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question about the music in the film, please clarify

posted 12 years ago by frodo_unplugged
3 replies | jump to latest

Hi everyone,

I'm a bit confused. Saw the movie yesterday in a small arthouse theatre here in town. Loved the music, loved the voice, loved the songwriting. The songs and Rodriguez' voice had a very personal and immediate feel to it, no unnecessary bells and whistles, straight from the heart so to speak. It was somehow stripped of everything that's not essential, this made it very very powerful, almost too powerful for a forty year old recording. So, here's my question: The music we are hearing during the film is it identical to the music that was on the original recording or has someone invested a lot of time and effort in a more timely re-mix?

Why am I even asking this? Right after the show, I went and got myself a copy of the original recording. There it sounds much more like a historical recording would sound, it had some weird psychedelic noises, some screetchy sound and music effects that somewhat destracted from the quality of the voice and the songwriting. It just felt more muddled than what I thought I had heard in the theatre. Maybe someone can elaborate on this aspect.

Also, what I found very sad is that even though Sixto was such a poster child for the Apartheit movement, when he gave his comeback concert in 1998 (long after Apartheit had ended) there didn't seem to be one black man, woman or child present in the audience. Don't tell me there was a separate charity concert for all the poor black people after that. Or that ticket prices have been so high that only middle class white people could afford a ticket.

[–] Felix-La-PuBelle 12 years ago

I can't tell if you if the songs were remixed for the soundtrack. The soundtrack, to my amateur ears, sounds like the original recordings...in that they clearly have a 70s sound to them.

I'm also not an expert on apartheid era South Africa, but my take on it was that during apartheid, things were still incredibly segregated, so it seems highly plausible that within the white anti-apartheid communities different music came to the forefront than did within the black anti-apartheid communities.

[–] frodo_unplugged 12 years ago

thanks, you could be right. music just sounded somewhat stronger in the film, but that's maybe because of the strong visuals. will know for sure once the dvd hits the streets. they released a seperate soundtrack cd, so maybe there was a little tinkering and re-mixing involved after all.

there was one clip in the film where they show documentary footage of blacks and whites marching together during an anti aprtheid demonstration. so, I assumed that those protest crowds were at least partly overlapping in their social circles.

[–] rlsuth 12 years ago

The anti-apartheid movement in South Africa was not restricted to blacks only. There was a huge segment of the white population vehemently opposed to apartheid. I was at the University of Cape Town during that period and owned the Rodriguez LP. Was also on the steps at the university when the police rushed in and attacked the protestors (you see this in the movie), who were mostly white. Tough, strange times. Rodriguez was mostly a record bought by the younger, white generation.