(Right: Richard Haslop. Pic
supplied)
December 2 at 18h00.
Table Bookings Essential: RSVP ST Clements 031 202 2511
"The US has a new president. Who knows yet whether that’s good or bad, but Ian Hunter, formerly of the band Mott The Hoople, wrote a song entitled When I’m President in which he warned, “You go in with the right intent when you become president / You hold those truths to be self-evident when you become president / But something happens to you up on the Hill / There’s business as usual”.
"There have been vast numbers of songs written about the presidency and about individual presidents … supportive ones, critical ones, happy ones, sad ones, humorous ones and as-serious-as-your-life ones, from FDR In Trinidad, Eisenhower Blues and Lincoln’s Funeral Train, through a string of complaints about Nixon like Neil Young’s Ohio, Country Joe’s Tricky Dickie From Jorbalinda and Frank Zappa’s Dickie’s Such An Asshole, to Lyndon Johnson Told The Nation and Rocky Mountain Mike’s Mr Tangerine Man.
"Sad Day In Texas and Crucifixion, a song that made his brother cry, are about the death of JFK while the Ramones’ My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down is about Reagan. And whether or not Little Feat’s Fat Man In The Bathtub is in fact about William Taft, it remains a great song.”
Through some of these and several more presidential songs, Richard Haslop will present a trawl through recent-ish American electoral history that will hopefully seem less haphazard than the US electoral system seems to him.
Richard Haslop is a practicing attorney with a focus on human rights, labour law, arbitration and industrial relations. He, is a multi-instrumentalist, music reviewer, radio personality and one of South Africa's leading experts on blues and roots music. He is a former president of the South African Society for Labour Law (SASLAW) and has acted as a judge in the Labour Court of South Africa on a number of occasions.
Richard has:
-written about music for national and international
publications for more than 30 years;
-presented a number of seriously eclectic music shows on
SAfm;
-lectured courses on the history of popular music at UKZN
Music Department;
-given talks, lectures and presentations at a number of
festivals and conferences in SA and overseas;
-played an incredible number of weird and wonderful musical
instruments, solo and in a variety of aggregations (for more than 40 years).
— See an article listing some of his favourite artists and
music here. http://www.rock.co.za/files/cs_richard_haslop.html
When the donation box is passed around, a minimum of R50 per person is suggested. The plan is to be outdoors. If it rains, they will set up indoors.
Bookings limited to diners in support of St Clements restaurant and staff. (They stay open specially for these programmes.)
Be there in time to order before the performance, scheduled to start at 18h00.
Please cancel if you book then can’t make it.
St Clements is located at 191 Musgrave Road in Durban. Mondays @ Six run between 18h00 and 19h00. Table bookings are essential on 031 202 2511.
If you wish to dine after the presentation, place your order before 18h00.