Chords for Lucky Dube—Reggae Strong Interview 1989

_ _ I was born in a small town in the Eastern Transvaal called Ermelo.
So the language we spoke at home was Zulu language,
which I think most of you do know something about.
_ _ _ This town is in the Eastern Transvaal _ called Ermelo.
It's about 200 km from Swaziland.
_ So I was born there and I went to school there until I was doing Standard 4.
And then after that I moved to another town called Stanerton, also in the Transvaal. _ _
_ _ _ And after there I was in Stanerton until I did my Standard 8.
After that I went to Newcastle.
Newcastle is situated in Natal, about _ 300 km from Johannesburg,
which is where I met Richard, my producer.
How did you start playing music?
_ Well, I started playing music when I was about 8 years old.
But then I was just singing in local bands where I lived.
But professionally I started in _ 1979.
_ _ What type of music did you play in the beginning and how?
Well, now the thing is, in _ 1979 _ I met my producer,
the guy who is my producer now, Richard Siluma.
I met him, he was with a band called the Love Brothers.
So they were playing _ Bakanga kind of music,
which was a very popular kind of music back home.
Every band used to play that kind of music.
And so when I joined this band I started by playing drums
and doing backing vocals and things like that.
It's only in 1982 that I recorded my own solo album.
_ Which was the first album you recorded?
My first album that I recorded was called Gudalang Ngenga,
which was in the Bakanga kind of music, that's Zulu soul music. _
It was called Gudalang Ngenga.
_ What does it mean?
Well, Gudalang Ngenga means I've been begging you for a long time.
_ _ So after this first album, _ _ what other albums did you record?
Well, after _ having recorded this very first album,
I was recording an album every year.
So I have about _ _ 5 or 6 albums in Bakanga.
Because the second one I recorded was Lenganinge Ye Tu and Dabatagati.
_ And I can't remember all of them because it's a long time back.
I can't remember all of them.
But it's about 5 or 6 Zulu albums that I recorded.
_ Reggae music _ came to me in _ 1984.
Because all along I was playing this Bakanga.
But it's only in 1984 that I changed and _ do reggae.
Now the thing is, back home, _ since Bakanga was the very popular kind of music,
any _ _ band, any upcoming band was doing the same kind of music.
Like when you live in Jamaica, you know reggae music being the only kind of music that you can play.
So it happened to me in that way.
Back home I played in Bakanga.
But after some time, in 1984, this kind of music became _ somewhat_
People get bored because of this music.
Because every band was playing it.
Everyone was playing this kind of music.
So people turned not to like it anymore.
So now even if I had a message that I wanted to send through to people,
it wouldn't come through properly because people didn't like it.
And so I thought I should try and _ [N] _ sing something fresh.
Something that the people don't know about.
Something that will come to them as something new.
That will make them listen to me.
And so it was only possible through reggae.
Because no one was doing reggae in South Africa before I started.
The first album I made in reggae was called Rastas Never Die.
This one was _ bent _ because they said I'm promoting _ Rastafarianism.
Which they actually don't like back home.
And so there's a black radio station called Radio Zulu.
And another one, Radio Tsoana, Peri.
Those are the radio stations that play a lot of reggae music.
They've got reggae programs on their stations.
And they are the stations that play reggae music.
So Lucky, [Eb] would you regard yourself [Fm] as a Rastafarian?
_ Well yes, I do regard myself as a Rastafarian.
Though at the moment I still have a problem.
Because like I said, back home Rastafarians are not really _ welcome.
And so the problem I have at the moment is that I don't know much
about the Rastafarian way of life, the culture and everything.
And so it's only now that I'm starting to be exposed to people
who know the Rastafarian way of life and the culture.
So I'm still learning about it.
Because back home we ain't got no books and we don't have Rastafarians.
I mean people who can tell me more about the culture and things like that.
So I'm still learning about it.
Because it's the kind of life I want.
That's why I consider myself as a Rasta.
_ There's some kind of similarity between Rasta and my Zulu tradition.
And one thing I like about Rasta is that it's _ got a feeling of togetherness every time.
Which is my principal aim in life, getting people together.
So that's what I find in Rastafari.
I mean the feeling of togetherness. _
That's what really attracts me towards _ _ _ Rastafarianism.
[Bb] Do you think you'll continue playing reggae music for a long time?
Or in fact you think you may make a change in a couple of years like you did [Dm] before?
[Eb] Well I think now reggae is me.
I am reggae.
I'm going to play reggae for the rest of my life.
Because [F] that's the only kind of music that _ makes me happy.
That's the only kind of music that I can express my feelings to my people with.
Because I'm not singing because I can or maybe I was given the chance to sing.
But it's a kind of expressing my feelings to my people and on behalf of my people.
So I think I'm going to work for my people for the rest of my life.
So I ain't going to change now.
I am reggae and reggae is me.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _