naptu2: I was looking for a very famous old video of Fela addressing people on the streets of Lagos, but I haven't been able to find it yet. Guess what I found instead?
I have been searching for this song for a long time and I resumed searching for it earlier this year but I had no luck.
She actually personally got permission from Fela in order to do this song and this was her very first hit.
You can (of course) here the bass and horns of Fela's "Look and Laugh" on the track. There's a part of the song in which she complained that the exchange rate was 120 naira to a pound.
naptu2: 17) Fela Anikulapo-Kuti ft Ginger Baker – Live! (1971)
Ginger Baker is an English drummer and founder of the rock band Cream. He spent a lot of time in Nigeria in the 1970s, recording and studying African music and he became a good friend of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. You can see some videos of his interactions with Fela on YouTube. They are taken from his documentary Ginger Baker in Africa. He was instrumental in settling the rift between Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and Paul McCartney. Paul McCartney was bored with recording in the UK and so he decided to record his album “Band On The Run” at EMI studios in Apapa, Lagos in 1973. (You can read about everything that happened during McCartney’s visit on this thread https://www.nairaland.com/1387857/foreign-local-musical-tributes-nigeria ) . McCartney went to watch Fela play at the Shrine, but Fela confronted him and accused him of coming to exploit and steal African music.
Fela had good reason to be concerned. James Brown toured Nigeria in 1970. Fela’s legendary drummer, Tony Allen claims that James Brown sent his arranger, David Mathews, to check him out and that David Mathews took notes about how he played. James Brown’s bassist, William “Bootsy” Collins said that they went to Fela’s club (the Shrine) in Lagos and they were amazed by what they saw. “I mean, this is the James Brown band, but we were totally wiped out! That is one trip I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world”. In another interview he said, “I thought THEY were the greatest, period. Even before I got into the James Brown band, the James Brown band was number one to me. But once I got there and saw Fela and them, then I had second thoughts about it. . .when I heard these cats, it was like another dimension. . .a deeper feel to me. . .it was like, ‘Man, this is IT. We gotta try to be like this!” [laughs] (read more here http://afrofunkforum..com.ng/2006/04/felajames-brown-connection.html?m=1)
So Fela thought that Paul McCartney had also come to steal African music without giving anything back or crediting the source of the music. Fela also went to EMI studios to confront McCartney. Everything was resolved when McCartney and his group played their music for Fela so that he could hear that there wasn’t any African influence in it. Ginger Baker was also able to bring them together and he also invited McCartney to record at his studio in Ikeja.
Tony Allen is probably the most famous former member of Fela’s band. Fela writes the music for his band and all the members of the band must play what he has written. Dele Sosimi (former keyboardist for both Fela and Femi) gave an example in a BBC interview in the early 2000s. He said that they would be rehearsing and Fela would suddenly stop the band. “Who’s that?” he would shout and when he has identified the person that played the offending note, he would order the manager to deduct two weeks wages from the person’s salary. They must always play what Fela has written.
However, it was very different with Tony Allen. Fela would compose the melody and bring it to Tony Allen and ask him, “What can you play to this melody?” and Tony Allen would play something and Fela would go, “Yeah! Yeah! That’s it!” Tony Allen was not just the drummer of Africa 70, he was also the musical director of the band.
Some of my friends who were drummers have nicknamed Tony Allen “the Octopus” because they say that he drums with his hands, elbows and feet, as if he has eight limbs.
In 1978 Fela married 27 women at a go. He also set up a political party called Movement of The People, in order to contest in the 1979 Nigerian presidential elections. Tony Allen said that he also noticed that a lot of strange people started hanging around Fela. He decided that Fela was no longer serious and left the band. Fela had to hire two drummers to play the rhythms that Tony Allen singlehandedly played. Tony Allen has lived in Paris, France for a long time and he records and plays music over there.
There is a track on this album called Drum Solo. It is like a drum battle between Ginger Baker and Tony Allen. Ginger Baker is drumming in the European style while Tony Allen is drumming in the African style. It’s my favourite track on the album.
The first video is of the whole album, so only watch it if you have enough data. The second video is of Drum Solo, the battle between Tony Allen and Ginger Baker.
naptu2: Lauryn Hill just sampled Fela. The guitar riff was from Army Arrangement. The trumpet was from another of Fela's songs, but I can't remember which right now. The dancing girls are DEFINITELY Fela.
naptu2: Lauryn Hill on stage. Mashup of her song Lost One and Fela Anikulapo-Kuti's Zombie. (This isn't the award show that I watched last year. It's another performance).
naptu2: I always listened to this song in full in the 1970s and '80s, but in the 2000s many people often chopped up the song into bits. Thankfully, with YouTube's new licensing system, there's an official Fela page and I can show you what I want you to hear.
