By David McDavitt
Check out the dedicated Fela lyrics page on the Afrofunk Music Forum here:
http://afrofunkforum.blogspot.com/p/fela-kuti-lyrics.html
This page includes lyrics for the following songs:
1. Authority Stealing
2. Beasts Of No Nation
3. Black Man's Cry
4. Coffin For Head Of State
5. Colomentality
6. Confusion Break Bone
7. Expensive Shit
8. Fear Not For Man
9. Fogo Fogo
10. Go Slow
11. J’ehin J’ehin
12. International Thief Thief
13. Kalakuta Show
14. Lady
15. Monday Morning In Lagos
16. Monkey Banana
17. Mr. Follow Follow
18. Mr. Grammarticalogylisationalism Is The Boss
19. No Agreement
20. Opposite People
21. Original Sufferhead
22. Power Show
23. Question Jam Answer
24. Shakara
25. Shuffering and Shmiling
26. Sorrow, Tears, and Blood
27. Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense
28. Trouble Sleep, Yanga Wake Am
29. Upside Down
30. Water No Get Enemy
31. Yellow Fever
32. Zombie
Many thanks for this...
ReplyDeleteauthority stealing:
ReplyDelete[Chorus]
Authority stealing!
You be thief (I no be thief)
You be rogue (I no be rogue)
You dey steal (I no dey steal)
You be robber (I no be robber)
You be armed robber (No be armed robber)
I no be thief (You be thief)
I no be rogue (You be rogue)
I no dey steal (You dey steal)
I no be robber (You be robber)
I no be armed robber (You be armed robber)
[Chorus]
Argument, argument!
Argument, argument, argue
Them argue
Everbody dem argue
Them dem dem argue
Up and down them argue
Everbody dem argue
Them dem dem dem argue
Yes yes, them argue
Everbody dem argue
Argument about stealing
Somebody don take something
Wey belong to another person
Then you go hear:
You be thief (I no be thief)...
On top of the road, on the side
People dey waka
Office workers, labourer workers, workers' workers
Them go dey waka
Inside bus them go dey
Motorcycle them dey ride
Plenty, plenty crowd
Inside this crowd
Sometimes for one corner
Sometimes for one street
You go dey hear: ha ha!
[Chorus]
Thief, thief, thief!
Rogue, rogue, rogue!
Robber, robber!
Catch am, catch am! Thief, thief, thief!
Catch am, catch am! Rogue, rogue, rogue!
Catch am, catch am! Robber, robber!
Catch am
Pull am
Get am
Keep am
Ole...
[Chorus]
Catch am, catch am!
Looking go start
Watching go start
Chasing go start
Somebody go dey
Wey them go grab
Them go beat am well-well
Them go lynch am well-well
Police go come well-well
Them go carry am go court
Them go put am for jail
Them fit put am six months
(Them go put am for one year)
Them fit put am two years
(Them go put am for five years)
Them fit put am seven years
(Them go put am for ten years)
If not them go shoot am well
Them go shoot am for armed robbery
On top of the road, on the side
People dey waka
Office workers, labourer workers, workers' workers
Them go dey try
To try to make ends meet
Them go dey hustle
To try to make ends meet
Them go put hands for back
To try to make ends meet
Them go dey beg oga
To try to make ends meet
Them go be slaves for them town
To try to make ends meet
I say turn your face small
To the right wing
Oga patapata dey for there
Authority people dey for there
Instead of workers
We have officials
Instead of buses
Them dey ride motor-car
Instead of motorcycle
Na helicopter
Instead of them waka
Na worker go waka for them
Authority people them go dey steal
Public contribute plenty money
Na authority people dey steal
Authority man no dey pickpocket
Na petty cash him go dey pick
Armed robber him need gun
Authority man him need pen
Authority man in charge of money
Him no need gun, him need pen
Pen got power gun no get
If gun steal eighty thousand naira
Pen go steal two billion naira
[Chorus]
Thief, thief thief!
Rogue, rogue, rogue!
Robber, robber!
You no go hear them shout
You no go hear them shout at all
You no go hear them say
You no go hear them say response at all
Na different way be them way
Na civilize style be them style
[Chorus]
Yes, yes, yes, yes!
