Fela's music is in the DNA of every Nigerian. It's the soundtrack of the 70s and 80s for us. The lyrics to this song are deeply spiritual. It pays homage to water as the most powerful element. Water can be your best friend and your worst enemy depending on what you do with it. Water treats its friends well and it's enemies badly. That's why Water has no enemies. Those who fight with it, die. That's why Water is a metaphor for spiritual power. It's not whether u have it or not, it's what u do with it. So don't hate power. Hate those who use it wrongly.
I'm a white kid who grew up in the middle of the USA. I met an Ethopian student in university and he introduced me to Fela Kuti. I don't care for jazz at all but I could feel the passion and conviction in his music. We also smoked a lot of weed which probably helped lol.
So glad to see you dipping into Fela. He changed my life. Please listen to Gentleman, Zombie, Coffin for head of state (part 1 and 2) and please read up about him. You will not regret it. Read about his involvement with Ginger Baker from Cream. This was an iconic personality of the 70s.
Fela Kuti is always great. I just love how he plays the electric piano above all else. "Why Black Man Dey Suffer" is an incredible track if you want another one with a strong lyrical meaning.
Although RiL has Afrobeat on it, it's post-punk/new-wave makes it way different. Genius experimentation in its own right. I dont think you can compare the 2 musically.
One of Fela’s catchiest brass hooks, although not his most powerful beat. If you want to hear this band at full tilt, try "Confusion", a truly epic piece that spends all of 7 minutes relentlessly teasing the moment it finally bursts out into one of the hottest grooves ever put to tape. As for "Water", I always thought that it was a metaphor for “the people” - without whom the leaders could never survive, so they’d better watch out.
Yes, Fela 😀 I’m a big, big fan of Fela Kuti, so I’m very happy you did a review of one of his songs. Other songs you should try are, Zombie, Monkey Banana, Lady and Unnecessary Begging
You (and people giving you recommendations) can still find ways to surprise me, Justin. I’d never heard of Fela Kuti before, but I love that kind of atmospheric mid 70’s jazz-rock fusion.
This is so relaxing to me. I love how the rythm compells you to move the whole way trough, but always with confined movements, thus unwinding my entire body in the process. Now I`m completely at ease and ready for my dinner.
@@rogeroran2911 I have always seen the name and thought Ain't Got No Bridge to cross that divide. Yet today it The Aeroplane Delivered. Parcels Aplenty!
Oh yeah. It's incredible. Keep exploring Fela's music; you will not be disappointed. In my opinion, there were two musical geniuses who were the greatest innovators and who made the most significant contribution to music in the 20th century. One of them is Miles Davis. The other is Fela Kuti. There are others, as well. But for me, these are the two giants.
Does'nt everyone need good 'sax'!!! Africa the birthplace of man & music!!! Consider the roots of blues & jazz and rock ,the tree grows and branchs out to everywhere.So please be a good Fela and play more.Peace.
At last, someone is reacting to Fela - nice one Justin:) Fela's music is a huge rabbit hole and there is way too much to recommend, but among the standout tracks, Lady, Gentlemen, Zombie, Sorrow Tears and Blood and Expensive Sh*t spring to mind. I hope you do some more Fela some time.
Thanks so much for playing Fela! Would have never expected it. He was an amazing artist and activist and was able to combine them together. The military dictatorship in Nigeria didn't tolerate any criticism from anyone. If you were a news reporter, or a writer or a poet (Ken Saro Wiwa) and told the truth about what was happening in the country, you were usually imprisoned or killed. Fela knew this. Once he created his musical style, which the people loved, he used his music to talk about the corruption and brutality in the government and military. So it's powerful stuff with a clear message about justice and human rights. All these people here talking about doing Zombie next know what's up.
Hi JP. Dave from a gloomy London, watching the sky Fade To Grey. Love that you are playing African music. I don't know Fela so well, but I like quite a few other West African artists: for example, Mory Kante, Papa Wemba and my favourite, Youssou N'Dour. Great reaction to the music and lyrics of this song; yes, jazzy but a bit Latin too. Of course, Peter Gabriel did so much to popularise world music with his annual Womad festival, and his Real World label and studio. You should also check out the infectious rhythms and twangy guitars of Southern African music which I got to know when I worked in the region a few years ago.
The next natural song would be Zombie, it’s great! There are many great African artists for your (and our) listening pleasure: Ali Farka Touré, Tinariwen and Orchestra Baobab to name a few
What an amazing reaction to one of the worlds top musicians. Love Fela Kuti and his social conscience. He is an icon. Believed in the rights of the ordinary people against Westenn Conlglomairates.
I have seen Fela Kuti at the Montreal Jazz Festival many years ago. The album may be good, but it dosent even compare to seing him live whit the whole band. So much energy and impossible to stand still without dancing.
Oh wow! Fela Anikulapo Kuti, what a great figure, much larger than a mere musician. Such a political figure. Man, what a GROOVE!! Try I.T.T (International Thief Thief), It will blow your mind for sure.
Love to see you checking out Baba Fela Kuti! As you read a bit of, Fela was more than just a musician or a singer, he was a mouthpiece against the violence and corruption in the Shagari government at home and against tyranny and black oppression as a whole; he was a truly incredible figure who suffered through a lot to get his messages out, and is remembered as a folk hero for many in Nigeria. From what I've heard of his, a lot of his songs tend to follow this structure, with the first half being instrumental vamping and soloing, and the latter half being vocals with a call and response, and Fela's mixing of his native tongue with pidgin English; if you're interested in more, you could check out "Yellow Fever", "Beast of No Nation", or "Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense". If you're interested in other African artists, I love Hugh Masekela, of South Africa; his album "Hope", recorded in New York City, is fantastic - I'd recommend "Stimela" or "Ha Le Se". Another legendary X'hosa artist is of course Mariam Makeba, also called Mama Afrika, who is a legendary figure in her own right - and also was at one point a UN representative, for I believe Guyana, whose president she was close with. And then there's the Zulu choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo, who are terrific; if you've heard Paul Simon's "Graceland" record, they back him on "Diamonds On the Soles of Her Shoes" and lead on "Homeless" (and if you haven't, that's also a great album). The Soweto Gospel Choir is also really nice; and out of Zimbabwe, there's also the lovely Oliver Mtukudzi. I'd also like to give a shout out to the artist Exuma, from the Bahamas, whom I found out about recently and have loved exploring; if you like the groove of Afrobeat and African rhythms and Fela's style of vocals, you might dig that too. Cheers!