You don't even need to listen to the whole song. I would like you to listen from the beginning, but my main aim is to get you to listen to the drum solo at the 2:05 minute mark. Please listen to that drum solo. Please, please listen to that drum solo. It'll also be nice if you listen from the beginning, so that you can get the context, but please listen to the drum solo.
Timoleon: You are intentionally being insincere. This is a street explanation of constant inflation happening in the country. How it’s easy to understand.
Learn to understand text before rushing in. I wrote 2nd tier.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT 2ND TIER MEANS BEFORE YOU JUMPED INTO MY MENTIONS??
Chris brown is definitely in the same category as Michael Jackson and Prince
Tweep 2)
In terms of being black guy yea I guess.
Definitely not as a musician lmao
Tweep 3)
Are they all about the same height? Is that what this person is talking about?
This used to leave me perplexed until I understood what the problem was. They cannot understand the context and there’s absolutely no way that they will be able to compare because they didn’t experience it, so they won’t be able to understand it.
At every point in time you have someone who is really good at their craft and there’s always the temptation for people who have not experienced anything better to proclaim that the person is the greatest ever, but greatness is something quite different from just being good.
Michael Jackson broke 39 Guinness World Records, was inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame twice and released an album that is still the best-selling album ever 36 years after it was released. Michael Jackson was hosted by princes, presidents and popes. He was honoured on three occasions by two US presidents. President Reagan honoured him in 1984 and President H.W. Bush honoured him in 1990 and 1992. President Omar Bongo invited him to Gabon in 1992 and he personally welcomed Michael at the airport. He also met with President Boigny of the Ivory Coast during his 1992 African tour. He regularly collaborated with Princess Diana and often met the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Michael won several American, Grammy, Soul Train and World music awards and no award ceremony in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s was complete without his presence. The anticipation before the release of his albums was crazy. The release of Thriller, Bad, Dangerous and History were discussed and reported on major news shows.
Prince was a master musician. He played 27 instruments and he often singlehandedly played all the instruments on his albums, which often got to number one on the charts. He also wrote and produced a lot of hits for many other stars including Tom Jones (Kiss), Sinead O’Connor (Nothing Compares To You), Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Chaka Khan, etc. He released an album that is still the third best-selling soundtrack album ever (which is also one of the best albums ever) 34 years after it was released.
Prince won several Academy (Oscars), Grammy, American, Soul Train and BET awards and he was inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, the Rhythm N Blues Hall of Fame and the UK Music Hall of Fame.
It's like the attempt to compare Wizkid and Fela. Fela transcended music. He was not only an excellent composer, arranger and band leader who knew how to play with words (MASS, BBC, BON, etc), he was also the soundtrack for a huge chunk of Nigerian history. I was listening to Fela c2007 and I had goose bumps. It was like I was transported back to the era of riots, coups and uncertainties of the 1980s. Unilag students often placed huge loudspeakers on danfo buses and blasted Fela's music as they patrolled Lagos during riots and protests.
Fela was a thorn in the flesh of many military governments and he was hosted by heads of states like President Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso.
Fela's writing was legendary and songs like Army Arrangement and Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense could take you into a trance. He was a complete entertainer and fans thronged to the Shrine for his Yabis sessions as much as they did for his music. He is still being celebrated around the world 21 years after his death and more than 30 years after he released his most famous albums.
This is similar to several discussions that I’ve had in recent months. How would someone understand that most Nigerian would choose a Peugeot 504 over a Range Rover if you offered him both cars in 1983 and asked him to choose? If you asked Nigerians to choose between a Peugeot 508 and a Range Rover today, most of them will choose the Range Rover! So there’s no way that he can relate.
(This reminds me of a motorcade that I saw during the riot in 1992. The VIP was in a Peugeot 504 and there were 4 Land Rover Discoveries escorting him. Someone remarked that the Discos were far more expensive than the 504).
How would someone understand that the clothes that people wear in music videos and music films do not necessarily represent the fashion of that era (they are costumes). They are dancers and you don’t expect them to wear flowing robes. It’s like someone saying that tight skimpy clothes were all the rage in the late 2000s because that’s what Beyonce wore in her Single Ladies video and Kelly Rowland wore something similar in Like This. They won’t understand that those were just costumes.[/quote]
Brilliance, humour and logic from beautiful madness. That's one of the things I loved about him.
