Andries Bezuidenhout - Camdeboo Dreaming

A track from South African musician, poet, and painter Andries Bezuidenhout's album "No place for time here" (released July 5th, 2024). Filmed in the Camdeboo part of the Karoo and made more trippy and quirky by means of AI generated animation. References to desert road trips in South African and US popular culture are reflected in images used in the video (Thelma & Louise, Bagdad Café, Jack Kerouac). A fantasy, a dream, or a memory of driving through the Karoo desert in an open-top Mercedes-Benz from the 1970s. An Afrikaans version of the song is also available on the album "Trooskantates" (July 2024).
Words and music: Andries Bezuidenhout
Recorded and mixed by Andries Bezuidenhout
Mastered by Willem Möller
CAMDEBOO DREAMING
In the rearview mirror a sunrise on full blast
Paper cups with coffee from the Stanley flask
Concrete chairs and a table under an age old bluegum
Down the mountain pass lies the Camdeboo
The speedometer is fluent and fully bilingual
It speaks kilos per hour, but can also tell miles
Its dial does not rotate, but swings from side to side
As we sail past a kestrel on a telephone line
Trunk with tailfins, red leather seats
Mixtape on the deck with a steady beat
Between Pearston and Graaff-Reinet my greatest wish
A shining convertible seventies Benz
Leave Lucy Jordan in Paris to make her own amends
Of Thelma and Louise I can just recall how it ends
And Bagdad Café you won't find around here
Jack Kerouac got lost, for decades now, I fear
Matchbox full of diamonds, and Riders on the storm
In the valley at distance a whirlwind being born
Valiant Swart and Kerkorrel sing about locusts and rain
As shadows lose their way between mountainsides and the plains
Trunk with tailfins, red leather seats
Mixtape on the deck with a steady beat
Between Pearston and Graaff-Reinet my greatest wish
A shining convertible seventies Benz
Nowhere to be, nowhere to go
And how we got here concerns no one
Cirrus clouds above and an open road
Just us and plains of the Camdeboo
Trunk with tailfins, red leather seats
Mixtape on the deck with a steady beat
Between Pearston and Graaff-Reinet my greatest wish
A shining convertible seventies Benz
Is this something I remember, is it even real
Or maybe a yearning or a beautiful dream
But I'm at the wheel and you're next to me, I bet
From Pearston all the way past Graaff-Reinet
© Andries Bezuidenhout