My Top 1000 Songs #826: Biko

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Kids today and their fancy internet! Why, when I was a boy, we had to go to the public library if we wanted to learn things!

Which is what I felt compelled to do after hearing "Biko," the epic closing track on Peter Gabriel's 1980 third album (like it's two predecessors, simply entitled Peter Gabriel, though informally known as Melt). By the time the album's emotionally grueling penultimate track, "Lead A Normal Life," has wafted off into the atmosphere, you figure the intensity is over, but then the world music chants and percussion of "Biko" kick in and you realize he's gonna go even heavier. As I learned after that trip to the library, the song commemorates Stephen Biko, the South African anti-apartheid activist murdered by police, and while the song focuses on one tragic figure, Gabriel conveys broader themes of hope and freedom, elevating what could have been a slow, brooding funeral march into something triumphant that you can still hear in your bones after its 7-plus-minute running time has finally faded.

Live:

Orchestral version, live on Letterman: