Fela Anikulapo Kuti (15 October 1938 — 2 August 1997), or simply Fela ([feˈlæ]), was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick.
Fela was born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria into a middle-class family. His mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was a feminist activist in the anti-colonial movement and his father, Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, a Protestant minister and school principal, was the first president of the Nigerian Union of Teachers. His brothers, Beko Ransome-Kuti and Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, both medical doctors, are well known in Nigeria. Fela was a first cousin to the Nigerian writer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, the first African to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.
Fela was sent to London in 1958 to study medicine but decided to study music instead at the Trinity College of Music. While there, he formed the band Koola Lobitos, playing a fusion of jazz and highlife. In 1960, Fela married his first wife, Remilekun (Remi) Taylor, with whom he would have three children (Femi, Yeni, and Sola). In 1963, Fela moved back to Nigeria, re-formed Koola Lobitos and trained as a radio producer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. He played for some time with Victor Olaiya and his All Stars.
Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker (born 19 August 1939, Lewisham, South London) is an English drummer, best known for his work with Cream and Blind Faith. He is also known for his numerous associations with World music, mainly the use of African influences. He has also had other collaborations such as with Gary Moore, Hawkwind and Public Image Ltd.
Baker's drumming attracted attention for its flamboyance, showmanship and his use of two bass drums instead of the conventional single bass kick drum (following a similar set-up used by Louie Bellson during his days with Duke Ellington). Although a firmly established rock drummer and praised as "Rock's first superstar drummer", he prefers being called a jazz drummer. Baker's influence has extended to drummers of both genres, including Billy Cobham, Peter Criss, Bill Ward, Ian Paice, Nick Mason, and John Bonham. AllMusic has described him as "the most influential percussionist of the 1960s" and stated that "virtually every drummer of every heavy metal band that has followed since that time has sought to emulate some aspect of Baker's playing."
Hail me as the foe
Of light and day alike-
Hail me as the scourge
Of Gods and men that strive
For order in this world-
All hail Loki, the melevolent!
"In darkness I plot and scheme,
With the fiends of the abyss...
One day I shall be back,
To show the Aesir the power of the One,
The power of Loki, the malevolent!"
Hail me as the enemy
Of Odin's shining reign-
Hail me as the Lord
Of the abomination of frost!
My name is Loki
Leader of the ravenous host!
My day shall come,
And it shall dawn red-
Dyed with the gore
High up in the sky
I see twin raven fly...
Hugin and Munin guide me
To the Hall of everlasting light!
If I in a battle should die
I will sit by Odin's right side...
A fight is a path that leads
Heroes to the sky, past the bridge
Where Odin's ravens fly-
High up in the sky!
Valkyries take my hand, carry me,
High up in the sky, to Valhalla lay me!
High up in the sky,
Where the eagles fly,
My brave brothers wait:
A seat they have prepared for me
And a horn of mead-
I'll tell them my tale,
Show them my wounds,
Tell them how I died
And found myself at last
High up in the sky
Raised viking sails,
The grinding of axes:
One takes up the sword
The other the spear and bow
Wives they left behind
And their children alike;
Their enemies awaiting
Standing on the shoreline:
'Ere the night
They shall die!
Back home again
Few shall return...
To victory, through honor first,
In valhalla they shall find rest!
Odin's warriors they shall remain
Horns of war are calling keen and clear-
Awaken! Rise ye sons of Europa!
Unite! Draw swords together and ride
Into glory, throughout the centuries!
We are Vikings and Northern brave,
Runes shine on our swords and our axes-
The dragon's head adorns our prows,
The wheel of the Sun is on our shields!
We are the undefeated Franks
Our banners are caught high in the breeze-
On our armor are etched in gold
The insigma of the kings of old!
Horns of war are calling keen and clear-
Awaken! Rise ye sons of Europa!
Unite! Draw swords together and ride
Into glory, throughout the centuries!
We are the fealess Germani,
Saxon steel is on our side!
Our battle cry still resounds
Across Europa far and wide!
We are the noble Slavs,
Unrivaled housemasters of the wild:
Our motherland is a vast empire
For which we will fight and die!
