This weeks Track Of The Week comes from Julian Redpaths’ Shipwrecks EP which was released during January of 2013. Our featured track, Richard Turner, is the second on the EP.
Nothing fills us with greater joy than South Africans telling stories which are proudly South African. This is no tourism insert, but it’s sad that we as South Africans lack in patriotism to an extent where we’re afraid to tell our stories – Not Julian Redpath though.
Richard Turner is a song which explores the events surrounding the death of Richard Turner. Richard Turner was a South African philosopher who assumed a leading role as a political activist in the fight for an equal South Africa. In January 1987 Turner was killed in his Durban home and it is alleged that he was assassinated by the apartheid security police.
The song is a striking exhibit of Julians masterful song craft. It is an intimate and heartfelt contemplation on a possibly polarising matter – however Julian treads ever so lightly around the matter with the curiosity of a child who just lost their father. It’s no accident that Julian has been likened to the likes of Paul Simon and Bob Dylan.
“Mr Turner
Did they put a hole in your heart?
or did they wanna?
or do you think you tore them apart?
Looking out you window
What was the last thing you saw
Was it the dark?
Was it the light?”
–
Richard Turner
Catch Julian Redpath performing this Friday at Nothing Major alongside Sutherland.
