Ctrl.Alt.Spotify: World AIDS Day

Welcome to this week’s Ctrl.Alt.Spotify mixtape! A quick recap before we start: If you’re still confused as to what Spotify is, it’s a free music player and streaming service available in the UK, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Spain and France. You can download it here [1].

You can download both our own mixtape and also the collaborative mixtape where you can add your own tracks if you disagree with our choices or feel like we’ve missed something off.

Now, without further ado…

Click here for the Ctrl.Alt.Spotify: World AIDS Day playlist [2]

Click here for the Collaborate.Alt.Spotify: World AIDS Day playlist to add your own favourites [3]


Today, December 1, is World AIDS Day. A day when all over the world people will celebrate in the spirit of solidarity and in support for people living with HIV. The stigma which surrounds HIV is something we’ve tried to tackle on numerous occasions here at Ctrl.Alt.Shift. We tackled stigma extensively back in Volume 1 Issue 2 [4]and this time last year we were raising awareness of HIV travel bans which prevent those who have the disease from visiting certain countries. We protested at the Russian [5] and Saudi Arabian [6]embassies, and were delighted when earlier this year President Obama finally lifted the ban in the USA [7].

Another way we’ve tried to tackle the stigma which HIV still carries is with our short film ‘HIV The Musical’. Starring The Office’s Martin Freeman and The Mighty Boosh’s Julian Barratt, the film satirises the way in which the complexities of the worldwide HIV pandemic so often lapse into lazy stereotypes. You can watch it here [8].

We’re also still backing the Stop AIDS campaign to stop pharmaceutical companies patenting their HIV drugs so that generic versions can be made and the world’s poorest people can afford them. Read more about that campaign action here [9].

Despite how widespread concern about HIV/AIDS is, it is surprisingly rare for the subject to be tackled directly by songwriters. Then again, perhaps it’s not so surprising given the fear, ignorance and misconceptions that surround the disease. Here are a few artists who have tackled the taboo, or whose songs have been adopted as awareness-raising anthems…

Track 1: TLC – Waterfalls

This single was huge back in ’95. Even my Dad loved it. It still sounds great today, but behind that luscious melody there’s a poignant tale of the effects of HIV:
“Little precious has a natural obsession
For temptation but he just can't see,
She gives him loving that his body can't handle
But all he can say is ‘Baby it's good to me’,
One day he goes and takes a glimpse in the mirror,
But he doesn't recognize his own face,
His health is fading and he doesn't know why
Three letters took him to his final resting place.”

Track 2: Bruce Springsteen – Streets of Philadelphia

The Boss wrote this haunting song for the 1993 film ‘Philadelphia’. The film shattered taboos at will as it told the story of a sacked lawyer, played by Tom Hanks, suing his former employers for discrimination based on the fact that he was both homosexual and living with AIDS. The film was inspired in part by the true story of Geoffrey Bowers, whose own lawsuit was one of the first AIDS discrimination cases.

Track 3: U2 – One

Mr Bono’s moonlighting as an expert on international poverty came under scrutiny again this week [10], but here’s a reminder that once upon a time he wrote the odd half decent tune as well. Many interpreted the song as telling the tale of a gay, HIV positive son coming out to his father, but it’s not necessarily about the disease. Mr Bono himself says that it’s a song “about coming together, but it's not the old hippie idea of 'Let's all live together.' It is, in fact, the opposite. It's saying, ‘We are one, but we're not the same’. It's not saying we even want to get along, but that we have to get along together in this world if it is to survive. It's a reminder that we have no choice.” The song has also been adopted as an anthem of HIV awareness in part because of Anton Corbijn’s video [11], the single artwork by David Wojnarowicz, an artist who died from AIDS, and the fact that many of the proceeds from sales went to AIDS charities.

