Spotify link   YouTube link

I missed Björk the first time around. I also missed getting into gymnastics when I had a young spine and pair of shoulders. This is what happens when other teenage boys were the ones explaining to you what it means to be a man.

So I didn't see the video for Björk's 1995 hit "It's Oh So Quiet", although that probably wouldn't have stopped me from being mad that it won an MTV VMA instead of Cake or whoever. Here, now in late-2015 I can say that this song is oh so good.

Björk's version of the 1948 German song "Und jetzt ist es still" (wait, really?) is a fascinating way to voice that certain emotion I bet we all feel. In normal day-to-day life there is just the din. We pass thru steadily, neither exceedingly happy or particularly sad. We may occasionally notice that something is missing as we lay in bed, but sleep quickly pushes that thought off. It is oh so quiet compared to what happens next:

That person appears. That crush who may or may not reciprocate. The one who makes you wanna laugh or wanna cry. We know that riot that Björk is talking about. Whether its a joyous riot or a heartbreaking one it is loud as all Hell.

The song itself has a show-tune sound to it and the screaming may sound comical. It may put some people off - this is Björk after all - but man do I dig listening to this in my car. Give it a whirl next time the emotions boil up in you. Tear off down that open road and let out a few screams in harmony with someone who empathizes.

Key lyrics:

The sky caves in
The devil cuts loose
You blow blow blow blow your fuse
(scream! scream!)
When you've fallen in love

With opening sax like a broadside to the broadside, "Kalakuta Show" places you square in the middle of the scene.

Hot and steamy, the Kalakuta Republic, Fela Kuti's compound and self-declared sovereign-nation. Inside the high walls, street-hardened men given a second chance by the Black President mingled with adventuring Western musicians and Fela's backup singers/wives.

No government will allow an individual to claim their soil belongs to his independent country, let alone the government of a notoriously brutal military dictatorship. Fela knew this, but the man courted trouble like he courted women: recklessly. On Saturday November 23, 1974 at 5 AM the police came in with batons swinging. A savage beatdown resulted, the Kalakuta Show. 

Fela Kuti went to prison, bruises and all. This did not shut him up. A far worse fate still awaited Fela and those of the Republic. A story for another time.

YouTube link, Spotify link

YouTube link, Spotify link

Fela Kuti's music is a mix of local languages and Pidgin English (and occasionally gibberish). If you're relying on a lyrics to tell you about the song, you may have trouble. His songs are moods. 

Exemplifying this is "Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am", a title that just sounds like a bunch of noise. But from the first note, you can tell this tune is a little darker than Fela's other songs. A little slower, more mellow. It's night time song. A 3 AM song.

Picture yourself in a tiny one-room apartment in Lagos, the streetlight blacking out intermittently. You toss and turn, trouble sleep. 

Life in the city is hard. Fela knows a guy: just got out of prison, looking for work. Waka waka day and night looking for work, and the police throw him back in jail on a charge of wandering.

The song is depressing, but because this isn't Everlast singing "What It's Like," it's also an enjoyable song. Mellow and relaxing, pairs well with an end-of-day scotch.

Key Lyrics: "When cat sleep, rat go bite him tail"

Bonus: My Morning Jacket did a respectable, and even lengthier cover