From "Movement Against Second Slavery" (MASS), this is Alhaji Alhaji (Stranger).
♪I
naptu2: Our government go sell us away. Selling the continent to make us slaves again
Dem come go Europe, white man wey dey for west, bring am come-o, Bringing the religion Christianity to go chop us away, Dem go Arabia, white man wey dey for east, Bring am come-o Bringing the religion Islam to dey chop us away.
Islam and Christianity bring wars to Africa, To this-e continent In the centre of the world, Dem go bring confusion To the centre of the world Wetin dis government dey do no be for talk Na for cry-o Time don reach for us to call alhajis so . . . I don travel many places This the first time I don hear about. I never hear "alhaji" as title Only in the country Nigeria You hear somebody be alhaji "Alhaji so-so-and-so . . ." We cannot talk about what these governments do-we can only cry
CHORUS: Ye, ye, ye!
Brothers, come and hear this one: "Alhaji" na Arabic language The meaning of "alhaji" na "stranger" .
(Fela) I Alhaji Umaru Dikko (Response) Stranger Umaru Dikko!
This na revelation. Revelation of our ancestors. Offender must point at himself. Brothers and sisters hear me. This is a revelation A revelation of our ancestors. The offender must point at himself. Brothers and sisters hear me:
Mothers and fathers hear me. Na stranger dey rule our country!
(Response) For inside police. For inside air force. For inside navy. For inside government
How do you explain this to people who don't know what second tier means?
naptu2: [size=14pt]From "Overatake Don Overtake Overtake" (ODOO)[/size]
My friend wan come buy fan Him dey sweat when him dey sleep for room Him dey for level 03 The fan na seventy-five naira
My friend him dey for low salary Him dey try to save and save and save Every time he nearly buy the fan Government go add ten naira more Every time he nearly buy the fan Government go start one activity Till the fan reach two hundred naira My friend nearly die, he never die
My friend he no wan die Die-die no dey for him dictionary For where? Huh... Him dey try to save and save again Him save for one year and six months
Inside cupboard Under pillow Under, under cooking pot Inside socks Under carpet Him dey on his way to buy the fan When alarm come blow
Wiiiiiaaaaaaaa!
Government announce second tier Everything come tear to pieces Everything come expensive Even water become expensive
Second bass, jare... pop!
Fan don become seven hundred naira Me and my friend start to look ourselves He remain small make my friend dey cry Na laugh laugh he catch monkey Na now he come understand him life Enjoyment can never come him way Na now him life dey go reverse In Africa, him fatherland One more time..
Nickshrapnel: Hmm, naptu2 I read somewhere that when the facility eventually comes online, excess power generated will be distributed to Eko electricity distribution company thereby improving power supply in Lagos. Is there any truth to this?
Well, they are building a 570 megawatt power plant and the refinery and fertilizer plant requires 440 megawatts, so it's possible.
However, I think the main boost to electricity in Lagos will be the undersea gas pipeline. That will carry gas from Bonny under the sea to Olokola in Ondo and then to Ibeju Lekki in Lagos. I'm certain that part of the gas will be used to power other industries and power plants in Lagos.
There has been a gas leak in front of Punch Newspapers office along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. The incident occurred when Julius Berger officials who were working on the road mistakenly ruptured a gas pipeline.
The NNPC has shut down the pipeline and emergency agencies are assessing the situation.
I never implied you were wrong, not in the slightest. What I'm harping on about is the reality. I mean in your previous posts- indiscipline and incompetence is usually the biggest problem!
I mean we have been importing fuel even though the logical thing is to fix refineries or build more
I think that's something that we can all agree on (even though there are a few exceptions and rays of hope, for example, if Dangote completes the refinery then we'll become exporters of refined petroleum products instead of importers).
DisGuy: Of course those routes are fastest, What I'm trying to reiterate is that indiscipline is our reality. There will be a massive comma in the system. Tank farms, another nurtw branch etc will dot the landscape before you know it drivers will be looking for alternatives
And all that still doesn't negate my statement that you quoted.
I'll make it clearer. I said that goods will be moved via the north, south and east and therefore, Lekki, which is to the west, will not be significantly affected.
You then asked a question about moving fuel to the north-west. The fuel is still moved in a north-westerly direction, whether it's by tanker trucks or by pipelines, so it still has nothing to do with my statement about Lekki.
The fact remains, my statement was correct. Goods will be moved eastward, northward and southward.