Brilliant! I certainly didn't expect this, a great idea. Some other goodies are Zombie, Gentleman and International Thief Thief (ITT) also his Africa 70 stuff with Ginger Baker. BIG thumbs!
@@-davidolivares Lady, Live with the Africa ’70 and Ginger Baker is good and Expensive Shit with Africa 70. If you like the sound it's mostly all good. His son Femi Kuti carries the torch too with his own stuff.
You could have, instead, reacted to Nightwish's "Ghost Love Score" live at Wacken, and immediately piled up a thousand comments. It seems that in the galaxy of music reactions, viewers tend to gaze at reactions to their favorite band and favorite songs rather than taking a flyer on the new and the unknown. This song had an unpolished sound to it, so prevalent that it must have been intended. I enjoyed it, because I tend to enjoy fusion music. It was nice to hear an actual African band playing "world music", as opposed to some American or European group exploring it as a way to vary their own sound on a new release. A pleasant listen. It is often noted that H2O is a dangerous poison if consumed in excess amounts.
The Super Rail Band from around this same time period (and from Bamako) will truly blow your mind. Let me know if you can't find any, and I'll put some mp3's up in a drop box for you or something. Salif Kieta and Mory Kante (RIP) were both in this band for a bit in the early years. "Dakan" (I looked) is here on UA-cam, and that's an awesome track from the 1970's. Brilliant even. The West African band you REALLY need to check out is the Tuareg band out of Timbuktu - Tinariwen. They continue to bang out some truly outstanding music, and are easily found here on UA-cam. If nothing else, check out "Tinariwen Africa Live-Roll-Back -Malaria." Then check out the history of this band to really blow your mind. So glad you're checking out some of my true musical bliss now - I spent some of my formative years in Cameroon, so the Fela vibe sits very close to my heart. BTW - your comment on "hips" is spot on. As a percussionist, I use the ears in my hips to track one set of beats while playing another with my hands. Awesome review of a most neglected and underappreciated musical genre here, Justin! Edit - CAN'T believe I forgot to plug Habib Koite & Bamada! Definitely treat your ears to "Din Din Wo" and to "Fatma."
Your lyric break down and background info has for me given this masterpiece a utmost high respect ✊🏽 and appreciation I knew and felt in my heart and soul there was a deeply hidden message that my spirit was connecting to with this track now I truly understand why.. Thnx for the much needed info on the MUSIC and the MAN👌🏽✊🏽🙏🏽✌🏽
as i was about to write I am in a supermarket the Voice broke the deadlock! And yes the charisma emerged the character the identity the purpose the protest the message the jubilant Waataa the groove enhanced all the suprmarkets of the land which turned into community village halls and the the trombones surged with riptides of crescendoed ethnic organs we're in the Co-Op we're in a grocer store and we're Smilin"
I dig this “stuff”. Dig deeper anytime. I got into King Sunny Ade in the 80s with Juju Music and Syncro System. Love that style of guitar. Play some please. XTC’s, It’s Nearly Africa is an interesting hybrid of African rhythms and English new wave punk pop. Well worth a investigation. Apparently very hard to play live, with only a snippet of a try available during a sound check. And of course, please continue David Sancious’s Transformation (Speed of Love) please. Peace and archeological Music
I first heard KSA on CBC radio as I was driving along a gravel road in Hecla Park. "Ja Funmi" came on the radio and it was amazing. Guys I was hanging with then used to listen to Manu Dibango in the early 70s but I had never heard anything like it before. edited to add the KSA plays on the 3 Mustaphas 3 album "Heart of Uncle". Listen to "Taxi Driver (I don't care)" and you will hear his distinctive guitar.
Yessss. King Sunny Ade’ came to my mind as well {[ “Ja Funmi,” man, that song *always* transfixes & transports me]} -~ wasn’t expecting that XTC reference!nice 👍🏼 - will have to checkout David Sancious - btw, (and y’all probably know) Budos Band get into this Fela 🎷groove🪘quite a bit.
I love Fela. Even saw the Broadway show about him which was fantastic. Zombie is one of his best. Look up the story about how he almost had Paul McCartney killed.
What a great diversion! I've come to Fela's music fairly recently myself, and it's a wonderful hybrid of traditional African music and jazz. Totally alive stuff. You might also want to check out King Sunny Ade, and an absolute necessity is "Soul Makossa" by Manu Dibango.
This is the first of your listenings in which I am also new to the music; I know the name but never ventured in, so thanks for holding the door open for me. It's the brass that hooks me first, but the whole mix is a hypnotic treat. Offhand, in European terms, it's nearest to Traffic/Steve Winwood for me; not a profound observation, just a way in for me.
This was probably suggested to you when you were exploring Talking Heads Remain in Light. He is a huge influence on that album. If you like this you might also enjoy Sun Ra and his Arkestra.
