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Sorrow Tears and Blood

Sorrow Tears and Blood is an album by Nigerian Afrobeat composer, bandleader, and multi-instrumentalist Fela Kuti.[1] It was recorded in 1977 and originally released on the Nigerian Kalakuta label.[2]

Sorrow Tears and Blood

1977

1977 in Nigeria

23:58

Kalakuta
KK 001

Fela Kuti

Music and lyrics[edit]

Over a midtempo groove, and interspersed with Kuti's relaxed saxophone playing,[3] the title track features him reproving what he felt was a docility among Africans in the face of political hardship.[4] The song was written in the wake of a raid on Kuti's Kalakuta Republic compound by 1,000 armed members of the Nigerian army on February 18, 1977. The scene is described in his lyrics, "Everybody run, run, run / Everybody scatter, scatter / Some people lost some bread / Some people just die ... Them leave sorrow, tears, and blood / Them regular trademark".[3]


The second composition is titled after the inferiority complex called colonial mentality, and whose lyrics list a range of examples of "things dem dey do, dem dey overdo all the things dem dey do" such as "think wey black no good, na foreign things dem dey like" and "dem go turn air condition, and close them country away" no be so?

Tunde Williams, Nwokoma Jkem – trumpet

Lekan Animashaun –

baritone saxophone

Leke Benson, Clifford Itoje, Oghene Kologbo – guitar

Nweke Atifoh – bass guitar

– drums

Tony Allen

Ayoola Abayomi – percussion

Babajide Olaleye –

maracas

Oladeinde Koffi, Addo Nettey, Shina Abiodun –

congas

Alake Anikulapo-Kuti, Emaruagheru Anikulapo-Kuti, Fehintola Anikulapo-Kuti, Kewe Anikulapo-Kuti, Ronke Anikulapo-Kuti, Shade Anikulapo-Kuti, Tejumade Anikulapo-Kuti – vocals

at Discogs (list of releases)

Sorrow Tears and Blood