A track from the album No place for time here (released on 5 July 2024). A song about Johannesburg, South Africa, with historical and more contemporary footage of the city. The historian Jonathan Hyslop considered using this title for his book on the history of a Johannesburg trade unionist, eventually published under the title “The Notorious Syndicalist”. But “Highveld Utopias” is too good a title to let go. I initially used it with his permission for the Afrikaans version of the song that was released in the 2000s on the album “Bleek berus”.
Lyrics and music by Andries Bezuidenhout
Recorded and mixed by Andries Bezuidenhout
Mastered by Willem Möller
HIGHVELD UTOPIAS
The sun’s bleak face sniggers up high
Through the icy filters of the Highveld sky
The sphere folded into a chilly blue
With crystal membranes on the morning dew
Block and cement endure cold saturation
That gives every house here a frozen foundation
Caravan on bricks, the bare, bare branches
Of an iceberg garden’s forfeited chances
How long does it last, what would you say
Or did this dry season come to stay?
Cool at dusk, chilly at night
as Nigel and Balfour wait on the light
For marrow and vein and pipe to thaw
And the shivering in bodies to briefly withdraw
The reefs were traded for power plant blasts
But those scorching fires could never last
Headgear topple, mineshafts collapse
Under Main Reef Road the tunnels are traps
How long does it last, what would you say
Or did this dry season come to stay?
How long does it last, what would you say
Or did this dry season come to stay?
Perhaps clarity in crass, resolve in cold
When simple answers can no longer hold
The bleak resignation of the winter skies
Wraps your shoulders like expedient lies
How long does it last, what would you say
Or did this dry season come to stay?
How long does it last, what would you say
Or did this dry season come to stay?
© Andries Bezuidenhout