Are we about to get into the whole who was first, Manu Dibango or Fela Kuti? Dibango was brilliant. Soul Makossa didn't come out until 1972 but he was releasing records as a band leader by 1969. If you are investigating Fela (who is good), you really need to listen to Dibango (who some will argue is better). A lot of this music was dance music and it is reflected in the repetition but there is a lot of skill and talent in these songs. For percussion in Africa music I would recommend King Sunny Ade and His African Beats "Juju Music" album. I saw KSA in 1983 and it was brilliant and not all due to the contact high (we might of been the only people in the audience not smoking pot). KSA has been around since the late 60s as well. There was a lot of good music coming out of Cameroon and Nigeria in the late 60s and early 70s which is interesting as there was a major civil war in Nigeria in 1970 (Britain's involvement lead to John Lennon sending his MBE back to the Queen in protest). As with many wars in the 20th century, no matter what anyone said, the war was about oil and who controlled it.
Fela takes u on a spiritual journey everytime. All his songs always have a long instrumental and used to have issues with record companies because he refused to shorten his songs. If u watch his live performances, u will see he was influenced by James brown...in the way he conducts his band. His lyrics are usually a combination of pidgin English (broken) and yoruba. A couple I think ull love, which I think have a special rhythmic quality are why black man dey suffer and Johnny just drop
@@JulioLeonFandinho err maybe not in terms that might be understood in the west. Fela believed in traditional african Gods & literally prayed & sacrificed to them. If you listen 2 a lot of his music, he would say lets get down to another spiritual game, suggesting you open up your hearts & mind to let the music flow through u, in order 2 touch ur soul
Thank you, Justin. Yes, a few of us have been hoping to see you go down the Afro-pop-beat rabbit hole. If you want to SAMPLE ( and not quite yet deep-dive into Fela's 2 dozen or so albums), try Amadou and Mariam ( Coulibaly ) or Habib Koite ( Fatma ) both from Mali. Or Papa Wemba ( Yolele ) from Congo. So much rich music.
Yay! You're branching out of "rock" music! There's so much to explore. I grew up around Caribbean music, but not much "world" music beyond that. I didn't start listening to African music (I know that's really broad) until I was an adult. My knowledge of it is still very limited, but what I do know is amazing. I highly recommend you check out a compilation album! It's titled World Psychedelic Classics 3: Love's a Real Thing - The Funky Fuzzy Sounds of West Africa. There are some really great songs on there. I'm a huge fan of the kora and Toumani Diabaté and Ballaké Sissoko are both masters of the instrument! Edit: This Fela album is worth a full listen!
My workmate who loves reggae and early Pink Floyd and Breton Folk artists recently asked me to send him somethin experimental on the work's whats app app! I was very pleased with what i sent him. Carrie & Lowell Live by Sufjan Stevens. Completely genre free really. So, I agree, let's stay Fluid!
@@HippoYnYrEira Probably not! I haven't seen it. I'm super out of steps with new music these days though I know the album is a few years old at this point. It shows I've been out of step for some time. I'll have to have a look. Let JP know to watch, too! Thanks.
This album is on the latest edition of Rolling Stone's 500 greatest albums of all time, and I've been meaning to get it ever since. Great preview here, definitely more interested to hear the whole thing now.
Hell yeah, afrobeat! Zombie and Expensive Shit are great Fela Kuti songs as well. You gotta do some songs from Talking Heads - Remain In Light next. Also for a more modern masterpiece The Shaolin Afronauts - Kilimanjaro.
What I think is that anyone who reacts to fella Kuti I will follow……….I found him looking for ethnic reggae .an album called confusion…..one song album. Playing fella would increase my tips delivering food in MELBOURNE…….[Along with a diverse playlist]…..makes me smile when I know you’re going to react to a change in the song and you do………he was a freaky cat
I agree with a lot of others in that this is unexpected. If you're into percussionists Tony Allen is a name to remember. Also recommend "Shakara" and "Sorrow Tears and Blood". Thank you
Along related lines, you should check out the other side of Africa with Ethio-jazz musician Mulatu Astatke. "Yegelle Tezeta" is probably his best known track, followed by the similarly-named but completely-different-sounding "Tezeta."
Too many great tunes to list but for starters the album, "Live with Ginger Baker" is excellent and he has one short tune called 'Eko Ile' that is blistering. Because the US backed military dictatorship was watching his every move, he spoke in an poetic code to attack them. .
Gives me a kind of reggae feeling. All the influences just went home, though. As far as pronunciation goes, I would guess that Kuti would have the same T as you find in Tea. (And you could take that as a general rule for languages given Bibles in Latin letters by British of French missionaries. The "t that becomes d" is largely an Americanism - although it has spread from there. ) And then a Nigerian I knew for a while talked of the "YAWruba" with strong emphasis on the first syllable. You're more likely to get pronunciations a bit different (that w-word is ugly, man) by thinking "waadr" instead of "woretuh" when you see "water", though. Same Nigerian told me the whole history of post-colonial Nigeria (from the Igbo perspective - which sounded still like "Ibo" to my ears). Nigeria has been through some rough times, largely through not being a natural country (actually sounding more like a bunch of enemies who were forced together by the British). So it's not racism as such that he's on about, just the same thing without "color coding". You'd have to ask a proper historian to get it straight and in detail (for starters there are "small" groups of significant size that don't align with the "main three", just to complicate things), but in the North, they're Muslim, and the British tended to think of Muslims as good fellows, and the best local rulers to deal with; so on independence a very large percentage of civil servants (and especially the military - which was drawn almost entirely from the North) were Northerners. Then on the one side of the Niger River former forest areas are the Ibo (which academics seem to write Igbo today), and on the other side are the Yoruba. Now the Ibo are the best people in Nigeria (until someone from Yorubaland tells me the story his way). They're "the Jews of Africa". They're entrepeneurial; they value education; they're self-starters. (And if you live in a country which doesn't have any Igbos in it, there's something wrong with your country, because they tend to venture out into the world, and settle in any place where it's even only half possible to make something of your circumstances. They tended and tend not to go for government jobs. And the oil is mainly in their part of the country. (Actually it's not; it's in the land of some of those small but sizable minorites). The Yoruba are the second best people in Nigeria (according to one Ibo, anyway). They're almost as educated and enterprising as the Igbo. And the Northerners are basic farmers who join the army if they're ambitious. Then they overthrow the government, plunder the country, and move all the loot offshore to the willing hands of Westerners quite happy to manage their "investments". Not racism, but basically the same thing without the color coding aspect. Early on, the Ibo tried to break away from the confederation (to become their own little oil state), and the government made war on them. And this was serious shit. Literally Millions of people died in that conflict. Look up Biaffra if you want to know the details. And that was far from being the end of it. You've had a succession of dictatorial or authoritarian or kleptocratic governments; and they've killed, maimed, or destroyed the lives of millions more people. Millions. Not thousands. Not hundreds of thousands. Millions. Institutional and nearly-institutional inter-ethnic violence is still part of Nigerian life today (according to the one man who gave me my entire history, anyway). This is something to register: Yes the apartheid government was vicious and unjust; but they were also just the most popular news item from Africa-going-wrong through the years - I think largely for reasons connected to things "offshore". But in terms of the number of people they actually killed, it adds up to at most, thousands. They ruined the lives of millions, yes (but had no monopoly on this - not by a long shot); but they killed relatively few people. And the way to take that fact is to maintain a strong disgust for everything apartheid as a baseline, and then find *More* disgust than that for worse misgovernance (and obviously less disgust, and sometimes even a bit of admiration, for less misgovernance). (If you just treat each government as an instance of some level of "governance" in this scheme, I think what you'll find is that there's only misgovernance, by and large. In rare instances are governments truly good for the people they live off.) Anyway, Nigerian governments have killed and brutalised millions of people, but it hasn't been "newsworthy", so it's a less known fact than that other governments were worthy of disgust and contempt for less.
