Download Fela Kuti Coffin For Head Of State



Dec 13, 2019 Knitting Factory Records is proud to reissue Fela Kuti's 'Coffin For Head of State' on vinyl, previously only available as part of the Box Set series. The album, made up of one track only, is among Fela’s most courageous responses to the Nigerian army’s destruction of Kalakuta on 18 February 1977. In 1981, following the death of his mother, Fela released a politically and socially motivated song titled “Coffin for Head of State”. It was an indictment of the then president, Olusegun Obasanjo, for the death of his mother, and the abysmal socio-economic conditions that prevailed in Nigeria.

May 27, 2019 “Coffin for Head of State” was released in 1981, three years after the defenestration and the tragic death of Fela’s mother, Funmilayo Kuti. Symbolically, in memory of his mother, the “Black President” and his own family deposited a coffin in front of the headquarters of the military government. This prompted Fela to begin recording reactions to this event: Unkown Soldier, Sorrow, Tears, and Blood, and Coffin for Head of State were those reactions. 'Coffin for Head of State' was an elegy for his lost mother, to whom he was very close. Coffin For Head of State is among Fela Kuti’s most courageous responses to the Nigerian army’s destruction of Kalakuta on 18 February 1977. During the attack, Fela’s mother, aged 78, a veteran of Nigeria’s struggle for independence from British colonial rule and an early campaigner for Nigerian wom.

Coffin

Fela Kuti

  • Artist
    Fela Kuti
    ReleaseProduct
    Yellow Fever
    Label
    Partisan Records
    Catalogue Number
    KFR2024-1
    Release Date
    December 13, 2019
    0 Clips
    • LP
  • Artist
    Fela Kuti
    ReleaseProduct
    No Agreement
    Label
    Partisan Records
    Catalogue Number
    KFR2007-1
    Release Date
    December 13, 2019
    0 Clips
    • LP
  • Artist
    Fela Kuti
    ReleaseProduct
    Johnny Drop Dead (J.J.D.)
    Label
    Partisan Records
    Catalogue Number
    KFR2026-1
    Release Date
    December 13, 2019
    0 Clips
    • LP
  • Artist
    Fela Kuti
    ReleaseProduct
    V.I.P.
    Label
    Partisan Records
    Catalogue Number
    KFR2034-1
    Release Date
    December 13, 2019
    0 Clips
    • Vinyl
  • Artist
    Fela Kuti
    ReleaseProduct
    Army Arrangement
    Label
    Partisan Records
    Catalogue Number
    KFR2041-1
    Release Date
    December 13, 2019
    0 Clips
    • LP
  • Artist
    Fela Kuti
    ReleaseProduct
    Underground System
    Label
    Partisan Records
    Catalogue Number
    KFR2045-1
    Release Date
    December 13, 2019
    0 Clips
    • LP
  • Artist
    Fela Kuti
    ReleaseProduct
    Box Set #4 Curated By Erykah Badu
    Label
    Knitting Factory Records
    Catalogue Number
    KFR4005-1
    Release Date
    December 15, 2017
    3 Clips
    • LP
  • Artist
    Fela Kuti
    ReleaseProduct
    Gentleman
    Label
    Knitting Factory Records
    Catalogue Number
    KFR2009-1
    Release Date
    October 14, 2016
    3 Clips
    • LP

Partisan Records

  • Pre-order
    Artist
    Femi Kuti & Made Kuti
    ReleaseProduct
    Legacy +
    Label
    Partisan Records
    Catalogue Number
    PTKF2189
    Release Date
    February 5, 2021
    0 Clips
    • LP
    • CD
  • Artist
    FONTAINES D.C.
    ReleaseProduct
    A Hero's Death (Soulwax Remix)
    Label
    Partisan Records
    Catalogue Number
    PTKF1287-3
    Release Date
    January 19, 2021
    1 Track
    • Download
  • Artist
    Ultraísta
    ReleaseProduct
    Ordinary Boy - The Remixes
    Label
    Partisan Records
    Catalogue Number
    PTKF1265-1
    Release Date
    November 6, 2020
    0 Clips
    • EP
  • Artist
    Ultraísta
    ReleaseProduct
    Ordinary Boy (Floating Points Remix)
    Label
    Partisan Records
    Catalogue Number
    PTKF1265-3
    Release Date
    September 30, 2020
    2 Tracks
    • Download
  • Artist
    Emel
    ReleaseProduct
    Merrouh/Something In The Way
    Label
    Partisan Records
    Catalogue Number
    PTKF1269-0
    Release Date
    September 30, 2020
    2 Tracks
    • Download
  • Artist
    Idles
    ReleaseProduct
    Ultra Mono
    Label
    Partisan Records
    Catalogue Number
    PTKF2186-3
    Release Date
    September 25, 2020
    0 Clips
    • LP (special)
    • CD
    • Cassette
  • Artist
    FONTAINES D.C.
    ReleaseProduct
    A Hero's Death
    Label
    Partisan Records
    Catalogue Number
    PTKF2182
    Release Date
    July 31, 2020
    0 Clips
    • LP (special)
    • CD
  • Artist
    Emel
    ReleaseProduct
    Everywhere We Looked Was Burning (Thomas Attar Bellier Rework)
    Label
    Partisan Records
    Catalogue Number
    PTKF1257-0
    Release Date
    July 7, 2020
    1 Track
    • Download

