Back in the summer of 1999 I was hanging out in Venice a lot with my brother in law’s sister.  There was this one hippie, Vax, who always use to cruise by…usually while tripping on acid, and drop off gifts of one kind or another.  Well, one day he dropped of this album and I was like “Holy Shit!” 

And was like “What?” 

And I said “This is the shit!”

And he was totally like “I know, dude…you gonna eat that sandwich?” 

Released in 1973, this album ( like most of Fela’s albums) is only three songs long.  But since a typical Fela track is something around 16 minutes long it just makes sense.  Basically you have a insane funky jam that lasts for half the song…then four minutes with lyrics…then another funky jam. 

 Of all his albums that I own (and I own a lot) this is the most angry and rightious of the bunch.  When Fela sings on ‘Gentleman’ he refers to the image on the cover as white Africa’s vision of what a “civilized” black man should be.  “I no be Gentleman Like That!!” he screams.  Right on, Fela!  Listen below for the amazing opening breakdown.  If that doesn’t make you want to dance, call the morgue because you are legally dead.

I could probably write a whole page about Fela, but that would violate the vision of this blog, so this will have to suffice.  Start digging people!