Andri Björgvinsson presents: Songs of Praise and Condemnation

The show has a wide variation of songs dedicated various characters from history.

Scott Walker sings the song The Old Mans Back Again dedicated to the Neo-Stalinist Regime refering to the Czech government that overthrew the Prague Spring era in 1968 with Soviet military help, the ‘old man’ himself being the ghost of Stalin returned to a horrific new life.

The record Buddhas Of Golden Light that features the track Kandrasuryapradipa was Pekka Airaksinen’s first in a series of recordings dedicated to each of the 999 Buddhas (to date, he’s covered just over 100). The technology used to make the record, a Roland 808 drum machine and a Yamaha DX7 synthesiser alongside his trusty saxophone, was fairly state of the art for its time, but the resulting sound is a far cry from the hip hop and synthpop for which such gear was already standard

In 1980, Franco was named a Grand Master of Zairean music by the Mobutu government, an honor that linked him with the ruling elite that was responsible for much of the economic problems beggaring the country. The subject of his songs shifted dramatically in this period to patriotic songs and praise songs to wealthy fans

In the song Candidat Na Biso Mobutu he sings:

Zairean people, get out on the streets, run through all the districts, shout as loud as a roll of thunder, to support the candidature of Marshall Mobutu Sese Seko.

The track uncrowned champion from Kurtis Scott is from a tape of his script from the biopic “T. Lewis Stone” the story of his own boxing career. The tape plays for about 30 minutes and it’s just Kurtis talking describing the scenes and acting some of the parts.. During the workout training montage the music “Uncrowned Champion” is playing in the background, on the tape Kurtis begins to improvise over the organ instrumental.

Pete Tosh praises the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie, who is revered as the returned messiah of the Bible, in the Rastafari movement. Joseph Spence and Reverend R. C. Crenshaw both praise Jesus, Robert Wyatt talks about Mao Zedong and Tonetta defends John Lennon from people who condemn him.