The often overlooked 1987 Pride anthem that still moves people to tears
“The higher you build your barriers, the taller I become / The further you take my rights away, the faster I will run / You can deny me, you can decide, to turn your face away / No matter ’cause there’s, something inside so strong / I know that I can make it, though you’re doing me wrong, so wrong / You thought that my pride was gone, oh no, there’s something inside so strong.”Upon its release, protests against apartheid laws in South Africa were escalating.
Anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela was still in jail. He’d been imprisoned since 1962. He was finally released in 1990 and became the first democratically elected President of the country in 1992.Claudius Afolabi “Labi” Siffre is a British singer, songwriter and poet born June 25, 1945, to an English mother of Bajan-English roots and a Nigerian father.He began playing in jazz and folk bands in the 1960s.
He found success as a pop, folk and R&B singer-songwriter in the UK the following decade. He released six albums between 1970 and 1975, notching up beloved hits such as “It Must Be Love” and “Crying Laughing Loving Lying.”Siffre was wary of press interviews but also did not go to lengths to hide the fact he was gay.
As noted by the Guardian in a 2022 profile, even back in the 1970s, Siffre’s lyrics were not clearly aimed at the opposite sex.
