Top Fela Choons

I'm predicting "Zombie" for the win (his "big hit"), but I've always had a soft spot for "Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense" because that's the first album of his I ever bought.

And on a side note, Gentleman may have the greatest album cover of all time. No Photoshop there: Fela and co. actually put a suit on a baboon! Whose job was that, I wonder, and did they bother trying to get the suit back afterward?

http://vibrationsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/s-gentleman-1973-74def2.jpg

"He Miss Road". Something about the semi-slow (for Fela) pace and the cavernous organ break does it for me.

I like "Coffin for the Head of State" a lot too, but the post- Tony Allen tunes simply don't have as great drumming as his. It seem the rest of the Africa 70 was kinda expendable, but not Allen.

Coffin For Head Of State

what nerve pylon said. this week it is "he miss road" or "egbe mi o".

This is tough and makes me want to listen to about the 60% I've missed - that said I gotta vote 'Roforofo Fight' - it's a fave.

Roforofo fight, b/c its the first one I heard. Shenshema is another favorite.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i had never even heard of fela before a matos joint on perfect sound forever long ago. thanks matos.

I guess it would have made more sense if I'd put the year next to each song, as it's obviously no longer in chronological order. Oh well.

Nice choices! This should inspire people to go beyond "Zombie" and "Original Sufferhead." Also interesting to see it's actually "Water No Get Enemy" that's getting the playing time off of the Expensive Shit album. Considering that the reissue is doubled with the He Miss Road album, this is apparently the most value-packed jam to start with for those looking to try Fela for a first time, or second chance, or those who enjoyed seeing his sons Femi and Seun play.

Wow, it's nice to see "He Miss Road" win. Didn't think it would. And "Water No Get Enemy" is great too - definitely better than the titular tune on Expensive Shit, even though "Expensive Shit" has an, er, more interesting story behind the lyrics. Am I the only one who thinks "Water" has a sort of Afro-Cuban or Latin feel to it, with its rhythm and the chanting in the chorus?

Personally I'd say the best of those two-for-one reissue CDs is Open & Close/Afrodisiac, every tune on it is great. "Alu Jon Jonki Jon" has a killer distorted keyboard groove - that's the first Fela I tune I ever heard, and I immediately fell in love with him. And "Chop'n Quench" is probably his best instrumental, the horn riffs are very catchy. I think Afrodisiac was originally some sort of a compilation rather than a traditional album?

"Expensive Shit" would be a much better song if you could understand any of the lyrics. What are they? All I can make out is "Him go shit." and the background singers going "because the shit does smell" and I'm not even sure if those are correct. You can't even google them!

The lyrics are reprinted on the record sleeve, I think they're pretty straightforward. Basically, the first four verses is about this and that creature - a goat, a monkey, a man, a woman - after they've bent down and took a shit, they don't want to take a look at the shit, because it smells. And in the fifth verse he says that Fela, the "Black Power man", is the same too - he doesn't want to see his shit, because it smells. But the government, the ones who want to "quench your soul", they are different: they are very interested in Fela's shit, because they want to use it as an exhibit to put him into jail.

Admittedly, the lyrics are kinda obscure if you don't know the story behind them. Some time before he made this song, Fela was arrested by the Nigerian government, nominally on drug charges, but really because Fela had become a vocal and influential critic of the powers that be. Apparently they couldn't find any drugs on him, but claimed that he had swallowed the weed he had possessed before they had arrested him. So they put him into jail and wanted him to give a shit sample in order to prove that he'd eaten the weed. But while in jail he paid some other guy who was also there to exchange shits with him, so he could then give them this clean shit sample as his own, and subsequently walk out free. Anyway, that's the story as Fela told it, I'm not sure how embellished it is. The "expensive shit" in the title refers either to Fela's own shit or the shit he bought from his jailmate.

Interesting I thought Water or Zombie would have won this by a landslide. I'm sad Shakara and Lady didn't get any wotes but they can't all win I guess. Oh and one my personal faves, "ITT", seem to be missing here.

Scrap that, it's listed here as "International Thief Thief"

Anyone seen this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6294aCmfIHo&feature=player_embedded