Zombie - Fela Kuti (1977)

everything Fela Anikulapo Kuti touches turns to gold. such is my analysis after listening to seven of his albums from the 70s. but there's one album in particular that flows, breaks, and crashes with the unmatchable fury of an unfathomable diamond ocean.



Fela Kuti's twenty-somethingth album, Zombie (1977), as far as i know, is afrobeat perfection. what is afrobeat? well, according to the infinite wisdom of Wikipedia, "Afrobeat is a combination of traditional Yoruba music, jazz, highlife, funk and chanted vocals, fused with percussion and vocal styles, popularized in Africa in the 1970s. Its main creator was the Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti, who used it to revolutionise musical structure as well as the political context in his native Nigeria. It was Kuti who coined the term 'afrobeat,' which features chants, call-and-response vocals, and complex, interacting rhythms."

holy shit. you know how James Brown essentially invented funk? well, the JBs were famously floored when they took a little trip down to Nigeria in the 1970s. recalls bassist William 'Bootsy' Collins, "[Fela] had a club in Lagos, and we came to the club and they were treating us like kings. We were telling them they're the funkiest cats we ever heard in our life. I mean, this is the James Brown band, but we were totally wiped out! That was one trip I wouldn't trade for anything in the world."

we all have weaknesses. for some, it might be genre invention. here's mine:

1. Zombie (12:26)
2. Mister Folllow Follow (12:58)
3. Observation Is No Crime (13:26)
4. Mistake [Live] (14:47)

this album is four tracks long and none of them fall under the ten minute mark. holy shit x2. and don't think this is Fela's exception. i performed a little calculation with my seven Kuti albums from the 70s and it turns out the average song length is 14 minutes. the longest is 25 minutes (Confusion) and the shortest is 8:08 (Igbe (Na Shit) from Gentleman).

long songs rule. the vocals on the title track start at about 5:30. the vocals on the second track start at about 7:30. that's usually how it goes with Fela. epic, epic jazz jams that slowly, surely, so surely build up to Fela's scathing lyrics of political protest and ideological expression.

oh yeah, that's the other thing. this music might be relaxing, brilliantly composed, amazing to dance to, and joyous to jam to, but Fela ain't fucking around. if you want to hear a real story about polygamy, revolution, and the power of music, check out this Guardian article. here's an excerpt:

You could make a case for 1976's most revolutionary record being not 'Anarchy In The UK' but ['Zombie'], perfectly conceived slice of pop subversion, with its killer groove sounding like no one else, thunderous brass with wonderful trumpet from Lester Bowie and lyrics in pidgin English attacking the mindlessness of the Nigerian military ('Zombie no go turn unless you tell am to turn/Zombie no go think unless you tell to think...').

Fela's robotic stage moves had been copied by protesters in riots against the government he was banned from Ghana for being 'liable to cause a breach of the peace' and this song provoked an attack on his new commune, named by Fela the Kalakuta ('Rascal') Republic. Indeed, Fela had declared independence from the repressive Nigerian state. On 18 February 1977, more than 1,000 armed soldiers surrounded the compound, set fire to the generator, and brutalised the occupants. Fela alleged he was dragged by his genitals from the main house, beaten, and only escaped death following the intervention of a commanding officer. Many women were raped and the 78-year-old Funmilayo [Fela's mother, a political activist, and a feminist] was thrown through a window. She subsequently died.

the Nigerian government killed Fela's mother because his music was just too damn good. you're basically the enemy if you don't like this album.

download.