What’s the most rebellious thing your favourite musician has ever done? got his lad out on stage? done huge amounts of drugs and made an ass of themselves? dressed funny? posed naked? crashed their car? something sexual? hit someone? spat? forget it pee-wee.
Fela Kuti.
In September 1977 Nigerian troops, up to 1000 of them reputedly, raided his Lagos compound, ground zero for all manner of political, sexual and musical ferment. The soldiers beat all the men severely, raped the women and threw Fela’s 76 year-old mother* through an upstairs window, causing injuries she eventually died from after an 8 week coma. The compound, along with master tapes, his band’s instruments and the free healthcare clinic it provided was burned to the ground.
The attack was caused mainly by Fela’s goading of the military junta and his calling out of intimidation of citizens and rampant corruption on his Zombie album. The official enquiry heard from 183 witnesses and passed the verdict that the compound had been burned and attacked by ‘an unknown soldier’.
On the anniversary of his mother’s death Fela and 75 followers boarded two buses and drove to Dodan barracks and delivered his mother’s coffin to the residence of General Olusegun Obasanjo to protest and to further embarrass the regime. They were beaten and imprisoned again.
Coffin For Head Of State, released in 1981 in a stark newspaper and leaflet collage cover that Crass would have been proud of, is the story of this.
Coffin For Head Of State was credited to Fela Kuti and Africa ’70 on original release, but annoyingly on my 2019 rerelease just to ‘Fela’ – in the logo used by the stage show, that’s branding I guess.
Unusually for a Kuti release this is a short record, split into a 10-minute instrumental and a 13-minute vocal side, both were wisely combined into a single track for the digital release. Whether this reflects the difficulties in recording the track, logistical and political as well as emotional, or whether this was a deliberate ploy to make the message punchier on this occasion** I leave you, gentle reader, to decide.
The 10-minute instrumental track is a suitably smouldering warm up to the main act. Over a simpler rhythm than usual^ we wend our way through some funky rhythmic electric piano playing from Fela through to a sax crescendo near the end. At all times everything sounds controlled and clenched tight. The brass builds towards the end of the first ten minutes, getting more and more wayward setting the scene for the second act.
The vinyl of Coffin For Head Of State splits off the vocal side, but personally I prefer the way that Fela’s beautifully soft vocals slink into place if it isn’t divided. The backing singers are deployed to superb effect on the track, almost continually repeating a trio of words for emphasis – whether it be ‘amen‘, or personal favourite ‘waka‘, the strident rhythm they provide is electrifying.
For my money this is Fela’s best ever vocal, he gently pulls apart and mocks Christian and Muslim moral hypocrisy, corruption and laments the way Nigeria was run, the way the establishment was carving up the nation just as it had before the military coup. He is tone perfect and late on the simple line ‘dem kill my mama’ is as devastating as it has every right to be, before he goes on to describe his coffin protest.
Them steal all the money Them kill many students Them burn many houses Them burn my house too Them kill my mama So I carry the coffin I waka waka waka Movement of the People Them waka waka waka Young African Pioneers Them waka waka waka We go Obalende We go Dodan barracks We reach them gate o We put the coffin down Obasanjo dey there With him big fat stomach Yar'Adua dey there With him neck like ostrich We put the coffin down
This is a slow, measured protest, a revenge served cold and matter-of-factly. This is protest music operating with the keenest of edges, total control and a sense of real destiny. Remarkable.
I originally picked this up to review following Tony Allen’s demise, it was only after listening to it twice and not hearing him at all I realised that he wasn’t on the LP! That’s the kind of awesome professional, knowledgeable and highly-researched edge I bring to 1537. Shucks.
999 Down.
*a remarkable woman who undoubtedly deserves more recognition than her son, she was a visionary educator and women’s rights activist. Read more.
**Kuti’s discography is blessed with many tracks in excess of 20 mintes and not a one overstays their welcome for me.
^a product of Tony Allen quitting the band prior to this recording because of all the militancy and monetary issues?