We are the glorious Romans
Our standards bear the eagle
That holds the thunderbolts
That shake this land asunder!
We are children of the light
We are Greeks, guardian of the East-
Led by Apollo our hoplites and priests
Ride out to meet them,
Ride out with the dawn!
Raise the battle standard,
For all to behold
And take up the cry:
Stand by the king!
The Ottoman hordes,
Before the Theodosian Wall
Ravening for blood-
Mongol mongrels begone
When forth rides Constatine!
Giovanni musters his knights,
Their armor catches the light
As sliver their lances shine
Undimmed by Death and Night!
Faces blazing like the sun
No fear lurks in their hearts:
See the last defenders stand
Where hope is frail and wan
With swords in their hands...
The line has to hold!
Give them not an inch
Of our ancestral land...
The line has to hold!
Push them back to Hell
Back where they belong!
No foe can ever lay low
What a proud heart owns;
Though the wall is breeched
The city's taken and the holiest
Of holies defiled by brutes,
The whispering winds
Promise solitude to me;
The open steppe is the
Blessing of the free!
My horse's riding wild
Underneath the sky;
With sword held up high
I embrace eternity!
I long for my queen,
For the days in Castile:
To breathe again the air
That filled my heart with hope...
To stand against the moor,
With his scimitar to clash
My destiny lies revealed
Here on the bloody battlefield!
My horse's riding wild
Underneath the sky;
With sword held up high
I embrace eternity!
El Cid Campeador,
Mighty Alférez of old
Stand and deliver
Thy land from these dogs!
Rodrigo Díaz, in our hearts
You will never die!
A hero, A symbol,
Immortal champion:
Bear far thy standard
Ragin fires sweep
The corpses on the battlefield
Arrows scream, an ebon swarm,
The wall is breeched...
Where all defenders lie dead
Drowned in the blood of their dreams
With broken swords still clasped
In their frozen hands
Where all hope is quenched
And victory can never be
When dragons fly in the air
Covering the sun with their wings...
Let it be known
That then and for all time
One stood at the gate
Facing them all!
When carnage reigned
Within the dreaming city's walls
One stood at the gate
Proud, defiant to the foe!
He stood all alone,
Just a man and his sword
He had lost all his hope
So he was left with a thirst to kill!
Let it be known
That then and for all time
One stood at the gate
Facing them all!
Lost was his fight,
Last of a dying race
A knight in a world
Where chivalry is no more!
The fire in his eyes
Was the amber glow
Of burning ideals,
Of all that he held dear!
Let it be known
That then and for all time
One stood at the gate
Sky draped by a gloomy veil,
Unusal illusive peace,
Nature seems to hold its breath
At the hands of this imminent threat
Going through mountains and forests
The watchman patrol saw the enemy's squads
Our soldiers saddled up the horses
Only the victorious will get back home
The encounter can't be avoided
Tension is at is height
Weapons are all set to spread the blood
The air is freezing cold
The wind is carrying a fetid scent of fear
Inhuman figures appears from the woods
Nightmarish sight from the underworld
Running wild demonic creatures pouncing on us!
Going through mountains and forests
The watchman patrol saw the enemy's squads
Our soldiers saddled up the horses
You thought it was all over
You said we were done for
Yet why do you fear
To venture deep into the woods ?
You know we're lurking there,
You've seen our eyes glimmer
You've heard the growl that years ago
Made you cower and run in fear...
We have not surrendered
And never, ever, shall we kneel!
We are the fighting werewolves
The battallions of the woods!
We had a dream, we nursed a hope
But you tore it down in flames:
You made our honor seem demonic
Let it be! Let your nightmare come to life!
You thought you saw
The iron eagle fall
You said you've crushed
The Empire's mighty men...
We have not surrendered
And never, ever, shall we kneel!
We are the fighting werewolves
The battallions of the woods!
The figh rages on
For the werewolf braves!
Cower in fear when the night falls:
In the woodland realm
By the silver creek,
Where once upon a time
The druid came to sing,
Men with axes in their hands
March to kill the trees:
Their bitter steel doth bite
Deep in ancient bark
And the sylvan blood
Unseen shall flow,
Unheard shall scream...
