Listen: Egbe Mi O / Fela Ransome-Kuti & The Africa ’70
Egbe Mi O / Fela Ransome-Kuti & The Africa '70

It took the then mainstream famous Ginger Baker’s involvement to get a Fela 7″ released. He played on the live show recording from which this single was pulled. Some things never change.

I saw Fela once at the uptown Ritz. It was a loosely groovin’ show – all very enjoyable and comfortably rhythmic. At one point, he told the audience that his people had locked the doors and no one was leaving until he got his money. It was rather sobering, and took a while to resolve.

Recently Sly Stone pulled the same tired, I’m being ripped off by the promoters routine at Coachella, coming on five hours late after torturing the 600 (in a 5000 capacity tent) attendees with an hour long, screeching, fuck you, you’re lucky we’re here soundcheck. That crowd dwindled to 300 by the time Sly hit. Very disappointing and I would have thought, embarrassing.

It was old in the 60′s, and is beyond cliched now. As if Coachella singled out Sly Stone, and in the case of Fela, The Ritz did the same to him, insinuating the intention was let’s not pay these guys. It was just stupid.

Made the whole, we get stepped on routine very overplayed and tired.

Having said that, this was a fun single to find and own. I honestly think I have another Fela 7″ somewhere, but it’s not in the wall shelf filed properly at this moment – nor is it listed in the RECORD COLLECTORS PRICE GUIDE. Hmmm, a pleasant dream perhaps.

So I decided to post this – it’s clearly an edit but a nice one to have a toe tap to.

Listen: Chop And Quench / Fela Ransome-Kuti & The Africa ’70
Chop And Quench / Fela Ransome-Kuti & The Africa '70

Maybe more interesting is this B side. I do not have the live full length from which the A side was pulled, but this B side has no applause at the end. Maybe non-LP, despite it’s 7:56 LP length?