✨Ali & Toumani - check out some truly lovely, magical music from Mali: Ali Farka Touré on guitar and vocals with Toumani Diabaté on the kora... oh man, the kora is such a beautiful instrument and these musicians bring me such peace & tranquility.
Heard the name, not a lot by him. From the off i was enjoying this. great beat, rhythms, and loving the brass. But started feeling it a little repetitious half way through, and my interest started to wain. Some nice playing. Those keys though, were they supposed to be solo's? pretty weak. Overall, good start but too long, would benefit from some editing. .
I love a lot of African music, but this was too jazz and meandering for me. I prefer Malian artists like Ali Farka Toure, Salif Keita and Toumani Diabate, all hypnotically enchanting and tinged with a melancholy beauty in their different ways. Or for a more robust and rocking sound I'd choose The Bhundu Boys from Zimbabwe. But I think it's great that you're branching out from English progressive rock. There"s so much interesting music around.
I found it rather unremarkable instrumental meandering at the start. I say this because, after a few minutes, I'd stopped taking any notice of the music and instead found I'd opened another browser window and was reading my latest emails, the music just playing away somewhere at the back of my attention. Only the bit where the vocals came in brought me back to the music itself.
Fela's music is in the DNA of every Nigerian. It's the soundtrack of the 70s and 80s for us. The lyrics to this song are deeply spiritual. It pays homage to water as the most powerful element. Water can be your best friend and your worst enemy depending on what you do with it. Water treats its friends well and it's enemies badly. That's why Water has no enemies. Those who fight with it, die. That's why Water is a metaphor for spiritual power. It's not whether u have it or not, it's what u do with it. So don't hate power. Hate those who use it wrongly.
I'm a white kid who grew up in the middle of the USA. I met an Ethopian student in university and he introduced me to Fela Kuti. I don't care for jazz at all but I could feel the passion and conviction in his music. We also smoked a lot of weed which probably helped lol.
Note that this is Fela playing both sax solo and keys solo! He was an extraordinary man.
Nigerians are blessed to have artists like Fela Kuti.
The original afrobeat. Fela the iconoclastic genius.
this is spiritual music....im suddenly taken back to place iv never been.
Fela, Afrobeat. There is a whole world to discover right there. A personal fave is Roforofo Fight. Nice one Justin for venturing out a bit!.
Fela Kuti is a giant among musicians, and among men. Check out a live performance video -- so powerful.
So glad to see you dipping into Fela. He changed my life. Please listen to Gentleman, Zombie, Coffin for head of state (part 1 and 2) and please read up about him. You will not regret it. Read about his involvement with Ginger Baker from Cream. This was an iconic personality of the 70s.
Fela Kuti is always great. I just love how he plays the electric piano above all else. "Why Black Man Dey Suffer" is an incredible track if you want another one with a strong lyrical meaning.
If you want to get deeper into Fela's music I would recommend Zombie and if you don't mind longer songs Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense.
Gotta do that one JP. Never a truer word😁🦆
LOVE THIS!
Fela Kuti -> Taking Head's Remain In Light album.
Although RiL has Afrobeat on it, it's post-punk/new-wave makes it way different. Genius experimentation in its own right. I dont think you can compare the 2 musically.
One of Fela’s catchiest brass hooks, although not his most powerful beat. If you want to hear this band at full tilt, try "Confusion", a truly epic piece that spends all of 7 minutes relentlessly teasing the moment it finally bursts out into one of the hottest grooves ever put to tape. As for "Water", I always thought that it was a metaphor for “the people” - without whom the leaders could never survive, so they’d better watch out.
Please try watching one of Fela's performances, especially from the Shrine. Brilliant,
Yes, Fela 😀 I’m a big, big fan of Fela Kuti, so I’m very happy you did a review of one of his songs. Other songs you should try are, Zombie, Monkey Banana, Lady and Unnecessary Begging
Original Afrobeat!
Wow, I would never have thought of recommending Fela Kuti, butI'm so glad that somebody did! There is so much good material for you to explore!
You (and people giving you recommendations) can still find ways to surprise me, Justin. I’d never heard of Fela Kuti before, but I love that kind of atmospheric mid 70’s jazz-rock fusion.