They robbed the magick
Off these lands...
They hunted down the elves
Who lived in these woods...
They raped all the Nymphs
Bathing in these screams...
Now a clearing yawns wide
Where secrets once where held:
A barren patch of earth
Sown grey with stony walls!
O! Woodland realm!
Thy beauty is defiled
Thy favors so arcane
Shall be seen no more...
They robbed the magick
Off these lands...
They hunted down the elves
Who lived in these woods...
They raped all the Nymphs
Bathing in these screams...
My father's father hath foretold
That one day this would come to pass:
When thunder is no more
A divine fire from above
That one day the Elder Gods
In the fires of mortals' logic
Remember this name
For it's laden with the fame
Of the warrior ruler
King Harald of Norway
The sovereign of lands
Swept by Nordic winds,
The son of King Olaf,
The bane of the Poles!
With five hundred at his side,
King Harald sotmers to the fight!
Their swords gleaming silver,
Striking like thunders of Thor!
Leader of the Varangs,
Of the imperial guard-
The scourge of Bulgaria
And the Eastern host!
The last of the Vikings,
A true son of the North;
His name shall be hailed
Throughout the eons long!
With five hundred at his side,
King Harald sotmers to the fight!
Their swords gleaming silver,
Striking like thunders of Thor!
Bloodlust is what drives him,
Loyal to battle's call;
Where the fray rages thick
No surrender, no shame!
He can hear songs of glory,
An otherworldly melody,
As he bleeds from his throat
In the square of a humble village
Laughter and shouts, faces aglow:
It's 1793 in the fields of France,
Every able man is taking up his arms...
Soldiers loyal to the crown
Barons alongside simple folk:
Together are marching now
Neath white lilies on their flag...
The sacred heart is bleeding
For those about to die...
The sacred heart is torn
From the cruelties of war...
Soldiers loyal to the crown,
Walk down the winding path
Into battle, into war, to avenge
Those who died under the guillotine...
The cold wind of terror
The murderers of the republic
Cannot hold back the tide
That flows from the rebel camp...
Onwards for God! onwards for the King!
Swords of the Vandea
Never cease to cleave!
Onwards for God! Onwards for the King!
O! Blessed virgin help us save
Our France from the malediction!
In our hearts doth flourish now
The flowers of victory: counterrevolution!
Into the night we go,
Into the darkness we leave:
Brigands and Knights,
Mankind has always looked
Skywards for its destiny
Now the velvet blue-black night
Finally breaks her silence...
I found myself in glens
Where no mortal dwells
Away from the lights
Of the cities of the blind
I looked up to the sky
And saw the star that shines
Than Venus far more bright
Blotting out its peers there on high
My hunting-hounds bayed
Wild, their tails on edge
And as I took a closer look
I saw a disk of fire in the night!
I clutched my sword in fear
And took three paces back
Knowing that this omen means
They have finally come...
That shining orb, the Gorgon's eye
Haunts my sleep, fills my dreams
For I know what this omen means:
Poison in our hearts,
Woe is the torque
That snuffs the light
From our eyes...
Augustus has fallen,
The might of the God-emperor
Is, alas, no more!
What shall become of his bright halls ?
What fate grim shall befall
All of his fair cities and lands ?
Carved in marble he remains
In the shade of the Pantheon,
To watch over changing times,
The decline of his empire...
Mighty Caesar, empty lies
Your throne of ivory and gold
Alone stands the eagle
Of Zeus power and thine...
Who shall ride ahead of our legions
Now that barbarians prowl the land ?
Who shall now draw his sword in the morning light
Ruler of the ocean and the seven seas,
Grant my ship passage throught thy realm;
For I am Tadg, son of Cian,
On the path of vengeance for all my kin...
The wind lashed our faces,
The brine was in our eyes-
Yet far we sailed into the night,
Right through the tempest's soul...
The rain fell hard and tore
My bright sails apart-
And still we manned the oars,
Bravely headed for, far North!
