AFRITUNES WEEK 116 - "Factory Town" Original (Kwela-Inspired) Song by @jasperdick

Hello everybody on HIVE, and especially the AFRITUNES Community. My name is Jasper, and I'm writing (and singing) to you from Cape Town, South Africa! Welcome to Week 116 of AFRITUNES.

I love South Africa and some of the special flavours of music we get here, and I look forward to doing a few posts on AFRITUNES to bring you music from South Africa, or to show you my original songs that have South African inspiration…

After playing some of my favourite South African covers (there will be more), I thought it might be nice to do a few weeks where I play original songs I’ve written myself, but where I know that I’ve been influenced by a traditional South African musical style, or where I use some words from another local South African language.

Today I would like to sing you an original song I have written called “Factory Town”.

It was inspired by my first job working as a newly graduated Engineer in a literal factory town in one of the very few ugly places in South Africa, where the gold mining turns to coal mining, the air is polluted, and the only mountains are made of ash… So… I got out of there as soon as my year of bursary ended! This was a brave move (by my standards) because the money was good, but I wanted more from life and especially to live in beautiful Cape Town again!

I am not always brave with chasing what I want from life, and so now I use the song “Factory Town” as a metaphor for a state of mind where I am feeling stuck and scared of making a change… and the song reminds me to take some risks to pursue what I really want, to remind myself to be brave in life!

Musically, the song is very bouncy, and there are parts, especially the little solo after the second chorus, that are inspired by a similarly bouncy style of traditional music here in South Africa, called Kwela, which is played by street musicians, often with penny-whistle accompaniment!

Lyrics for “Factory Town” by @jasperdick (original)

All my life, I've been waiting
For the day, that I turn eighteen
'Coz all my life, I've been held down
Growing up, in this Factory Town

No no no, Mother and Father, let me go
There is a whole world, I need to know
Mother and Father, don't drag me down
Life is just too short, for Factory Town...

All my friends, I've seen them come and go
Freedom is a word they'll never know
All the girls are factory secretaries...
And all the boys are factory employees

Oh no please, MoMother and Father, let me go
There is a whole world, I need to know
Mother and Father, don't drag me down
Life is just too short, for Factory Town...

This town won't drag me down, no I don't need no factory town
This town won't drag me down, no I don't need no factory town
This town won't drag me down, no I don't need no factory town
Shit town won't drag me down, no I don't need no factory town