This is so relaxing to me. I love how the rythm compells you to move the whole way trough, but always with confined movements, thus unwinding my entire body in the process. Now I`m completely at ease and ready for my dinner.
Way outside my normal listening BUT toe tapping indeed! Really enjoyed it.
He doesn’t have a bad song. All very long, but great stuff.
@@rogeroran2911 I have always seen the name and thought
Ain't Got No Bridge to cross that divide. Yet today it The Aeroplane Delivered. Parcels Aplenty!
Oh yeah. It's incredible. Keep exploring Fela's music; you will not be disappointed. In my opinion, there were two musical geniuses who were the greatest innovators and who made the most significant contribution to music in the 20th century. One of them is Miles Davis. The other is Fela Kuti. There are others, as well. But for me, these are the two giants.
Does'nt everyone need good 'sax'!!! Africa the birthplace of man & music!!! Consider the roots of blues & jazz and rock ,the tree grows and branchs out to everywhere.So please be a good Fela and play more.Peace.
JPP, give King Sunny Ade and the African Beats a listen, especially the "Juju Music" Album. I suspect you will enjoy it.
Love Fela Kuti 💯🔥
At last, someone is reacting to Fela - nice one Justin:) Fela's music is a huge rabbit hole and there is way too much to recommend, but among the standout tracks, Lady, Gentlemen, Zombie, Sorrow Tears and Blood and Expensive Sh*t spring to mind. I hope you do some more Fela some time.
Thanks so much for playing Fela! Would have never expected it. He was an amazing artist and activist and was able to combine them together. The military dictatorship in Nigeria didn't tolerate any criticism from anyone. If you were a news reporter, or a writer or a poet (Ken Saro Wiwa) and told the truth about what was happening in the country, you were usually imprisoned or killed. Fela knew this. Once he created his musical style, which the people loved, he used his music to talk about the corruption and brutality in the government and military. So it's powerful stuff with a clear message about justice and human rights. All these people here talking about doing Zombie next know what's up.
Ah, Fela, nice. Sunshine music! Also worth exploring Salif Keita and King Sunny Adé. Warning: it will be difficult to sit still 😀
I love Fela, and this is one of his masterpieces. Essential listening!
I love how down the music rabbit hole you have gone. So much great music down here.
This can be re release internationally for all to know there was once a musical 🎼 legend and force in Africa Nigeria to be precise.
Good Sunday morning music! Adding to my library so thanks JP.
Awesome!
Hi JP. Dave from a gloomy London, watching the sky Fade To Grey. Love that you are playing African music. I don't know Fela so well, but I like quite a few other West African artists: for example, Mory Kante, Papa Wemba and my favourite, Youssou N'Dour. Great reaction to the music and lyrics of this song; yes, jazzy but a bit Latin too. Of course, Peter Gabriel did so much to popularise world music with his annual Womad festival, and his Real World label and studio. You should also check out the infectious rhythms and twangy guitars of Southern African music which I got to know when I worked in the region a few years ago.
Youssou is excellent
Just heard his name, no more.
Jazzy, funky, fusion music. Quite nice.
The next natural song would be Zombie, it’s great! There are many great African artists for your (and our) listening pleasure: Ali Farka Touré, Tinariwen and Orchestra Baobab to name a few
love orchestra baobab so much!
Checkout Akofa Akoussah. She's amazing.
Thanks for the colorful backdrop. Everyone has their dull white wall or fake green screen. Nice to see some creativity.
Glad you like it Mandu, thank you
Fela Kuti - such powerful music, thank you so much for the upload, reckon your channel is boss
Ty Kim!
Fabulous. This track is so satisfying
to listen to. African - with the flavor of Coltrane. Thank you!
What an amazing reaction to one of the worlds top musicians. Love Fela Kuti and his social conscience. He is an icon. Believed in the rights of the ordinary people against Westenn Conlglomairates.
I have seen Fela Kuti at the Montreal Jazz Festival many years ago. The album may be good, but it dosent even compare to seing him live whit the whole band. So much energy and impossible to stand still without dancing.
Oh wow! Fela Anikulapo Kuti, what a great figure, much larger than a mere musician. Such a political figure. Man, what a GROOVE!! Try I.T.T (International Thief Thief), It will blow your mind for sure.
yes!
Yay Fela! Had no idea you would go there. Love him. Check out Zombie and Dog Eat Dog. Tony Allen had the best drum grooves.
Fela! Funny how I circled back to listening to Fela by stumbling across the Chilean band Newen Afrobeat's videos here on youtube.
This is a surprise! Great choice! Thanks for the history lesson, too. It’s sad, though.
Love to see you checking out Baba Fela Kuti! As you read a bit of, Fela was more than just a musician or a singer, he was a mouthpiece against the violence and corruption in the Shagari government at home and against tyranny and black oppression as a whole; he was a truly incredible figure who suffered through a lot to get his messages out, and is remembered as a folk hero for many in Nigeria. From what I've heard of his, a lot of his songs tend to follow this structure, with the first half being instrumental vamping and soloing, and the latter half being vocals with a call and response, and Fela's mixing of his native tongue with pidgin English; if you're interested in more, you could check out "Yellow Fever", "Beast of No Nation", or "Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense".
If you're interested in other African artists, I love Hugh Masekela, of South Africa; his album "Hope", recorded in New York City, is fantastic - I'd recommend "Stimela" or "Ha Le Se". Another legendary X'hosa artist is of course Mariam Makeba, also called Mama Afrika, who is a legendary figure in her own right - and also was at one point a UN representative, for I believe Guyana, whose president she was close with. And then there's the Zulu choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo, who are terrific; if you've heard Paul Simon's "Graceland" record, they back him on "Diamonds On the Soles of Her Shoes" and lead on "Homeless" (and if you haven't, that's also a great album). The Soweto Gospel Choir is also really nice; and out of Zimbabwe, there's also the lovely Oliver Mtukudzi.
