musicology #438

Fragments #4

(The Stars Of Harmony - Rough & Rocky Road)

LISTEN

"The advantage of being happy is that one is rid of the question of happiness> The advantage of being free is that one is rid of the question of freedom.

It is at this point that everything begins: when the concepts which existed only as questions appear as answers. It is the end of the cycle and the beginning of a new turning point: how can we rediscover the question behind the answer - how can we rediscover, behind happiness, the idea of happiness?"

The musicology is a piece of rip roaring gospel courtesy of a group that go by the appropriate name of 'The Stars Of Harmony'...enough said.

musicology #305

Live&Direct#2

(Fela Kuti - Mistake - Live)

LISTEN

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.