"Biko" is a guilty displeasure for me. It's a noble song - I just don't like it aesthetically.
wow, really? I guess I think you should feel guilty about that then.
I think it's some of Gabriel's best lyrics for one thing.
Chain reaction: Gabriel writes "Biko" and when Little Steven hears it he is moved to visit SA, where he has Van Zandt relatives who are firm believers in Apartheid, to see for himself. Decides to arganize the Artists United Against Apartheid & produces the album
Sun City. Bono appears on it & while recording in NYC, he hangs with Mick & Keith, who are there for moral support but schedule-wise can't do a song. Mick & Keith expose Bono to American roots blues for the first time in an all-night record playing and sitting on the floor jamming session, and Bono writes "Silver and Gold" the next day, and it gets on the Sun City album. Also starts talking politics with Bruce. U2 decide to take a year off to support Amnesty International & organize concerts around the globe, featuring Bruce, Gabriel & Sting (which memorably includes Sting doing "Gueca Solo" in Mendoza, Argentina, with about half the audience being Chileans). Tour culminates in a US date, simulcast on MTV, featuring a Police reunion, in which Gabriel closes the show with "Biko". At the end of the song the performers all walk off stage one by one, with the crowd singing "oh oh Biko, becau-au-ause Biko", until it's just the drummer, and then he hits those 2 bullet shots off the snare and the lights go down.
The impact all this had on the anti-apartheid movement is literally immeasurable, but profound.