I'd also like to give a shout out to the artist Exuma, from the Bahamas, whom I found out about recently and have loved exploring; if you like the groove of Afrobeat and African rhythms and Fela's style of vocals, you might dig that too.
Cheers!
Brilliant! I certainly didn't expect this, a great idea. Some other goodies are Zombie, Gentleman and International Thief Thief (ITT) also his Africa 70 stuff with Ginger Baker. BIG thumbs!
Gonna check that for sure. Any other suggs?
@@-davidolivares Lady, Live with the Africa ’70 and Ginger Baker is good and Expensive Shit with Africa 70. If you like the sound it's mostly all good. His son Femi Kuti carries the torch too with his own stuff.
I haven’t heard his son’s music. I’ll have to try.
@@markspooner1224 I love Expensive Shit. Great music, funny story too.
@@rogeroran2911 Shoki Shoki is a good place to start.
R.I.P. Fela Kuti a one of a kind phenomenal musician...
You could have, instead, reacted to Nightwish's "Ghost Love Score" live at Wacken, and immediately piled up a thousand comments. It seems that in the galaxy of music reactions, viewers tend to gaze at reactions to their favorite band and favorite songs rather than taking a flyer on the new and the unknown. This song had an unpolished sound to it, so prevalent that it must have been intended. I enjoyed it, because I tend to enjoy fusion music. It was nice to hear an actual African band playing "world music", as opposed to some American or European group exploring it as a way to vary their own sound on a new release. A pleasant listen. It is often noted that H2O is a dangerous poison if consumed in excess amounts.
I've already heard/seen that performance 😁
The Super Rail Band from around this same time period (and from Bamako) will truly blow your mind. Let me know if you can't find any, and I'll put some mp3's up in a drop box for you or something. Salif Kieta and Mory Kante (RIP) were both in this band for a bit in the early years. "Dakan" (I looked) is here on UA-cam, and that's an awesome track from the 1970's. Brilliant even.
The West African band you REALLY need to check out is the Tuareg band out of Timbuktu - Tinariwen. They continue to bang out some truly outstanding music, and are easily found here on UA-cam. If nothing else, check out "Tinariwen Africa Live-Roll-Back -Malaria." Then check out the history of this band to really blow your mind.
So glad you're checking out some of my true musical bliss now - I spent some of my formative years in Cameroon, so the Fela vibe sits very close to my heart. BTW - your comment on "hips" is spot on. As a percussionist, I use the ears in my hips to track one set of beats while playing another with my hands.
Awesome review of a most neglected and underappreciated musical genre here, Justin!
Edit - CAN'T believe I forgot to plug Habib Koite & Bamada! Definitely treat your ears to "Din Din Wo" and to "Fatma."
Tinariwen got consistent tv exposure bout a decade ago over here so i bought one song from itunes. It was really fine! Time for more JP.
I like that a lot! Going to seek out that whole album now. Thanks Justin.
Glad you liked it
Masterpiece 👍
Your lyric break down and background info has for me given this masterpiece a utmost high respect ✊🏽 and appreciation I knew and felt in my heart and soul there was a deeply hidden message that my spirit was connecting to with this track now I truly understand why.. Thnx for the much needed info on the MUSIC and the MAN👌🏽✊🏽🙏🏽✌🏽
Much appreciated Le'harrio🙏
as i was about to write I am in a supermarket
the Voice
broke the deadlock! And yes the charisma emerged
the character
the identity
the purpose the protest the message
the jubilant Waataa
the groove enhanced all the suprmarkets of the land which turned into community
village halls and the the trombones surged with riptides of crescendoed ethnic organs
we're in the Co-Op
we're in a grocer store and we're Smilin"
I dig this “stuff”. Dig deeper anytime.
I got into King Sunny Ade in the 80s with Juju Music and Syncro System. Love that style of guitar. Play some please.
XTC’s, It’s Nearly Africa is an interesting hybrid of African rhythms and English new wave punk pop.
Well worth a investigation. Apparently very hard to play live, with only a snippet of a try available during a sound check.
And of course, please continue David Sancious’s Transformation (Speed of Love) please.
Peace and archeological Music
I first heard KSA on CBC radio as I was driving along a gravel road in Hecla Park. "Ja Funmi" came on the radio and it was amazing. Guys I was hanging with then used to listen to Manu Dibango in the early 70s but I had never heard anything like it before.
edited to add the KSA plays on the 3 Mustaphas 3 album "Heart of Uncle". Listen to "Taxi Driver (I don't care)" and you will hear his distinctive guitar.
Yessss. King Sunny Ade’ came to my mind as well {[ “Ja Funmi,” man, that song *always* transfixes & transports me]} -~ wasn’t expecting that XTC reference!nice 👍🏼 - will have to checkout David Sancious - btw, (and y’all probably know) Budos Band get into this Fela 🎷groove🪘quite a bit.
@@papacarl2002
Cool cool. Checking out Budos, thx.
@@maruad7577
Glad for the edit. Will check them out. :)
I love Fela. Even saw the Broadway show about him which was fantastic. Zombie is one of his best.
Look up the story about how he almost had Paul McCartney killed.
What a great diversion! I've come to Fela's music fairly recently myself, and it's a wonderful hybrid of traditional African music and jazz. Totally alive stuff. You might also want to check out King Sunny Ade, and an absolute necessity is "Soul Makossa" by Manu Dibango.
This is the first of your listenings in which I am also new to the music; I know the name but never ventured in, so thanks for holding the door open for me. It's the brass that hooks me first, but the whole mix is a hypnotic treat. Offhand, in European terms, it's nearest to Traffic/Steve Winwood for me; not a profound observation, just a way in for me.
This was probably suggested to you when you were exploring Talking Heads Remain in Light. He is a huge influence on that album. If you like this you might also enjoy Sun Ra and his Arkestra.
