Sound Experiment

meaning; if you want to go take a shower you will have to use water.

For many years as a youngster I recited these words without a clue of the deeper meaning that Fela Anikulapo Kuti conveyed via his music. I also wondered why the instrumentals always ran for so long before any lyrics (with the average Fela song lasting any where from 10 to 15 minutes.) I remember also wanting to go visit Fela's shrine in Lagos, of course this never happened. Even though my dad played Fela all day at home, a visit to the shrine wouldn't exactly fit in the kind of upbringing my parents had in mind.

Today armed with some degree of fluency in Yoruba which Fela sometimes used in his music, I have a greater understanding of his music. Even without understanding the lyrics, the mere enormity of Fela's arrangements and the resultant robustness of the sound are sufficient to take you to 1970's Lagos, where like it does today, Fela's music makes real the day to day global struggle that is life. And if you don't need a deeper meaning in your music, you would at least appreciate the infectiousness and danceability of this music.

Water no get enemy, is a good starting point in the vast discography of the King of Afrobeat.

Bonus: Africa - Center of the World with Roy Ayers. Listen for Roy on the Vibes and Fela on the Sax. I only wish I saw this live.

*Word up, Matt.

its just good music. Roy Ayers mastered the vibraphone after he was given a pair of mallets at the age of five. From that point on, the vibraphone or vibe became his trademark sound, as exemplified in this masterpiece. Searching is from the album Vibrations, released on Polydor in 1976. Listening to this song will immediately add about 10 points of coolness to your soul.

BTW, Roy has some recordings with Fela Kuti, more to come on that.