Real headz: Best FELA albums?

BeardedDBeardedD 770 Posts
edited January 2006 in Strut Central
I've got Shakara (the one with all the tits on the cover). I love nearly everything I've heard. This is a massive subject. I'm looking for some consensus on what's the best from the deep people around here. Particularly interested in the tracks like 'Lady' that'll have people at the bar literally applauding at the end, even though all you did was take a lazy ass 15 minute smoke break. Thanks d
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  • drewnicedrewnice 5,465 Posts
    (the one with all the tits on the cover).



    Sorry - you lost me here. National Geographic syndrome? Please tell me it hasn't been reduced to this.

  • OK. My favorite Fela track from his glory-NigerianSuperman-fightthearmyandwin-onesongperside-Shrine-Afrika70-era is "Gentleman". So fucking sick. Despite its popularity as a sample cut I also really dig "Water Get No Enemy" on the flip of the Expensive Shit LP.

    But then there's the Koola Lobitos stuff and his first LP after that, "Fela Fela Fela" which are a little bit more contained (in the 5-7 minute range) and jazzy/improvisational and are really fucking awesome.

    You can't really go wrong. I think "Sorrow Tears & Blood" is an awe-inspiring record. "Excuse-O!" is excellent. In terms of his records that are not that hard to turn up, "Power Show" is a fave of mine and was pressed on Capitol in the early 80s.

    I play "2000 Blacks Got To Be Free" with Roy Ayers out all the time and it kills in a loft/disco set.

    I haven't heard a *bad* Fela record although I kind of clock out in the Amsterdam concert/Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense era.

  • Options
    Water Get no Enemy

    K.

  • dayday 9,611 Posts
    NigerianSuperman-fightthearmyandwin-onesongperside-Shrine-Afrika70-era







    From watching that documentary that's how that dude seemed exactly. He was a one of a kind, no doubt.

  • Options
    jinx

    K.

  • bull_oxbull_ox 5,056 Posts
    I haven't heard a *bad* Fela record although I kind of clock out in the Amsterdam concert/Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense era.

    I've heard one bad Fela record

    Army Arrangement on Celluloid

    I've heard he didn't have a whole lot to do with this release though

    Also: his name on other African artists' records is definitely a Trademark of Quality

  • Options

    Also: his name on other African artists' records is definitely a Trademark of Quality

    ...as are the names of his band memebers on other LP's - Tunde Williams, etc.

    K.

  • dollar_bindollar_bin I heartily endorse this product and/or event 2,326 Posts
    Despite its popularity as a sample cut I also really dig "Water Get No Enemy" on the flip of the Expensive Shit LP.

    I would have to say that I like this one a lot.

    Hard to go wrong with Fela in the 70s, even harder to pick a favorite, so I won't give the exhaustive list but I do need to big up Palm Wine Song from the Fear Not For Man album, which is definitely my favorite instrumental from Fela. Not the hard funky funky, but an absolutely beautiful jam that I listen to over and over.

    Oh, and don't forget the Tony Allen with Africa 70 records as well.

  • Like several people have already said, I pretty much celebrate all his 70's output.

    Also check Tony Allen's (Fela's drummer in the Afrika 70) solo LPs. They were re-ished on the UK label Strut a few years ago.

  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    I haven't heard a *bad* Fela record although I kind of clock out in the Amsterdam concert/Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense era.

    I've heard one bad Fela record

    Army Arrangement on Celluloid

    I've heard he didn't have a whole lot to do with this release though

    Also: his name on other African artists' records is definitely a Trademark of Quality

    Army Arrangement isn't bad at all. It's just from the 80s. It's also one of the first records I ever sampled to make a beat from, so there's a sentimental attachment to this song for me.

    But yeah Bearded D, you can't really go wrong with Lady, Shakara, Gentlemen (That first drop of the beat after the initial horn solo gets me EVERY SINGLE TIME), Water Get No Enemy* (Who cares if it's popular?!?), Zombie, Sorrow Tears & Blood (Them regular Trademark!!), Coffin For Head Of State, No Agreement, Roforofo Fight Upside Down, man the list goes on and on...





    * Water Get No Enemy is the song that contains the most perfect moment, just one little instance, a single hit, and it it's the most perfect moment in any song in the history of music. It's Tony Allen hitting this one random high-hat like 4 minutes into it and it's so fucking REAL.

  • I'm a fan of all his works to be honest, but my favorites right now are "Everything Scatter", "Live at Kalakuta" and "Buy Africa" (for the slower funk filled goodness..wait for the breakdown), and can't forget "Sorrow Tears and Blood".

    cheers.


  • JoshDJoshD 215 Posts
    Water Get no Enemy

    K.


  • I've got Shakara (the one with all the tits on the cover). I love nearly everything I've heard. This is a massive subject. I'm looking for some consensus on what's the best from the deep people around here.

    Particularly interested in the tracks like 'Lady' that'll have people at the bar literally applauding at the end, even though all you did was take a lazy ass 15 minute smoke break. Thanks d

    Wow that is tough. Through the years ive been able and FORTUNATE enough to get my hands on 23 FELA KUTI albums. My favorites are the long play songs. The ones that peak at near 25 minutes. Where the band just seems to build untill they explode when fela gets on the mic. Damn I really wish there was live footage somewhere of when he performed at the Africa Shrine. Must have been madness!!!

    here are some must listen to cuts

    Sorrow, Tears, and Blood
    Upside Down
    Mr. Follow Follow
    Zombie
    No Agreement
    Again, Excuse O
    Condition
    Go Slow
    Observation is no crime
    Water get no enemy
    Expensive shit
    He miss road

    love to share some joints with some peeps get at me with PM or [email]djstacks@cg718.com[/email]


  • Damn I really wish there was live footage somewhere of when he performed at the Africa Shrine. Must have been madness!!!

