https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEHVl176I-0

Late pass :(

What are some other great Fela Kuti songs?

Any must have album?

Better late than never, right? :)

red hot and fela jawns...

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/red-hot-+-fela/id691043498

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/red-hot-+-riot/id445402835

always wanted to do a mix of the sorrow tears and blood covers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj1wpNuQRaM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyUoATMYrfA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STW2q6CPyi4

OkayPlayer was heavy on the Black President when Fela! the musical came out

http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-best-of-the-black-president-mw0000603885

good place to start for Fela cuts

don't worry fam, you aren't the only one

alot of music heads I bring Fela up to have no idea

who just discovered an artist that what they need to listen to next is watered-down cover versions of said artist's music?

I don't get it.

and I would assume that's the reason those albums were made

i.e., those artists wanted to put their fans onto Fela

for me, it worked.

feel free to share

how were you exposed to Fela?

I mean, the OP has already discovered and been impressed by Fela's actual music so it's not like he needs to be convinced by hearing Les Nubians, tUne-yArDs, Childish Gambino and Macy Gray singing his songs ... almost all Fela's albums have since been reissued and are easily available. Going back to listen to "urban music"-oriented covers of his music just seems like hustlin' backwards.

I did suggest the best of the Black President

instead of coming at me

why don't you try to enlighten the OP

you're not a fan of the covers, got it

heard you the first time

But like I said, it just seemed weird as hell to me... like if someone came in and said he had just discovered 1999 and wanted to know what Prince record to listen to next and you recommended him a bunch of Dam-Funk joints.

"Coming at you" was not my intention... I just thought it was weird.

Carry on.

>I mean, the OP has already discovered and been impressed by
>Fela's actual music so it's not like he needs to be convinced
>by hearing Les Nubians, tUne-yArDs, Childish Gambino and Macy
>Gray singing his songs

i'd be sick if say i'd gotten into hip hop and someone suggested i went to listen to Smooth Jazz versions of other hip hop songs. it's not the same thing at all.


but to homie's point...where *would* you direct a new listener?

>i'd be sick if say i'd gotten into hip hop and someone
>suggested i went to listen to Smooth Jazz versions of other
>hip hop songs. it's not the same thing at all.
>
>
>but to homie's point...where *would* you direct a new
>listener?

To be honest, I dunno... I'm really not all that great at giving recommendations these days (for certain kinds of things anyway) .

etc., remaking Fela songs.

https://soundcloud.com/justabandwidth/just-a-band-who-no-know-go-know-feat-childish-gambino

i'll be damned if i click that link.

thanks for the info.

I still play this song to this day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4vPnxH0ay8

and the sorrow tears and blood covers I posted

It's probably his most "accessible" album, and not in a bad way.

I'd also recommend "Expensive Shit" and "He Miss Road" albums. Both are available as a single CD. Don't know how it works digitally.

i dig 'Zombie' and 'Expensive Shit' and 'He Miss Road' but i don't like any of them as much as i like 'Water'.

about that song - the compilation bentagain mentioned has a great cover by D'Angelo & the Soultronics:

part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIUNOZWhr-g
part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkRULPL7q6Y

but I'm sure you can probably find 'em out there on yer Napsters or Limewires or whatever computer radio you kids are using nowadays.

I really like the early 70s singles like "Jeun K'oku"
http://youtu.be/yIckHF1cQJ0

there was a really taut, explosive energy on those records that dissipated on the album cuts... perhaps because there was much less time available to make the statement.

Na Fight-O!
http://youtu.be/LHXU3U3Biv4

Who're You
http://youtu.be/A3N4A6ZWta0

Beautiful Dancer
http://youtu.be/MCyVWBmbeso

Alu Jon Jonki Jon
http://youtu.be/IYvlW9p2_Hg

Also, I really love his earlier stuff from the 1960s (a lot of those have been reissued)

Wadele
http://youtu.be/TBMnYzd5bIQ

Mi O Mo
http://youtu.be/7vHpLcjNY6A?t=31m30s

Wayo
http://youtu.be/UrayuioZOPI

Se E Tun De
http://youtu.be/7fwO0LcWGuw

One of the best live shows I've ever been to!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3bKS8dI-uA

slight node over the marathon performance i saw Sade give
because Femi actually hopped down into the audience to dance several times

I caught it at the Izod center

yeah, that's on my list too

don't feel bad i was this post like 3 years ago
he is an amazing artist

but if you just want another song recommendation

"Zombie"

water get no enemy is one of my favorite songs of all time

It's the song "everyone" knows but bring it up amongst hardcore fans and they kind of cringe, not because they consider the tune non-representative or bad but rather that it's the "token" song by the artist in question and when it comes to important acts with big catalogs-as opposed to one-hit wonder-the token song is sort of a problem, just like the token album...

