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Original Sufferhead (1981)

by Fela Kuti

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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Pressed on ewuro (opaque light green) vinyl.

    This edition of Original Sufferhead is a major event. With the release of box set #5, and now on this reissue, the title track of this magnificent album is presented in its full-length, 25 minutes 24 seconds glory. While preparing the master disc for the box set, our engineer Jedi, Colin Young, discovered four minutes of “lost” material on the B-side of the original pressing, including a superb keyboard solo by Fela. This had been omitted from subsequent reissues. The restored version used here starts and finishes with Fela’s keyboard work, a typically venturesome blend of futurism and visceralism.
    Original Sufferhead was the first album Fela released under Egypt 80’s name (he had disbanded Afrika 70 in 1979).
    On the title track, arguing from the personal to the political, Fela describes the inhuman treatment and poor living conditions experienced by working class Nigerians, the people he called sufferheads. In “Power Show,” Fela sings about the two-tier system dividing Nigerian society, in which the rich get treated one way and the poor another.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Original Sufferhead (1981) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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    Purchasable with gift card

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Power Show 14:48

about

Original Sufferhead begins with a minimal and otherworldly improv with a Fela’s new band, Egypt 80, before building up into a bold, intricately structured Afrobeat anthem decrying the situation of the masses in Nigeria. “Let’s sing a nice song together,” Fela suggests, as the chorus parallels the agile melody of his of sax. He then, with the help of the chorus, launches into a list of the problems that plague the people: no water supply, the exorbitant price of living, no health care, double digit inflation. The “big big people” have turned the people into Coffin For Head of State: After the sacking and burning of Fela’s Kalakuta Republic in 1977, Fela wrote several musical responses directly attacking the culpable Nigeria government, inculding this mournful tribute to his mother, Coffin for Head of State. After his mother’s passing due to complications from injuries sustained after being thrown out a window during the raid on Kalakuta, Fela, his wives, and his followers carried his mother’s coffin to the front gate of the army barracks: a bold act of defiance. “Coffin For Head of State” is Fela’s somber excoriation of those that, “through Jesus Christ our Lord”, corrupt, steal and rob the African people. The song’s wlo, steady beat and repetitive structure mimics the march up to the barracks, while the lyrics directly address Fela’s overwhelming sadness over the loss of his mother and the state of his beloved Nigeria. a nation of permanent sufferers. Don’t be passive, he urges: stand up for your rights.

The B-side, Power Show, builds on the same theme, highlighting the ruling class oppression of the masses. The lyrics tell the story of a rich man in a fancy car who, pulling alongside a poor man traveling alone, verbally abuses the man. Fela calls this the “Power Show”, and excoriates the behavior - it’s not the right thing to do for your fellow human being.

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released January 18, 2011

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Fela Kuti Lagos, Nigeria

Over a decade after his death, vindication has come to Fela Kuti, Africa’s musical genius. AfroBeat, his gift to the world, is now an international staple on his own uncompromising terms, social content intact.

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