"Oh yes, of course, contract, have some money back in hand, ha ha"
Hear the words them dey take deceive the people:
Misappropriation
Maladministration
Nepotism
Mitigation
Make I remember another one wey them dey use
Defraudment
Forgerylization
Embezzlement
Vilification
Mismanagement
Public inquiry
Authority stealing pass armed robbery
We Africans we must do something about this nonsense
We say we must do something about this nonsense
I repeat, we Africans we must do something about this nonsense
Because now authority stealing pass armed robbery
Authority man him go dey steal
Public contribute plenty money...
[Chorus]
Authority stealing!
Wow, thank you for this post! I love Fela, but sometimes it's hard to figure out all these lyrics. I also love Tony Allen and he sings in Yoruba a lot. Maybe someday someone will take a challenge and translate his words for whites like me.
ReplyDeleteBig up!
thanks for this! love getting the translations and meanings of these powerful and historical songs.
ReplyDeleteThanx a lot: since years I always missed a couple of words listening to the songs. It's especialy annoying when you explain, to people who have much fun dancing on his music without figuring out what it talks about, what he is actually saying. And then comes a phrase you can't properly translate to them because you're not sure.
ReplyDeleteFela should be taught in school instead of the making-people-stupid Aristoteles.
What he describes, this is what the REAL world is, and not Disney's.
Thank you for this! I was recording my old Fela albums, Army Arrangement and Black President, from vinyl to CD. So cool to find this page and more fully understand lyrics I haven't heard in 20 years. Now, I'm off for a road trip, with Fela on CD player!!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! This is a real labor of love. As an English teacher, I try to provide my students with as much politically motivated music as possible, but they often have trouble with the lyrics, esp. with someone like Fela. Are the great explanations yours? If so, double thanks, because they really help to unravel the otherwise hidden meanings that Fela's pidgin 'hides' from those who only know so-called standard English.
ReplyDeleteLove the lyrics.
ReplyDeleteWhat a strong lyrics. It change from the craps the "commercial songs" are made of today.
Cheers, keep to make us dance and to make us feel alive.
Thanks for this, I was looking for Beasts of no nation but I didn't know the title so I googled the lyrics and your page came up, nice 1:)
ReplyDeleteThanks for this lyrics
ReplyDeleteis posible lyrics de demo crazy
Thanks a lot from Paris. Afrobeat lives and still have a lot to do.
ReplyDeleteBless ya.
Opposite Afrobeat Band
I'm quite sure that in "teacher d.t.m.n." during the "boba la nonsense" it is written "He pass “redeem” em". I really think that the correct lyrics say "he pass regime" (o regime-o).
ReplyDeleteHave a nice daY!
Monkey Banana....
ReplyDelete"Go buy am to chop"
This has got to be about food:
"Go buy yam to chop"
Baba 70 for life.
ReplyDeleteYou did an awesome job... Many thanks for your kind efforts. Bless ya.
ReplyDeleteAwesome web! Many thanks and good luck in the future! Btw. anyone has lyrics for Monday Morning in Lagos please? :)
ReplyDeleteYou did a GREAT job with the lyrics. I am happy to know about this site. Keisha
ReplyDeleteThanks for the translations. Fela needs to be understood by the whole world for the music revolutionary that he is. Your efforts are a huge step in actualizing this.
ReplyDeleteA slight correction. In 'Teacher' the lyrics should read as 'Baba nla nonsense', which translates as a 'big pile of crap'.
thanks dear sir madam
ReplyDeletelyrics
Hi all. I was wondering if anyone had worked at all on Just Like That off of Beasts of No Nation. I am having trouble understanding some of the lyrics (choral lines that are not in the liner notes and whatnot) and I was wondering if anyone could give me a hand!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Hello everybody, I`m looking for the title of a particular song by Fela..parts of the lyrics says: Luku lawyer, e dey run o,luku lawyer e dy shout o!....does anybody know the tile of this song...thanks
ReplyDeleteKalakuta Show
DeleteHello everybody, I`m looking for the title of a particular song by Fela..parts of the lyrics says: Luku lawyer, e dey run o,luku lawyer e dy shout o!....does anybody know the tile of this song...thanks
ReplyDeleteIt is Kalakuta Show
Please... Perambulator Lyrics?
ReplyDelete