(Gil Scott Heron – Madison Avenue)
Bit late with today’s cut..such is life.
So without further delay hold this piece, (from his 1978 set ‘Secrets’ from Gil Scott Heron, a Cat who speaks.
Of interest, (at least to the football lovers among us), is that his father is the acclaimed footballer Giles Heron..the first Jamaican to play for Celtic in the 1950’s !!
Live&Direct#2
(Fela Kuti - Mistake - Live)
Day two of the theme has an element of synchronicity for me as the performance was recorded in Berlin...what has that got to do with anything I hear you say? well not only does one of my most valued 'brethren' live there but the woman in my life is there today working on/at the film festival. Couldn't resist or pass up this 'oppo' to throw down a second piece on themusicologist by the legend that is, Fela Kuti.
Recorded in 1978 a year after his Kalakuta Republic had been destroyed by a thousand soldiers during which horror his elderly mother had been thrown out of a window suffering fatal injuries with Fela almost being beaten to death for his non-stop scathing critique of Nigerian politics. Word has it that after the tour most of the band left him as he intended to use all the proceeds to fund his election campaign.
Perhaps THE most political musician of all time Fela was his own project and an 'Existentialist' in the truest sense. NEVER allowing anyone to deny him the freedom to say and do what he thought right. The hugely influential philosopher Martin Heidegger spoke about Authenticity in relation to one's life and for themusicologist Fela lived life in a way that, (among others), Heidegger would have been proud of.
