Sun City (album)

In addition to the title track, other songs were recorded at the time completed an album's worth of material. Drummer-musician Keith LeBlanc and journalist Danny Schechter came up with "Revolutionary Situation", an audio-collage set to music that took its title from the words of South Africa's then-interior minister Louis Nel condemning the state of the country. Amid a background of yapping police dogs, sounds of mayhem and revolt in the township, LeBlanc and Schechter mixed in angry declarations by activists like Alan Boesak, Bishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela's daughter Zindzi, looped with what was at that time the most recent interview with her father, recorded in 1961.

Inspired by meetings with other artists who volunteered, Bono of U2 went back to his hotel room and wrote "Silver and Gold" the same evening. The song was quickly recorded, with Keith Richards and Ron Wood of The Rolling Stones, and Peter Wolf of The J. Geils Band. Wood's guitar work is notable for using Keith's switchblade as a slide. "Silver and Gold" was also distributed separately as a promotional single. A last-minute inclusion, the song was left off the track listings of the original 1985 album and cassette pressings and considered to be a hidden track. Bono later explained, in an appearance on the US syndicated radio show "Rockline" with Bob Coburn, that he submitted the tape of the song after the album's artwork had been printed by EMI Manhattan Records.[1] When Razor and Tie reissued the album in 1993, the song was included on the track listings. U2 also recorded two versions of the song: a live version in the Rattle and Hum film and album and a studio version on the B-side of "Where the Streets Have No Name".

"The scariest encounter of the Sun City project had to be Miles Davis," recalled Steven Van Zandt. "I wrote the intro for him to play… He's just not friendly. He makes Lou Reed look like a pussycat… He came in, sat down and I played him the 'Silver and Gold' tape. He's sitting next to me, and he talks real low and slow, and right in my ear: 'Hey man, do you want me to fucking play or what?' So he does his take, and I asked him to redo it with the mute on. I went and reassembled his old quintet with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter on bass and Tony Williams on drums."[2]

Sun City was a modest success, reaching #31 on the Billboard 200 pop albums chart. It did much better in terms of critical reaction, placing at #5 on the Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for albums for that year. Sun City got the final spot on Rolling Stone's list of the best 100 albums of the 1980s in 1989 and 2016.[3][4]

The album was issued on CD by Razor & Tie in 1993 – but, after the end of apartheid in 1994, eventually went out of print.

In 2019, the album was remastered for release as part of Van Zandt's career-spanning box set Rock N Roll Rebel: The Early Work. The digital deluxe edition of the album was released on December 6, 2019 containing four bonus tracks. The digital deluxe edition also includes the reissued Let Me See Your I.D. bonus EP.

• Little Steven – vocals, guitar, drum programming
• Kool DJ Herc, Stiv Bators, Peter Wolf, Kurtis Blow, Pat Benatar, Duke Bootee, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, Joey Ramone, Jimmy Cliff, Daryl Hall, Lou Reed, Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan, Nona Hendryx, Kashif, Big Youth, Peter Garrett, Malopoets, Sonny Okosuns, Gil Scott-Heron, Afrika Bambaataa, Rubén Blades, Bono, George Clinton, Peter Gabriel, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Bonnie Raitt, Run DMC, Bruce Springsteen, John Oates, Michael Monroe, Darlene Love, The Fat Boys – vocals
• Ray Barretto – vocals, conga
• Zak Starkey, Tony Williams, Ringo Starr – drums, Sonny Okosuns – talking drums; Keith LeBlanc – drums, drum programming; Benjamin Newman – drum programming
• Pete Townshend, Stanley Jordan, Keith Richards, Ron Wood – guitars
• L. Shankar – double violin
• Clarence Clemons – saxophone
• Miles Davis – trumpet
• Herbie Hancock, Richard Scher, Robby Kilgore, Zoe Yanakis – keyboards
• Doug Wimbish – bass; Ron Carter – acoustic bass
• Jam Master Jay, DJ Cheese – scratches
• Daryl Hannah, B.J. Nelson, Lotti Golden, Tina B., Kevin McCormick, The Dunnes Stores Strikers, Annie Brody, Dutka and The I.D., Robert Gordon, Steve Walker – background vocals
• Tony Wright – cover art