In the realm of Manannan,
Where summers are forever,
Through the raging storms,
Mists of the Otherworld:
I have reached the islands,
Where the Elders dwell-
I have found the place
Where reside the Blessed!
Lo! Three fortresses stand
On three hills thereupon,
One is pure white, the other is gold,
The third made of silver
Wherein dream the lords of yore...
In the realm of Manannan,
Where peace and beauty reign,
The land that Mael Duin saw emerging
From horizons far, after years at sea-
In the realm of Manannan,
Across the foaming sea,
O'er brillowing wave
Wherever I tread on this haunted, holy ground
I look to the skies above,
the clouds armed with storm...
Born of thunder is he who rides
Down from the tempest's burning soul,
To Midgard with a hammer in his hand
On his chariot made of living fire...
He's the protector of men:
His name is a magic word;
He's a god come from on high-
He's the one...
Whenever I see the glory that dawns each morn,
Frozen like steel, enchanted by Northern light...
Born of thunder is he who rides
Down from the tempest's burning soul,
To Midgard with a hammer in his hand
On his chariot made of living fire...
He's the protector of men:
His name is a magic word;
He's a god come from on high-
He's the one...
Robbed in such splendor,
Immortal eyes bedewed
With the gift of prophecy...
Where I tread on this haunted, holy ground
I took to the skies above, the clouds armed with storm...
Born of thunder is he who rides
Down from the tempest's burning soul,
To Midgard with a hammer in his hand
The lord of Light
is known by many names:
Apollo, Delphic Archer,
Paean, Leader of the Muses...
Dragonslayer!
You who faced
The reptilian miasma
Eleven thousand years ago
You who led those of your blood
In glorious battle to the farthest east...
Dragonslayer! Lord Apollo,
Welder of the light that burns
Archer of power, Mighty holy one,
Mighty God, Mighty Immortal One:
Rise again and deliver
The children of the stars
From the Dragon's tyranny!
Apollo, the dragonslayer,
Phoebus the fair-haired,
Is coming back at last
On the outstretched fiery wings
Of a storm from the sun...
Raise your right hand to the sky.
Hail the sun personified!
Death to the tyrants,
Vanquish the reptiles!
Dragonslayer! Lord Apollo,
Welder of the light that burns
Archer of power, Mighty holy one,
Mighty God, Mighty Immortal One:
Rise again and deliver
The children of the stars
See me as I lay,
Amongst my fallen brothers...
Our swords are dim now,
Our shields shattered on the ground-
The light has fled our eyes,
Our hearts shall pound no more
In this here world...
This is how a Viking dies:
On the field of glorious war-
He stood fast to the very end,
By the sword he earned his fame!
This is how a Viking dies:
Besides the bodies of fallen foes,
On shores that lie may miles away
From home and hearth, away from the North!
Fight to the end-hail the gods!
Thus a Viking dies and yet
His spirit shall forever dwell
In Valhalla's golden hall
Side by side with gods he feasts!
The Einherjer await for him,
His seat is long prepared
At all-father's dining table:
The Einherjer raise him a toast
Who fought and died like they did!
"I now live in the dream
Of fair Valkyries,
I now walk on fields
In Asgard evergreen;
My blood flows gold,
My eyes see afar
Like those of the eagle
Who now soars with me!
In Odin's court I dwell,
In the shining hall
That lies 'cross the bridge
Guarded by Heimdall
'Till the time is come
And he sounds his horn
Calling me to arms,
Strike! Send me to Valhalla!
I'll show you how a warrior dies!
Dare look me in the eyes:
Can you see the wild joy therein?
Strike Send me to Valhalla!
I'll show you how a Viking dies!
It was not thy sword
But the Norns that decided my fate!
It takes a hero to put me down
Do you think you can even try?
The Gods are on my side,
The berserker rage is my guide!
Let you arrows fly to me,
Cast you spears straight to my heart-
I know no pain, death is my friend,
I'm protected by Odin's own shield!
Farewell my friends,
I'm leaving today-
Bound for Valhalla,
I must be on my way!
Farewell! my foes,
You were worthy indeed-
Bound for Valhalla,