DisGuy: Absolutely, I hope they complete the ijebu-epe road on time and to specification- not too impressed
what's the most efficient and logical way to move fuel Northwest? The is technology to protect the pipelines and more than enough 'corps' to recruit along the line as you described up there but....the reality is there....
You didn't answer my question. Geographically, what's the fastest way to move goods out of Ibeju-Lekki. I'vr already answered your question in my post (in fact you took that question from my post) and it's not the same as the question I asked
DisGuy: There's a sensible plan and there will be a Nigerian reality...
What's the fastest and logical route to get goods out of Lagos from Ibeju Lekki, north, south, east or west?
(That is, to move goods to places like Ibadan and Abeokuta in western Nigeria, or to move goods to eastern Nigeria via the Lagos-Benin Expressway, or to move goods to the north of Nigeria. Look at the location of Dangote's refinery in Ibeju Lekki and then look at the position of Lekki Phase 1 and the other places I mentioned on the map).
Katlyst: I am just speculating a compromise but only the future can tell.
I think I need to explain a couple of things.
1) The refinery and in fact the entire Free Trade Zone is in Ibeju Lekki. Lekki (Phase 1 to Abraham Adesanya) is to the west of Ibeju Lekki, but all the goods that are going to go to and from the Free Trade Zone are going to be moved through the north (through Ogun), east (through Ondo) and south (through the Atlantic Ocean. Lekki Peninsula will not be significantly affected.
2) There are already facilities to move goods through the north and south of the Free Trade Zone. Dangote has built his port. There is already a road that links Epe and Ijebu Ode (in Ogun State) and there is already a lighter terminal in Epe on the Lagos Lagoon. Dangote also already has a jetty on the lagoon.
3) Ondo State, Ogun State and Lagos State are building roads to the north and east of the facility. Will they be ready before the refinery is ready? Maybe, maybe not, nobody knows, just as nobody knows if the refinery will be ready before the roads. Remember that the refinery was originally scheduled for completion in 2016, then 2018, then 2019, then 2020 and now 2021. Nobody knows if it will be ready by 2021.
4) What happened in Apapa is not a failure of planning, but rather an example of the indiscipline of Nigerians (both in and out of government).
This gridlock in Apapa did not exist when I was a kid in the '70s and '80s, so I had to ask myself what changed. I wrote this while trying to find an answer, but I need to include two things that I previously left out.
The reason that they stopped piping is because militants break open the pipelines at Arepo in Ikorodu and steal the product.
The railway system collapsed in the 1990s. C2000 Aliko Dangote made a proposal to lease vacant land at Apapa Port for his flour business. There was an outcry when he was given the land. People said that the government was favouring him. In order to appear impartial the government then gave some land at the port to Flour Mills of Nigeria. The problem is that the land that was given to Flour Mills contains a portion of the railway and they built their factory right over the railway line, so no trains could run from Ebute Metta to the port. The government is now demolishing that factory as it constructs the new standard guage line.
naptu2: [size=14pt]Solutions to the Apapa/Surulere traffic jam[/size].
People keep trying to treat the symptoms without addressing the root cause of the problem. In 2008 I spent 3 hours on one spot on Park Lane, Apapa. The driver even suggested that I should take a motorcycle back to the island, but I refused because I wanted to study the situation. Many measures have been taken since then (deployment of naval personnel, banning of tankers, construction of more tanker parks, etc) but none of them have solved the problem.
Things weren't always this way. So what has changed and what is the solution?
1) Tankers: - Previously petroleum products came into the country through the Atlas Cove Jetty and were piped to depots at Ejigbo (Lagos), Mosimi (Ogun), Ibadan (Oyo), Ore (Ondo) and Ilorin (Kwara). This was the busiest pipeline network in the country and Atlas Cove is the biggest jetty for the reception of imported petroleum products in the country. There are other pipeline networks like the Kaduna, Minna, Suleja, Kano and Gusau network.
Tanker trucks in Ogun State went to the Mosimi Depot to load petroleum products, tankers in Oyo State went to Ibadan, tankers in Ondo went to Ore, tankers in Kwara went to Ilorin, tankers in Lagos went to Apapa and Ejigbo, etc. There were also a few private depots (especially in Lagos) that stored petroleum products on behalf of the NNPC.
The problem is that the NNPC does not trust the pipelines due to frequent incidents of pipeline vandalisation. They don't want to lose any more product/money, so they stopped piping petroleum products to the depots. Instead of piping petroleum products to the depots, tanker trucks come from as far away as Ilorin to load petroleum products in Apapa. The fact that the Kaduna Refinery has also not been functioning has meant that trucks also come from Kaduna, Kano and other places in the north to load petroleum products in Apapa. These tankers, unlike Lagos based tankers, cannot return to their base to wait for their turn to load, so they park on the streets. There was a time earlier this year when there were 6,000 out of state tankers in Lagos at the same time!
