Biko

Biko is an anti-apartheid protest song about Steve Biko, who died in police custody on 12 September 1977. Gabriel heard the news on the BBC, researched Biko's life and wrote the song. He made the basic track in a month and spent about a year refining the words. The lyric opens like a news report and names police room 619, and it is broken by the Xhosa phrase Yehla Moya, which means Come Spirit.

The album version opens with the South African song Ngomhla sibuyayo and ends with Senzeni Na?, as sung at Biko's funeral, from a cassette recorded by an English reporter. The single versions ended instead with Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika. Gabriel called the surdo beat the spine of the piece. Larry Fast made the synthesised bagpipe sound by detuning pulse-wave drones through a harmonizer. David Rhodes played guitar, Jerry Marotta drums and Phil Collins the surdo.

Impact

It reached number 38 in the UK as the third single from the album, and the South African government banned it as harmful to the security of the State. Gabriel gave the proceeds of the single, more than 50,000 pounds, to the Black Consciousness Movement. Steven Van Zandt said hearing it inspired the Sun City project, and Bono told Gabriel that U2 learned of apartheid from the song. It led Gabriel to the Amnesty International tours of 1986 and 1988, and he sang it at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute at Wembley in 1988.

A live recording from July 1987 at the Blossom Music Center in Ohio was released as a single to promote the film Cry Freedom and reached number 49 in the UK. A Rolling Stone review found it a muddle despite irresistible rhythms.