Love fela kuti ❤️
Are we about to get into the whole who was first, Manu Dibango or Fela Kuti? Dibango was brilliant. Soul Makossa didn't come out until 1972 but he was releasing records as a band leader by 1969. If you are investigating Fela (who is good), you really need to listen to Dibango (who some will argue is better).
A lot of this music was dance music and it is reflected in the repetition but there is a lot of skill and talent in these songs.
For percussion in Africa music I would recommend King Sunny Ade and His African Beats "Juju Music" album. I saw KSA in 1983 and it was brilliant and not all due to the contact high (we might of been the only people in the audience not smoking pot). KSA has been around since the late 60s as well.
There was a lot of good music coming out of Cameroon and Nigeria in the late 60s and early 70s which is interesting as there was a major civil war in Nigeria in 1970 (Britain's involvement lead to John Lennon sending his MBE back to the Queen in protest). As with many wars in the 20th century, no matter what anyone said, the war was about oil and who controlled it.
Oh yes! Soul Makossa. JP this track and artist (RIP) is amazing
@@linusfotograf Oddly, my favourite song of Dibango is "Wild man in the city" but that is so laid back as to almost be comatose.
@@maruad7577 I can’t remember the song titles but there are many great ones
Nice reaction.
He miss road or Lets Start by Fela kuti is another good song
Fela takes u on a spiritual journey everytime. All his songs always have a long instrumental and used to have issues with record companies because he refused to shorten his songs. If u watch his live performances, u will see he was influenced by James brown...in the way he conducts his band. His lyrics are usually a combination of pidgin English (broken) and yoruba. A couple I think ull love, which I think have a special rhythmic quality are why black man dey suffer and Johnny just drop
Nothing "spiritual" about it, everytime people tries to make "philosophical" statements out of music I cringe 🤡🤡💩💩
@@JulioLeonFandinho err maybe not in terms that might be understood in the west. Fela believed in traditional african Gods & literally prayed & sacrificed to them. If you listen 2 a lot of his music, he would say lets get down to another spiritual game, suggesting you open up your hearts & mind to let the music flow through u, in order 2 touch ur soul
Thank you, Justin. Yes, a few of us have been hoping to see you go down the Afro-pop-beat rabbit hole. If you want to SAMPLE ( and not quite yet deep-dive into Fela's 2 dozen or so albums), try Amadou and Mariam ( Coulibaly ) or Habib Koite ( Fatma ) both from Mali. Or Papa Wemba ( Yolele ) from Congo. So much rich music.
Yay! You're branching out of "rock" music! There's so much to explore. I grew up around Caribbean music, but not much "world" music beyond that. I didn't start listening to African music (I know that's really broad) until I was an adult. My knowledge of it is still very limited, but what I do know is amazing. I highly recommend you check out a compilation album! It's titled World Psychedelic Classics 3: Love's a Real Thing - The Funky Fuzzy Sounds of West Africa. There are some really great songs on there. I'm a huge fan of the kora and Toumani Diabaté and Ballaké Sissoko are both masters of the instrument!
Edit: This Fela album is worth a full listen!
My workmate who loves reggae and early Pink Floyd and Breton Folk artists recently asked me to send him somethin experimental on the work's whats app app! I was very pleased with what i sent him. Carrie & Lowell Live by Sufjan Stevens. Completely genre free really. So, I agree, let's stay Fluid!
@@HippoYnYrEira I love Sufjan!! He is amazing.
@@ijustneedmyself completely and utterly !
the film 0f Carrie and Lowell Live is essential viewing. dya reckon jp knows?
@@HippoYnYrEira Probably not! I haven't seen it. I'm super out of steps with new music these days though I know the album is a few years old at this point. It shows I've been out of step for some time. I'll have to have a look. Let JP know to watch, too! Thanks.
@@ijustneedmyself I thought I was a bit behind....! You're in for a mega -treat. A Feast.
This album is on the latest edition of Rolling Stone's 500 greatest albums of all time, and I've been meaning to get it ever since. Great preview here, definitely more interested to hear the whole thing now.
There is a live album in collaboration with Ginger Baker that is worth checking out. Very raw.
Fela is all pretty much of a piece, it's pretty much all in the same zone. But, if you love it, you have to hear it all!
Hell yeah, afrobeat! Zombie and Expensive Shit are great Fela Kuti songs as well.
You gotta do some songs from Talking Heads - Remain In Light next.
Also for a more modern masterpiece The Shaolin Afronauts - Kilimanjaro.
What I think is that anyone who reacts to fella Kuti I will follow……….I found him looking for ethnic reggae .an album called confusion…..one song album.
Playing fella would increase my tips delivering food in MELBOURNE…….[Along with a diverse playlist]…..makes me smile when I know you’re going to react to a change in the song and you do………he was a freaky cat
Ty Mark :D
I agree with a lot of others in that this is unexpected. If you're into percussionists Tony Allen is a name to remember.
Also recommend "Shakara" and "Sorrow Tears and Blood". Thank you
Along related lines, you should check out the other side of Africa with Ethio-jazz musician Mulatu Astatke. "Yegelle Tezeta" is probably his best known track, followed by the similarly-named but completely-different-sounding "Tezeta."
welcome to a new chapter of you're musical life ;) and possibly Fela and Tony Allen will change it forever
Chop and quench off of Afrodisiac and zombie are also awesome, you should put the documentary about him and finger baker for sure!
Fela is amazing. My favorite is "Original Sufferhead."
There's a great Malian band, now based in London, that's worth checking out: Songhoy Blues.
Love those stories of Fela and Ginger Baker of Cream getting chased down by the Nigerian military across the Seiara Desert!!
How cool is this?? I see a purchase in my future I see he has a live cd with Ginger Baker Bet that is amazing Great stuff
There's a doco out there that covers their relationship
@@dexstewart2450 thx ill look for it
...Tony Allen's drum patterns are unreal.