Afrobeat / Afropop

  • Artist
    Mark Ernestus meets Ben Zabo
    ReleaseProduct
    Wari Vo Dubwise
    Label
    Glitterbeat
    Catalogue Number
    GBEP002
    Release Date
    March 22, 2013
    1 Clip
    • 12'
  • Artist
    Antibalas
    ReleaseProduct
    Where The Gods Are In Peace
    Label
    Daptone Records
    Catalogue Number
    DAP-046
    Release Date
    September 15, 2017
    5 Clips
    • LP
    • CD
  • Artist
    Jo Tongo
    ReleaseProduct
    African Funk Experimentals (1968-1982 + 2017)
    Label
    Africa Seven
    Catalogue Number
    ASVN048
    Release Date
    September 29, 2017
    10 Clips
    • LP
  • Artist
    J. M. Tim And Foty
    ReleaseProduct
    African Funk Experimentals (1977-1979)
    Label
    Africa Seven
    Catalogue Number
    ASVN058
    Release Date
    March 30, 2018
    10 Clips
    • LP
  • Artist
    Tony Allen & Motor City Drum Ensemble
    ReleaseProduct
    Dekmantel 10 Years 10.2
    Label
    Dekmantel
    Catalogue Number
    DKMNTL-10YEARS10-2
    Release Date
    April 30, 2018
    2 Tracks
    • 12'
    • Download
  • Artist
    Afro National
    ReleaseProduct
    African Experimentals (1972-1979
    Label
    Africa Seven
    Catalogue Number
    ASVN068
    Release Date
    October 26, 2018
    9 Clips
    • LP
  • Artist
    Various Artists
    ReleaseProduct
    African Scream Contest 2
    Label
    Analog Africa
    Catalogue Number
    AACD086 / AALP086
    Release Date
    May 18, 2018
    14 Tracks
    • LP
    • CD
    • Download
  • Artist
    Umoja
    ReleaseProduct
    707
    Label
    Awesome Tapes From Africa
    Catalogue Number
    ATFA025LP
    Release Date
    May 19, 2017
    4 Tracks
    • LP
    • CD
    • Download

Not Funny for General could easily have been a Fela Kuti song title. He learned the hard way that dictators in uniforms don’t have a sense of humour, especially if you poke fun at them.

Fela Kuti Youtube

With its contagious groove, Zombie (1976), in which Nigerian superstar, Afrobeat pioneer and activist Fela Kuti sent up the Nigerian army, was a huge hit. According to online guide AllMusic, people in the street would put on a blank stare and walk with hands affront, proclaiming, “Zombie!” wherever they would see soldiers.

Then, early in 1977, Lagos hosted the month-long Festac ’77, which showcased Pan-African and black culture, with 17 000 participants from 55 countries. Kuti, being Kuti, turned down military ruler General Olusegun Obasanjo’s invitation to perform at the festival.

Instead, every night, he railed against Festac ’77 and the corrupt Nigerian regime at his club, The Shrine. And, as musicologist Uchenna Ikonne wrote, Festac delegates and visitors started ignoring the official programme, instead partying at The Shrine. Even artists such as Stevie Wonder, Sun Ra, Osibisa, Hugh Masekela and Caetano Veloso opted for Kuti’s “counter-Festac”.

Needless to say, like Zombie, this didn’t please the military rulers. On 18 February 1977, a week after the end of the festivities, more than 1 000 soldiers brutally raided Kuti’s compound. His wives were raped, Kuti and his followers were nearly beaten to death, and his mother, Funmilayo Anikulapo-Kuti, 78, was thrown out of a second-floor window, sustaining multiple, severe injuries. The buildings, with instruments and tapes in them, were burned down. Everyone was detained for a month.

A tribunal was set up to investigate the attack. The army’s justification of the attack was that Kuti treated the military institution with levity in Zombie.

Kuti’s mother died from complications following the attack. Defiant, theatrical, courageous and provocative, Kuti and his followers carried his mother’s coffin to the front gate of the army barracks, asserting that his dead mother in the coffin should assume the position of president of Nigeria.

A mournful tribute to his beloved mother, the slow, repetitive Coffin for Head of State recounts this incident. Peppered with religious invocations throughout the 13’22” song, Kuti laments how the hypocritical regime is exploiting religion to justify their corruption and thuggery.

Download Fela Kuti Coffin For Head Of States

The fearless Kuti mocks the Christian president (Obasanjo) and the Muslim chief of staff, or “vice-president” (General Shehu Yar’Adua) by name – “Obasanjo dey there / With him big fat stomach / Yar’Adua dey there / With him neck like ostrich.”

Download Fela Kuti Coffin For Head Of State

Kuti died on 3 August 1997 from Aids-related complications. It was almost two years before the very same Obasanjo took office as Nigeria’s first elected civilian head after 16 years of military rule.

Fela Kuti Albums

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