Followgrowing up in the lagos i grew up in, you had to leave your parents… grow some level of freedom, before you could go to fela, to the shrine. fela never performed live whatever he has already recorded. so it meant that when i was old enough to go to the shrine, all the music he was performing then was never recorded – he died shortly afterwards. this is us re-living my shrine experience
this one is called “chop and clean mouth”. fela sings about the structural adjustment programme of the imf etc and how it wrecked the economies of formerly buoyant african states.
he specifically names babangida, mobutu and kampare .. the list has since grown, anyway
much respek for the selection, Master.
fela was not only a fighter, he was also a lover (lova), a humanist.
just after his lovesong “ololufemi”, in this case the song says “slap me, make me a rich man” i.e. “i’ll sue your ass!
before fela became “political”, with the koola lobitos.
this is the last fela song i am playing today.
“guitar buy”, victor oyaefoh reprises the song used to signal the ghanaian revolution.
this was actually the attack signal used via radio to launch the coup. the song talks about victor’s encounter with mami wata, the mermaid. victor is now a professor of fine art at the university of benin
smooth grooves man, is that amaric??????
thank you for listening. til next time.
dj andy williams coming up next