Fela Kuti "Water No Get Enemy" (1975)

Taken from his 1975 album "Exspensive Shit"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fela_Kuti


Expensive Shit is his twelfth full-length album. It is considered to be one of his best albums, and was ranked #78 on Pitchfork Media's "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s". The title of the album refers to an incident in which the Nigerian police tried to arrest Kuti by planting a joint on him. Kuti managed to eat the joint which prompted the police to bring him into custody and try to wait for him to produce the excrement. According to legend he managed to use another inmate's feces and was eventually released.

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  Music

[adewaleaadesanya]

IN YORUBA TRADITIONAL RELIGION THE BASE SUBSTANCES (OR ELEMENTS) PLAY AN EXTREMELY ESSENTIAL ROLE, BECAUSE IN THE IFA (YORUBA TRADITIONAL RELIGION) BELIEF SYSTEM THE PHYSICAL AND THE SPIRITUAL ARE MUCH MORE FUSED; THEY ARE REALLY ONE AND THE SAME. EACH AND EVERY SUBSTANCE HAS A NAME, MANIFESTS AS A BODY AND CONTAINS SPIRIT(S) OR A SPIRITUAL ESSENCE, JUST AS A HUMAN BEING HAS A BODY BUT A SPIRIT WITHIN.

[adewaleaadesanya]

LET ME TRY TO EXPLAIN THE TRUE MEANING OF THIS SONG FOR THOSE WHO MAY NOT KNOW, BECAUSE IF YOU ARE NOT YORUBA OR DON’T SPEAK THE LAUNGUAGE OR ARE NOT AWARE OF THE CULTURE, YOU MAY NOT UNDERSTAND THE DEPTH OF WHAT FELA IS REALLY TALKING ABOUT.

[P Man]

"Be water my friend" Bruce Lee

[Jcop42]

Well thanks Laura Marling.

[Douglas de Sena Simões]

Viva Fela!

[captainbuttsable]

adewaleaadesanya, oh you and your doings. HOW COME I LIKE YOU? LIKE TREES LIKE THE TREE.

[Lucas Pandolfo]

What is this song? Which words can I say for this? Incredible, really love it

[partyhardydardy]

You know I will. Love me some Fela.

[adewaleaadesanya]

Misunderstanding understood.. please indulge yourself, I do so many a time myself.. asides, anyone who listens to and appreciates Fela's music is bound to have a little rascality in them lol.. enjoy my brother..

[adewaleaadesanya]

Fela give translation in the song itself, google lyric sites.. as for what the instruments are saying, Yoruba is a very tonal language. a word can mean 15 different things, depending on the tone and accent given to each letter or combination of them.. so it lends itself very naturally to song.. a friend always says it sounds like I'm singing.. you'd need to learn Yoruba, learn the culture, aspects of the religion, then understand the context as would relate to what's been said.. complicated.

[adewaleaadesanya]

Answering trivialities on the net is not my favourite pastime, but I will take it that you are not DAFT ENOUGH to assume that I would not know the difference, so a little enlightenment for you; CAP LOCKS CAN AND ARE USED FOR "EMPHASIS" in writing.. now, to more substantive matters young man..

[Kalu Njoku]

Did you know that the caps lock key is 1/16th of an inch away from your left pinky? You should press it before you type just to make sure it's off.