Cruel, Crazy Beautiful World is a studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 from South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

n artist Johnny Clegg and his band Savuka

Savuka

Savuka was a band formed in 1986 by English-born South African Johnny Clegg after the disbanding of his first band, Juluka. Both of his bands were inter-racial in the racially segregated Apartheid South Africa...

.

Released in 1989 and produced by Hilton Rosenthal and Bobby Summerfield, it is today recognized as probably the band's greatest album, containing hits such "Dela" and "Cruel, Crazy Beautiful World". The title track is addressed and dedicated to Clegg's son Jesse

Jesse Clegg

Jesse Clegg is a singer-songwriter from South Africa, and the son of the musician Johnny Clegg.-Early life:Clegg was born in Johannesburg in 1988. By the time he was six months old he was on tour with his father, and between 1988 and 1994 he spent at least 5 months a year on the road...

, born in 1988, who is depicted on Clegg's shoulders on the album cover. The song "One (Hu)'Man One Vote" was written in honor of David Webster

David Webster (anthropologist)

David Webster was a social anthropologist in South Africa who was murdered by covert forces of the Apartheid state.-Life:...

, a friend of Johnny Clegg and anti-apartheid activist who had been assassinated three weeks earlier. The lyrics of "Warsaw 1943" were inspired from the works of Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 author Czesław Miłosz.

In 1997, the song "Dela (I Know Why The Dog Howls at the Moon)" was released on the soundtrack of Disney's George of the Jungle

George of the Jungle

George of the Jungle was an American animated series produced by Jay Ward and Bill Scott, who created The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. The character George was inspired by the legend of Tarzan. It ran for 17 episodes on Saturday mornings from September 9 to December 30, 1967, on the American TV...

.

Track listing

All songs written by Johnny Clegg except as noted.

1. "One (Hu)' Man One Vote" (Johnny Clegg, Bobby Summerfield)
2. "Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World"
3. "Jericho"
4. "Dela (I Know Why The Dog Howls at the Moon)"
5. "Moliva"
6. "It's An Illusion"
7. "Bombs Away"
8. "Woman Be My Country"
9. "Rolling Ocean" (Clegg, Steve Mavuso)
10. "Warsaw 1943 (I Never Betrayed The Revolution)"
11. 'Vezandlebe"

Personnel

• Johnny Clegg - lead vocals, guitars, concertina, umhuphe mouth bow
• Derek De Beer - drums, percussion, backing vocals
• Keith Hutchinson - keyboards, tenor and alto sax, backing vocals
• Steve Mavuso - keyboards, backing vocals
• Solly Letwaba - bass, backing vocals
• Dudu Zulu - percussion, dance
• Mandisa Dlanga - vocals

Additional personnel

• Alex Acuña
  Alex Acuña
  Alejandro Neciosup Acuña aka Alex Acuña is a Peruvian drummer and percussionist, in the Afro-Cuban jazz style.Born in Pativilca, Peru, Acuña played in local bands from the age of ten, and moved to Lima as a teenager. At the age of eighteen he joined the band of Perez Prado, and in 1967 he moved...
  
  - percussion
• Tom Regis - keyboards
• Benn Clatworthy - tenor saxophone
• Howard Shear - trumpet
• Roy Wigan - trumpet
• John Baxter - backing vocals
• Bobby Summerfield - sampling, electronic percussion
• Hilton Rosenthal - keyboards, backing vocals