Feb 11/08
Fela Interlude
Thanks to lots of great Mauritian music submitted by Benn loxo listeners I’ll be back with a second Mauritius week tomorrow morning.
In the meantime, let’s take a quick breather.. friend and Benn loxo listener Alex has a Monday treat for you:
“Tonight I’ve found a rare track that deserves to spread among the world of African music fans. It’s a rare B-side of Fela Kuti’s from 1970, just as he invented the style of Afrobeat music.
Beautiful Dancer has a hard groove like the other song on this record, the well-known Black Man’s Cry. While Black Man’s Cry became famous after it was featured as the opening track on Fela’s 1971 live album with Ginger Baker, Beautiful Dancer has been lost and never featured on any re-release since the original 45rpm record (which was only released in Nigeria and France). It features Fela’s Africa 70 with Tony Allen on drums. There are a few more of these rare singles from Fela’s early career that have never been re-released, such as Keep Nigeria One, Beggar’s Song (Orin Alagbe), and Going In and Coming Out. If anyone has copies, please e-mail Matt.”
Thanks, Alex. As he said, if you have any of these un-released Fela tracks please let us know in the comments or by e-mail.
Fela Ransome-Kuti and his Africa ‘70 – Beautiful Dancer
Tags: afrobeat, nigeria
February 11th, 2008 at 18:38
Thanks from me also, Alex.
Last year I passed on to Uchenna at the Comb & Razor blog rips of a couple of unreleased-in-CD Fela LPs, “Perambulator” and “I Go Shout Plenty!” I think they’re still online. You can access them here:
http://combandrazor.blogspot.com/search/label/Fela
February 11th, 2008 at 19:10
Thanks Alex/Matt….you need to get hold of Miles Cleret’s Fela collection…plenty plenty ….
February 11th, 2008 at 19:23
Matt: tx for the track
JohnB: tx for the link
a must crosspost
February 12th, 2008 at 08:06
Thanks for letting us hear this Fela groove!
Pieter
February 13th, 2008 at 09:48
Mat(suli): Any idea how to get in touch with Mr. Cleret himself? I’d love to see if he’s got all the rest (I’m sure he does).
February 14th, 2008 at 19:59
Hey Matt, It’s incredible! I’ve got one for sale on Ebay now!
March 7th, 2008 at 13:28
Hi Alex, yes I have those records – shoot me a mail, Miles
March 7th, 2008 at 13:29
mail@soundwayrecords.com might help.
April 4th, 2008 at 23:41
My first trip to Ghana in 1986, somebody broke out a Fela “Greatest Hits” cassette. It had about 12-15 SHORT numbers on it, each one maybe 3:00 long. Have never seen another one of those, despite looking hi and low, in Nigeria and elsewhere, during the years 1986-1991.
This is the first time I’ve heard about shorter Fela tracks.