For He’s a Jolly Good Fela
If I get my act together, I hope to have a monster post on Fela Kuti up some time this week or next. In the meantime, the disco-inflected lilt of “2000 Blacks Got to Be Free”, from Fela’s 1980 collabo with jazzman Roy Ayers, is doing me just right on this rain-slicked Sunday. Downloading is highly advised.
Download:
MP3: Fela Kuti-“2000 Blacks Got To Be Free” (Left-Click)
January 27th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Nigeria in da blogosphere. Chea. Dipset.
January 28th, 2008 at 10:35 am
remind me to send you his album with Ginger Baker later
January 28th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Already got that one. It pretty much blew my mind.
January 28th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
I saw Fela in your weekly top artists and was wondering when you were gonna bust out a post on him. “Army Arrangement” and “No Agreement” continuously blow my mind. Fela’s honesty and intensity in his anti-Obasanjo rants make me laugh whenever I hear any Green Day-esque anti-Bush songs. The difference between modern day political songs in the west and what Fela (and others in Africa) is startling, almost shocking. Fela really was risking his life in calling out Obasanjo, et al.
January 28th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Great point, Ryan. The only thing Billie Jo is risking is getting his mascara smeared. It actually really irks me when the press refer to an artist a “brave artist” (see the recent spate of Heath Ledger eulogies).
Picking a role or writing a vaguely controversial polemic is not bravery.If ever the adjective was used correctly to describe a musician it would be Fela.
January 28th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
They killed his Mom. That’s a G right there.