CaribbeanChoice: LUCKY DUBE

Message

   I heard about the aritist  Lucky Dube a few years ago.  I never really listened to him until recently.  By that I mean about three or four months ago when I bought a CD from a vendor.  I played it, but it still didn't grab me until  couple of months ago.  Those songs are so...so conscious-raising.  I listen on my car radio, at home, and sometimes at work.  I know that the songs are old, but to me, they are just released.  My sister is a patriotic fan of Lucky Dube.  She has all his songs...she said she's still crying over him.  The piece of @#$% who gunned him down, I hope he rots is his grave and burns in hell.  All the good musicians are being wiped off.  I'm sorry I didn't get to know Lucky Dube while he was alive.  But better late than never.  I'll enjoy all of his music.

Biography 

Lucky Dube (born August 3, 1964, died October 18, 2007) was a South African reggae musician from Johannesburg. He was named Lucky because when he was born in poor health, and the doctors thought he would die. But he survived, so was named Lucky. In his youth, Lucky lived with many different family members, singing in bars and in church. He eventually formed a band with some friends, but they could not afford to purchase instruments. Eventually, Lucky wrote a play which he and his bandmates performed, earning enough money to buy a guitar. Their band was then called Skyway, and they played in the mbaqanga style.

Two years after Skyway’s formation, Lucky joined Richard Siluma’s Love Brothers. He stayed with them for several years, before switching to reggae in the early 1980s. His first major success in that field came at the influential Sunsplash festival in Jamaica.

Lucky’s “Together as One” was the first song by a black artist to be played on a white radio station in South Africa. His two most popular albums, Prisoner and Slave, are among the most renowned and best-selling in South Africa’s history. One of Lucky’s favourite singers was the late Peter Tosh.

On the 18th of October 2007, Lucky was shot dead in an attempted car jacking in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Edited by sandra - 03 Apr 2010 at 5:40pm