossing (Osiyeza)" are a lot better. This rock is fairly political, and has its merits. The bridge, which takes things down a notch, is pretty good.

And it's certainly a great deal better than "The Promise", which is weak. Clegg tries singing in a fashion that doesn't suit his vocal style at all, and the lyrics fall flat. It serves the purpose of calling attention to the main theme of the album, which is survival and "making it through".

It is followed by "Inevitable Consequence Of Progress". Now, the reviews I read said that this song was "brilliant", and it sounded promising: the perspective of a naive helicopter gunner shooting down native African tribesmen. Unfortunately, Clegg takes the previous bad vocals of "The Promise" to a whole new extreme of awful. There are really no words past that.

"In My African Dream" has good verses and a good bridge, but a very poor chorus with female backup singers that sound ridiculously out of place. There's a nice repeating keyboard thing going on beneath the main instrumentation of the song. Overall, the song doesn't hold up well. The chorus is regrettable.

The next song opens in a way that really shocked me. There's a heavy Hindi influence here; the usual bilinguality of the songs is between English and Zulu. Here, it's between English and Hindi. It's not that bad of a song, but it's not very good either, and the references to "the story of Ram" give the impression that Johnny Clegg just heard about some inspiring Hindu mythology and decided to write a funky song all about it. Definite slump over these past four songs.

Thankfully, "Foreign Nights (Working Dog In Babylon)" pulls it out. It's not a jaw-droppingly amazing or powerful song, but it's a good, solid track and is a marked improvement over the past four.

The closing piece is mostly Zulu and is awesome. It's called "Your Time Will Come". Towards the end, the deserved hope and celebration finally breaks through, as if the album itself symbolizes the dark times of apartheid that finally, at the end, break into the future: "I saw the Berlin Wall fall / I saw Mandela walk free / I saw a dream whose time has come / Change my history - so keep on dreaming". And that's a hell of a way to end an album.

Despite four songs in a row of "meh", I still have to recommend this for the rest of the album's worth of material. It's not for everyone. If you're only comfortable on the manufactured pop of the '90s and '00s, or the gangsta rap and hip-hop of the recent generation, or the shrieking, growling heavy metal of the U.S. of A., don't bother unless you want to break free. But if you like classic rock music, there's something for you here; if you like world music, it's quite recommended; if you like the bouncy sort of power ballads popularized by bands like Styx, Foreigner, and Boston, give it a go; if you just want to try something new, I can guarantee that it is definitely new.

The one.......2005-09-01

The best of the regrettably small catalogue. If you have the hits Crossing and Tough Enough already from a best of compilation, do not hesitate to purchase this anyway. African Dream, When The System Has Fallen, and Foreign Nights are outstanding songs also, easily worth the price of the CD. The background chorus is unique and inspiring.

If you're like me and would not have had the opporunity to see them live, I seem to remember them making an appearance on SNL many years back that you could catch.

Awesome Artist - a great unknown.......2004-11-26

I first heard Johnny Clegg in the early 1980's, just before I had the pleasure of seeing Juluka in concert. After Sipho McHunu left, the band was renamed Savuka, and is just as good to me. More accessible to western pop & rock listeners, but still very rooted in African music. Zulu is a beautiful language and this album is accented with zulu background and chorus vocals.

Out of the thousands of vinyl LPs and hundreds of CDs I have, this album remains in my eternal top 20. If I were stranded with only a CD player and 10 CDs, I would hope this would be one of them.

A MUST HAVE.......2004-07-25

Johnny Clegg is overlooked in the U.S., and this album proves he is 100 times better than the majority of dreck on the airwaves today. This album succeeds on many levels...strong hooks, enchanting rhythyms, memorable melodies and lyrics...even the Zulu language parts of the songs blend so well with the English lyrics that you will start to phonetically sound them out and try to sing it...you can't stop dancing, singing and loving this album...older fans of Clegg's various bands will think this more commercial and slick...it is a little different than his Juluka band days, but great nonetheless! A must have in any collection.

more solid afro-pop.......2003-04-17

Typical Johnny Clegg sound and lyrics, but somehow this album just doesn't measure up to "Third World Child" and "Cruel Crazy Beautiful World". There are still 6 or so good tracks on here, so well worth a listen. Just don't make it the first Johnny Clegg album you buy.

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