The playful South African kid’s song that ended up in Equality Court

The year is 1962, and Ag Pleez Deddy is a pleasant tune about rural kids unpleasant their papa for a journey to the drive-in. How did it end up being the very popular single in South Africa that year? Why did a tune about peanuts and popcorn end up triggering so much offense? It was ultimately prohibited by the nationwide broadcaster, the SABC. And it even wound up in the Equality Court.

AG PLEEZ DEDDY

If you’re not familiar with Ag Pleez Deddyvocalist and songwriter Jeremy Taylor informs the story behind it HEREFor context, Taylor was born in England and informed at Oxford. He transferred to Johannesburg in 1959 to teach. He later on described he was ‘bewitched’ by the method his students in the southern residential areas of Joburg spoke.

The locations’s special mix of English and Afrikaans, with slang all of its own, influenced him to compose Ag Pleez Deddy. It was likewise called The Ballad of the Southern SuburbsThe apparently safe tune ended up being the masterpiece of the revue Wait a Minim!, which opened in Johannesburg in January 1962. A live recording was launched by Gallotone as a single.

A SMASH HIT

Nobody might have forecasted how effective Ag Pleez Deddy would end up being. The single reached top on the LM Radio charts in June 1962. This made Taylor a gold disc for more than 75 000 copies. It outsold Elvis Presley, and every other domestic single in South Africa at the time.

The Apartheid-era SABC continued to prohibit the tune, along with many of Taylor’s work. The offense was not the racial slur explaining one specific sweet, which did ultimately wind up in the modern-day Equality CourtRather, it was Taylor’s blending of English and Afrikaans that required the restriction. At the time, keeping the languages different was main broadcasting policy, and linguistic pureness brought political weight.

STIRRED STRONG FEELINGS

There’s maybe more to Ag Pleez Deddy than at first fulfills the ear. Taylor himself stated the tune stirred strong sensations long before it was prohibited. “A great deal of individuals were upset by it. The tune held up a mirror to white middle-class rural life and its sort of mongrel speech. Some felt it buffooned their language and class,” stated Taylor.

As is so frequently the case, the restriction could not stop it. It pushed individuals to get hold of the record and sing along to the chirpy chorus around the braai. It’s simply among those tunes that South Africans of a particular generation know by rote. And others enjoy they’ll never ever hear once again …

What do you believe? Have you heard Ag Pleez Deddy before? Are you angered when you hear it today? Please share your ideas in the remarks area listed below …