The JRB presents tunes and accompanying editorial from our EAP member Tymon Smith.
This edition of Radio JRB has no overarching theme or idea other than that the records from which the songs were chosen all ended up coming from the second shelf of my record wall.
That should not mean that they’re second team/tier/rate choices because in the chaos that is the record wall there is no order just yet. The planned categorisation and enforcement of order on the shelving of the records is a lot like the National Development Plan in that it’s looking good on paper but is sorely absent in reality.
As the bitter cold of winter gives way to the promises of spring and the dreams of summer here are 87 tracks that cover everything from the moon to ‘the man in the sky’, a house called the Rising Sun, Pina Coladas and jokes that aren’t funny anymore.
Until the next time—the struggle for order continues, down with dust and up with people!
Listen here:
- Tymon Smith is a member of The JRB Editorial Advisory Panel, and a freelance journalist who writes about the arts and South African history. Previously the literary editor of the Sunday Times, he is the recipient of a silver Standard Banks Arts Journalist of the Year Award for feature writing. He was the head researcher for the interactive DVD Between Life and Death: Stories from John Vorster Square, and is working on a book about the Johannesburg police station.