The solution is to first secure the pipelines by using technology, such as distributed accoustic sensing (DAS) to detect vandals before they attack the pipelines, using drones and CCTV cameras to identify the vandals and providing vehicles like helicopters and pickup trucks to the security forces so that they can rapidly respond to alerts. All of these should be coordinated by a properly staffed and equipped comand and control centre and the government should ensure that the vandals are prosecuted. The NNPC can then start piping products to depots again. The second necessary measure is to ban out of state trucks from loading petroleum products in Lagos. Doing this will take away half of the cause of the gridlock at Apapa.
2) Freight trucks: - Nigerians seem to be so fascinated by high speed passenger trains (MagLev lines and electric locomotives), that they've forgotten how important freight trains are. A good chunk of the traffic jams we experience can be eliminated if goods are moved by rail rather than by articulated trucks. The wear and tear that the road suffers would be minimised and the number of accidents caused by these trucks would be reduced. Businesses would also benefit from this as they would not have to pay illegal taxes and bribes that are demanded by policemen and area boys on the road. There would also be better security which would greatly minimise the problem of armed robbery on our highways.
The colonialists recognised the importance of freight trains, so they created an arm of the Lagos-Kano line that runs from the Ebute Metta junction on to the platform at the Apapa Port. Thus goods (like Dantata's groundnuts) could be moved directly from Kano to the port for export. This arm of the railway line had many sidings to industrial concerns in the Ijora and Apapa area. For example, there was a siding that ran to the old power station in Ijora (with the twin smoke stacks) so that coal could be moved by freight train from Enugu to the power station. Unfortunately some people have built over the railway line to the power station (and over some of the other lines in the area) but there are still sidings that go to Nigerian Flour Mills, Mobil, Oando, Total, etc.
The railways can also help to solve the problem of distribution of petroleum products. Petroleum products can be moved from state to state by rail tankers, rather than by tanker trucks.
I believe that one of the ways to solve the problem of the gridlock in Apapa and the degradation of the Apapa-Oworonshoki Expressway is for goods to be moved from the port primarily by trains and for trailer trucks to be banned from plying the roads between 6am-9pm.
The rail lines in the Apapa Port complex and the rail line from the Ebute Metta Junction to Apapa were rehabilitated by the AP Moeller-Maersk Group (a concessionaire at the Apapa Port) and the previous Federal Government, but users of the port complain that not enough trains have been provided to move goods out of the port. This issue must be addressed.
Indeed I think that the new ports that are being constructed across the country should also be linked by rail. I'm not sure if the blue line that's currently being constructed is dual purpose, but I think it's very important that there's a freight train service in the Ojo-Badagry area to service the new Badagry Port, the Energy City, the Agbara Industrial Estate, the car plant (VON/Stallion Motors), Alaba Markets, the Trade Fair Complex and to move goods coming from Benin Republic (by the way, I went past there last week and I was surprised at the progress that's been made on the Blue Line. The tracks had only been laid from Orile to Mile 2 the previous time I went there and the road expansion works terminated just after the Festac Bridge, but now the tracks have been laid beyond Festac and the expansion works had progressed beyond Amuwo Odofin. The rail bridge on the other side had gone beyond the Ebute Metta Creek, but I really hate what they've done to the creek). It's also important that the new Lekki Port, the Olokola Port and the Ibom Port should be linked to the national rail network.
3) Out of time goods (goods that have stayed longer than 28 days) at the Apapa and Tin Can Island ports should be moved to the Ikorodu Port by barges. This will free up space at those ports and also reduce the number of trucks on our roads. The Ikorodu Port should also be linked to the national rail newtork.
Basically, the solution to the problem is the same as the solution to the general transport problem in Lagos - mutlimodal transport. We can't keep depending on the road (for both passenger and goods transportation, but especially for transporting goods), we need to utilise and expand the rail system, the waterways, the air and even underground.
Photo of port construction in colonial Nigeria (note the railway tracks). Picturee by the Nigerian Ports Authority.
Music/Radio › Re: Who Produced Better Music Between Lagbaja And Fela by naptu2: 1:55pm On Dec 17, 2020
You didn't answer my question. Geographically, what's the fastest way to move goods out of Ibeju-Lekki. I'vr already answered your question in my post (in fact you took that question from my post) and it's not the same as the question I asked