I found this out the hard way in the 90's when this DJ dude who went in my little sisters class earlier brought up Fela and I mentioned that song like "Man, I LOVE it" and he just cringed. In my defense, that was the only song I had heard then (at least to the point of recognizing it as Fela) due to it being one of those songs they "always" played at a local acid-jazz/funk/70's club. Also, being dissed by a swedish hipster 90's dj into japanese noodle-bars, designer-chairs, web-design, a certain type of glasses (if you were there, you know) and "trip-hop"/Mo'wax as all those assholes were at the time is in retrospect nothing to feel bad about.

Anyway, I dig the song a lot but after hearing more of his records, not sure it's my favorite. My favorite album of his I've heard I think is "Shakara" which also includes the tune "Lady" but I like a lot of them...

Which to be honest, is why I was hesitant to offer recommendations at first.... because I dunno, get the feeling that what I find appealing about Fela is not what most people do or would find appealing. "Water" is a good song but I never rated it as one of his top tracks or heard anybody else do so until Q-Tip and 15 started bigging it and it's since become the official entry point to Fela fandom.

Which is okay, of course.

I'll never understand that sort of thing. With an artist like Fela —who is not really one of the giants of music that listeners are pointed to along with Miles, Hendrix, the Beatles and Johnny Cash, maybe secondary or tertiary to that tier— it's always baffled me how anyone can cop an attitude when a listener picks up on it as new thing.

Like I doubt that dude was buying Fela records on import in 1974.



``they asked me what the meek would get. picture me: afraid to answer.``

http://austinato.bandcamp.com

http://www.discogs.com/lists/Favorites-of-2014/193910

and i have to remind myself of this as well.

Doesn't make your impressions of it any less valid.

I like to use 'T.R.O.Y.' as an example. Like, who knows how many times you've heard that song in the club, at family get togethers, whatever. It's easy to get tired of. But imagine someone hearing it for the first time and realizing how special of a song it is.

Do you make fun of that person? Or cringe at them?

Because I certainly don't. Regardless of HOW sick I personally am of hearing 'T.R.O.Y.' Momentarily, I can relate because that was me once, too.


``they asked me what the meek would get. picture me: afraid to answer.``

http://austinato.bandcamp.com

http://www.discogs.com/lists/Favorites-of-2014/193910

which again, was one of the reasons I was reluctant to say anything for fear of sounding like a snob.

I'm not downing anybody for whatever gateway introduced them to the music and I think "Water" is a great tune. It's just that for me, as someone who (kinda) grew up listening to Fela, I just never knew it to be one of the seminal tracks in his oeuvre and I still don't really hear Fela-heads even more hardcore than myself elevating it to that status.

I don't "cringe" at it like Jakob described, but it's interesting to me that *that* tune continues to be the one that converts newbies and continues to be the one that holds their interest above all else even after they've heard more of his stuff. So it makes me feel like they're experiencing the music on a different (but equally valid) level than I am... and I'm not sure that I completely understand what they're hearing so I find it hard to recommend other stuff they should check out.

there's a reason KOB is as popular as it is. b/c that shit is THAT. GOOD.

i've heard enough Fela to say i'm not a newbie when it comes to his stuff. and nothing i've heard tops 'Water', IMO. i keep coming back to it as my fave. and i don't care if that means i don't have much cred in the upper echelon of Fela appreciation circles. i'm not trying to score cool points w/THOSE music geeks. (*stares into camera*)

Simply because it's one of the band's most popular songs.

Regardless of the fact that it is perhaps the most quintessentially Cure sounding song they ever did and you would be perfectly justified in naming it your favorite tune.


``they asked me what the meek would get. picture me: afraid to answer.``

http://austinato.bandcamp.com

http://www.discogs.com/lists/Favorites-of-2014/193910

Na Poi (the longer version):
http://youtu.be/QNZcW2UV5bM

This was actually one of the first songs I heard that really struck me - so I might have a bit of nostalgia-appreciation for it. But I love the call and response bits, the percussion section absolutely kills it throughout the *whole damn thing*, and it's one of his more dynamic and more intriguingly arranged songs ... in terms of shifting b/w loud and soft sections, layering the band in and out, etc. It has a great sense of development, too.

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

I first got hip on Fela through Like Water for Chocolate.

I reckon the 'stripped down' version of 'Water Got no Enemy' which became 'Pop's Rap' on LWFC prepared me for Fela.

Even then i must say i was not ready for Fela's Afrobeat grooves. I had never made the connection between LWFC and Fela since i only had a TDK 90 copy of LWFC. Years later someone was playing 'Water' and I was like who is that? that is Common's song ( i only discovered later that even Femi played on LWFC and the very next song 'Heat' on LWFC sampled Fela's drummer Tony Allen).

In fact LWFC is one of the few hiphop albums where Afrobeat is generously sampled or Afrobeat is used as influence.

Sometimes 'watered down' covers do help an uninitiated ear.

One of my favourite Fela songs is 'Gentleman', that intro alone is pure magic. One thing i can advise on Fela is listen to as many songs as possible, its pure uncut African funk. I bought myself a couple of books on Fela, Micheal E. Veal's book is very good.