As the heatwave continues let's enjoy a double from Nigeria's prolific genius, one about our most precious resource, the other in relation to a police confrontation involving a planted cannabis joint. Both tracks come the two sides of his 1975 album, Expensive Shit, performed with his African 70 band. The earthy title relates to an alleged incident in which Nigerian police planted a joint on Fela, but in an act of defiance, he managed to eat it, but then in the police station, they forced him to take a faeces test, but the performer outwitted them again by supplying excrement from a drug-free prisoner instead. It's darkly amusing tale and title, but has lots of other associations about political corruption, something he constantly fought against. Described by many as a superstar, human rights activist, Panafricanist, polygamist and mystic, Fela was a true lifeforce, an outspoken critic of not only his own country, but others, including America and its foreign policy. He died in 1997 aged just 58, and these two tracks merely scratch the surface of so many landmarks of innovation and powerful statement.
But it is the music that also makes him such an original and a towering figure - afrobeat, jazz and funk merge into a unique blend that constantly refreshes and sustains, a constant outpouring of invention and joy, with not just his singing, saxophone, keyboard and other instrument playing, but also those beats and that powerful brass section. Like the man's unstoppable energy, it endures.
T'o ba fe lo we omi l'o ma'lo
If you want go wash, a water you go use
T'o ba fe se'be omi l'o ma'lo
If you want cook soup, a water you go use
T'o ri ba n'gbona o omi l'ero re
If your head dey hot, a water go cool on
T'omo ba n'dagba omi l'o ma'lo
If your child dey grow, a water he go use
If water kill your child, na water you go use
T'omi ba p'omo e o omi na lo ma'lo
Ko s'ohun to'le se k'o ma lo'mi o
Nothing without water
Ko s'ohun to'le se k'o ma lo'mi o
Omi o l'ota o
[Chorus]
Water, you no get enemy!
Water, you no get enemy!
Omi o l'ota o
If you fight am, unless you wan die
I say water no get enemy
If you fight am, unless you wan die
Omi o l'ota o
I dey talk of Black man power
I dey talk of Black power, I say
I say water no get enemy
If you fight am, unless you wan die
I say water no get enemy
I say water no get enemy
Omi o l'ota o
Omi o l'ota o
Eran na goat o, for Yoruba land
Eran na goat o, for Yoruba land
Him go bend him yansh him go shit
Him go commot away from him shit
Him shit go be the last thing wey he go like to see
Because why o? (Because the shit dey smell!)
Because why o? (Because the shit dey smell!)
Obo na monkey for Yoruba land
Him go bend him yansh him go shit
Him go commot away from him shit
Him shit go be the last thing wey he go like to see
Because why o? (Because the shit dey smell!)
Because why o? (Because the shit dey smell!)
Obinrin na woman for Yoruba land
Obinrin na woman for Yoruba land
She go bend she yansh she go shit
She go commot away from she shit
She shit go be the last thing wey she go like to see
Because why o? (Because the shit dey smell!)
Because why o? (Because the shit dey smell!)
Okunrin na man for Yoruba land
Okunrin na man for Yoruba land
Him go bend him yansh him go shit
Him go commot away from him shit
Shit go be the last thing wey he go like to see
Because why o? (Because the shit dey smell!)
Because why o? (Because the shit dey smell!)[?]
Tell me now now
Me I be Fela, I be Black Power man
Me I be Fela, I be Black Power man
I go bend my yansh I go shit
I go commot away from the shit
The shit go be the last thing wey I go like to see
No be so for some fools wey I know
No be so for some stupid people I know
No be so for some fools wey I know
People wey go like to quench your soul
People wey go like to quench your soul
[Chorus]
En! Alagbon o
Them go use your shit to put you for jail
En! Alagbon o
And don tell my shit too expensive shit
En! Alagbon o
My shit na exhibit, it must not lost o
En! Alagbon o
And don tell my shit too expensive shit
En! Alagbon o
My shit na exhibit, it must not lost o
En! Alagbon o
En! Alagbon o (etc ....)
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