So fun to listen to! :D
Hugh Masekela - Stimela
Too many great tunes to list but for starters the album, "Live with Ginger Baker" is excellent and he has one short tune called 'Eko Ile' that is blistering. Because the US backed military dictatorship was watching his every move, he spoke in an poetic code to attack them. .
Gives me a kind of reggae feeling. All the influences just went home, though.
As far as pronunciation goes, I would guess that Kuti would have the same T as you find in Tea. (And you could take that as a general rule for languages given Bibles in Latin letters by British of French missionaries. The "t that becomes d" is largely an Americanism - although it has spread from there. ) And then a Nigerian I knew for a while talked of the "YAWruba" with strong emphasis on the first syllable. You're more likely to get pronunciations a bit different (that w-word is ugly, man) by thinking "waadr" instead of "woretuh" when you see "water", though.
Same Nigerian told me the whole history of post-colonial Nigeria (from the Igbo perspective - which sounded still like "Ibo" to my ears). Nigeria has been through some rough times, largely through not being a natural country (actually sounding more like a bunch of enemies who were forced together by the British). So it's not racism as such that he's on about, just the same thing without "color coding".
You'd have to ask a proper historian to get it straight and in detail (for starters there are "small" groups of significant size that don't align with the "main three", just to complicate things), but in the North, they're Muslim, and the British tended to think of Muslims as good fellows, and the best local rulers to deal with; so on independence a very large percentage of civil servants (and especially the military - which was drawn almost entirely from the North) were Northerners. Then on the one side of the Niger River former forest areas are the Ibo (which academics seem to write Igbo today), and on the other side are the Yoruba.
Now the Ibo are the best people in Nigeria (until someone from Yorubaland tells me the story his way). They're "the Jews of Africa". They're entrepeneurial; they value education; they're self-starters. (And if you live in a country which doesn't have any Igbos in it, there's something wrong with your country, because they tend to venture out into the world, and settle in any place where it's even only half possible to make something of your circumstances. They tended and tend not to go for government jobs. And the oil is mainly in their part of the country. (Actually it's not; it's in the land of some of those small but sizable minorites).
The Yoruba are the second best people in Nigeria (according to one Ibo, anyway). They're almost as educated and enterprising as the Igbo. And the Northerners are basic farmers who join the army if they're ambitious. Then they overthrow the government, plunder the country, and move all the loot offshore to the willing hands of Westerners quite happy to manage their "investments".
Not racism, but basically the same thing without the color coding aspect.
Early on, the Ibo tried to break away from the confederation (to become their own little oil state), and the government made war on them.
And this was serious shit. Literally Millions of people died in that conflict. Look up Biaffra if you want to know the details.
And that was far from being the end of it. You've had a succession of dictatorial or authoritarian or kleptocratic governments; and they've killed, maimed, or destroyed the lives of millions more people. Millions. Not thousands. Not hundreds of thousands. Millions. Institutional and nearly-institutional inter-ethnic violence is still part of Nigerian life today (according to the one man who gave me my entire history, anyway).
This is something to register: Yes the apartheid government was vicious and unjust; but they were also just the most popular news item from Africa-going-wrong through the years - I think largely for reasons connected to things "offshore". But in terms of the number of people they actually killed, it adds up to at most, thousands. They ruined the lives of millions, yes (but had no monopoly on this - not by a long shot); but they killed relatively few people.
And the way to take that fact is to maintain a strong disgust for everything apartheid as a baseline, and then find *More* disgust than that for worse misgovernance (and obviously less disgust, and sometimes even a bit of admiration, for less misgovernance).
(If you just treat each government as an instance of some level of "governance" in this scheme, I think what you'll find is that there's only misgovernance, by and large. In rare instances are governments truly good for the people they live off.)
Anyway, Nigerian governments have killed and brutalised millions of people, but it hasn't been "newsworthy", so it's a less known fact than that other governments were worthy of disgust and contempt for less.
An effective Activist He was.
Tony Allen (drums) is the $#¡†
✨Ali & Toumani - check out some truly lovely, magical music from Mali: Ali Farka Touré on guitar and vocals with Toumani Diabaté on the kora...
oh man, the kora is such a beautiful instrument and these musicians bring me such peace & tranquility.
JP does Afrobeat!
You should look up the meaning behind the album title, BTW
Oh I did,hilarious 😅
React to "I Tcho Tchass" and "Ramer sans rame" by Akofa Akoussah. She's incredible.
Expensive stuff? Expensive excrement!
You could have blurred the title on the cover of the album to be on the safe side.
Otoh, FELA!❤
Coffin for Head of State Pt2
That's not what those letters spell.😁
Heard the name, not a lot by him. From the off i was enjoying this. great beat, rhythms, and loving the brass. But started feeling it a little repetitious half way through, and my interest started to wain. Some nice playing. Those keys though, were they supposed to be solo's? pretty weak. Overall, good start but too long, would benefit from some editing. .
...and that's what's known as Cultural Imperialism...we can all have it.
@@dexstewart2450 not quite sure what you mean, but i'll give you a thumbs up anyway.
I love a lot of African music, but this was too jazz and meandering for me. I prefer Malian artists like Ali Farka Toure, Salif Keita and Toumani Diabate, all hypnotically enchanting and tinged with a melancholy beauty in their different ways. Or for a more robust and rocking sound I'd choose The Bhundu Boys from Zimbabwe. But I think it's great that you're branching out from English progressive rock. There"s so much interesting music around.
Influenced by West African Highlight Music , Juju (Yoruba Music) and American Jazz
Album: Expensive Shit
I found it rather unremarkable instrumental meandering at the start. I say this because, after a few minutes, I'd stopped taking any notice of the music and instead found I'd opened another browser window and was reading my latest emails, the music just playing away somewhere at the back of my attention. Only the bit where the vocals came in brought me back to the music itself.
i saw you at the grocery store. You were dancin like a Queen!