Track 4: Buju Banton – Willy (Don’t Be Silly)

‘Voice of Jamaica’ Buju Banton gets straight to the point on this safe-sex anthem: “Ragamuffin, don’t be silly, put some rubber ‘pon you willy. AIDS is around and we don’t wan’ catch it.”

Track 5: Madness – House of Fun

Sticking with the safe sex theme, we move on to the House of Fun. The song’s not about HIV itself, but as Holly Davis found out in Kenya recently [12], access to condoms is a huge issue for many people who are living with HIV or trying to prevent it spreading further. Here, Suggs has turned 16 and wants to procure some prophylactics.  “Good morning, Miss” “Can I help you son?” “Sixteen today, and up for fun. I'm a big boy now, or so they say, so if you'll serve, I'll be on my way. Box of balloons with the feather-light touch.”

Track 6: Iggy Pop & Debbie Harry – Well, Did You Evah!

The Red Hot Organisation has been organising compilation albums to benefit the fight against AIDS for twenty years. Their most recent compilation was the really rather breathtakingly good ‘Dark Was The Night’ double album, which you can listen to on Spotify here [13]. However, for this mixtape I’ve chosen a track from their first ever compilation album. Called ‘Red Hot + Blue’, it was released in 1990, and saw contemporary artists covering songs by Broadway tunesmith Cole Porter. This is Iggy Pop and Blondie’s Debbie Harry’s campy take on ‘Well, Did You Evah!’.   
 
Track 7: Elton John – The Last Song

Ryan White was 13 years old when he was diagnosed HIV positive. He had contracted the disease from a contaminated blood treatment, and though Doctors confirmed he was no risk to other students, such was the stigma surrounding the disease that Ryan was expelled. His fight with the school brought him widespread attention, and he became a remarkably mature spokesman for awareness. As he put it, “Help me beat the odds and together let’s educate and save the children of tomorrow". He died at 18, four years longer than doctors had predicted he would survive. Elton John was inspired by meeting Ryan to found his own AIDS Foundation, and he wrote this song as a tribute.  

Track 8: Michael Jackson – Gone Too Soon

Michael Jackson was another musician inspired by Ryan White, and attended his funeral in 1990. He dedicated this song to him. Ryan White didn't just inspire musicians either. Remember that act Obama signed recently when he announced the end of the HIV travel ban? It's called the 'Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009'. 

Track 9: Billy Joel – We Didn’t Start The Fire

Billy Joel’s end of the eighties anthem was a rapid round-up of the major news events of his lifetime. Inevitably, AIDS is in amongst the biggest stories of the time, but it's important not to mistake a calming of the hysteria about AIDS since then for the problem going away. There are still 33.4 million people living with HIV worldwide.

Track 10: Outkast - Roses

Fast forward to this decade and Outkast’s Big Boi is aware of the importance of getting yourself checked out, rapping “my AIDS test is flawless”. 

Track 11: Tinchy Stryder - Stryderman

Bringing us bang up to date is the Stryderman himself who has campaigned with Ctrl.Alt.Shift to end HIV travel bans. He told Kieran Yates [14]: “When they first spoke to me about it, I was interested straightaway. You know that people aren’t allowed to get into some countries if they have HIV? I was thinking about it, and I thought it was wrong, so I got involved in that. It was a good thing to be a part of, and anything I can do to make my age group aware of what’s going on in the world is positive.”

Track 12: Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody

This track was re-released in 1991 as a tribute to Freddie Mercury, and appears on this mixtape for the same reason. Mercury was, like so many others, subject to the twin stigmas of homophobia and AIDS fears, with one newspaper accusing him of leading a “degenerate lifestyle”. All proceeds from the re-release went to an AIDS charity.

Bonus Track: Neneh Cherry – I’ve Got U Under My Skin

Also taken from the ‘Red Hot + Blue’ compilation, Neneh Cherry reworks the Cole Porter classic in this video directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino.


Words: Kevin E.G. Perry
Pictures:  Ctrl.Alt.Shift, Flickr user alenahra