    I believe there's some stuff on the French documentary "Music Is The Weapon"

  • Gotta go with "Coffin For Head Of State". I love the song musically, but also just knowing the history to it puts it on another level.

    But, as everyone else has already said, you can't go wrong with picking up any 70s Fela.

  • hammertimehammertime 2,389 Posts
    no love for:




    ???

  • * Water Get No Enemy is the song that contains the most perfect moment, just one little instance, a single hit, and it it's the most perfect moment in any song in the history of music. It's Tony Allen hitting this one random high-hat like 4 minutes into it and it's so fucking REAL.

    "Water No Get Enemy," is one of those songs I find I have in my head all the time, so I put it on as I started reading this thread. About a minute after I read this quote, I got to the above mentioned moment in the song- really listening for it, wondering if I would know it.

    I gasped ... started laughing.

    Never appreciated that before. Too lost in the hornline. Good lookin' out on that.


  • alright, i'm lunchin over here. I can't find "Water Get No Enemy". Anyone care to yousend this puppy?

    holluretti.




  • hammertimehammertime 2,389 Posts
    I'm gonna have to listen to "Water Get No Enemy" on the way home now.

  • dollar_bindollar_bin I heartily endorse this product and/or event 2,326 Posts
    More testimonials...

    Water No Get Enemy is one of those songs that has very special meaning for me. It changed my life, musically. Basically, when I heard that record for the first time, it was like no record I had ever heard up to that point, and yet it was like I was waiting to hear it all my life. [color:white]Apache from the Incredible Bongo Band is another. [/color]

    Oh, and I forgot to include this in my previous post:

  • dollar_bindollar_bin I heartily endorse this product and/or event 2,326 Posts
    alright, i'm lunchin over here. I can't find "Water Get No Enemy". Anyone care to yousend this puppy?

    holluretti.



    Water No Get Enemy

  • bull_oxbull_ox 5,056 Posts
    Army Arrangement isn't bad at all. It's just from the 80s. It's also one of the first records I ever sampled to make a beat from, so there's a sentimental attachment to this song for me.

    Y'know, if his body of work wasn't so spectacular otherwise I might give it more credit

    But AA was done almost entirely by Bill Laswell, who I'm not a fan of, and Fela didn't like what he'd done with it either

  • alright, i'm lunchin over here. I can't find "Water Get No Enemy". Anyone care to yousend this puppy?



    holluretti.














    thank you good sir.



    okay, that's where i messed up, this is on the "Expensive Shit" Album. Failed to check that album. Beautiful tune indeed.




  • roistoroisto 879 Posts
    My favorite Fela track from his glory-NigerianSuperman-fightthearmyandwin-onesongperside-Shrine-Afrika70-era is "Gentleman". So fucking sick.

  • Water Get no Enemy

    T.

  • My favorite Fela track from his glory-NigerianSuperman-fightthearmyandwin-onesongperside-Shrine-Afrika70-era is "Gentleman". So fucking sick.


    yo really this man's music can do no wrong in my ears. inspirational.
    i saw some live afropop last friday and afterwords there was a dj who was playing butter shit. on a big screen he had music is the weapon...eeven with NO SOUND people were watching it, mesmerized (the ladies were also oooohing and aahing everytime they panned out to fela chilling in his speedos).
    we can look at a dude who was rather hedonistic, had a billion wives, smoked the hioly chalice with gusto and partied and danced and got people moving on some fucking bachanalian madness shit on the regular. then you zoom out just a little little bit and you see a dude who constantly put himself in the line of fire with his words and actions and was manicaly inspired to speak truth to corrupt power and used his art to do it.

    that is some REAL SCHITT


  • AserAser 2,351 Posts
    my first thumbs up pic, w00t!



    that moton re-enhancement boosts up the bass of the horns, it sounds good on a big system.

  • we can look at a dude who was rather hedonistic, had a billion wives, smoked the hioly chalice with gusto and partied and danced and got people moving on some fucking bachanalian madness shit on the regular. then you zoom out just a little little bit and you see a dude who constantly put himself in the line of fire with his words and actions and was manicaly inspired to speak truth to corrupt power and used his art to do it.

    and then you can zoom out a little further and catch an egomaniacal asshole. i'm not trying to shit on fela-- musically, he's a hero to me and i respect how far he went and how much he endured in the face of repression from the Nigerian government-- just saying that some of his words and actions, especially vis-a-vis women and safe sex, were pretty fucked up.


  • Damn I really wish there was live footage somewhere of when he performed at the Africa Shrine. Must have been madness!!!

    I believe there's some stuff on the French documentary "Music Is The Weapon"

    indeed. my copy skips like hell now! there is also a FELA LIVE dvd. mid 80s. Small indoor venue to. Believe its someone in FRANCE. If you have netflix its in there. Great, shows him rockin the keys, chatting with the audience real raw footage. backdrops to the dancers, band mates, real ill shit. There was a dude on ebay not to long ago that was selling a copy of raw footage from the shrine I believe he converted to dvd or vcd. Was outbid. Though I was skeptical. I know theres a Femi Kuti live from the africa shrine that was released not to long ago. The book is a great read too. When Stevie Wonder visited africa he went down to the shrine and rocked out with fela all night. That must of been some night. spiritual shit

  • "Egbe Mi O" from London Scene is unfadeable.

    it starts so funky,
    then the chorus at the end
    with the big horn blasts.

    my favorite Fela tune.
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