TS: 'Blues for Allah' vs. 'Juju Music'

What's Juju Music?

I'm studying up on Blues for Allah because I recently ordered One From the Vault. The opening three song medley is as good as anything the Dead ever did, I'd reckon.

Juju Music is the only King Sunny Ade album I have. Any recs on where to go from there?

Synchro System

Cool, listening now. 'Maajo' jams!

juju, synchro are two of the trilogy with the island records guy producing--the real heads (of whom i am not one) go from there to listening to nigerian releases, which would have side-long performances rather than song-length ones; i've never durst look into all that

this is a good dave q thread, it coulda done better than this:

What's Juju Music?

― Sean, Wednesday, June 26, 2002 12:00 AM (13 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

'blues for allah' has v few songs to like as songs rather than as 'things for the dead to play' -- 'music never stopped' surely the nadir of barlow/weir, 'help on the way' is a lovely thing for garcia to sing i guess but enh, 'franklin's tower' has a first-class meaningless hippyism from hunter: 'whichever way / your pleasure tends / if you plant ice / you're gonna harvest wind' -- i mean there's something remarkable about the role of lyrics that sound like they're offering you some kind of comprehensible advice but could really just be a buncha syllabic noises

otoh 'ja funmi' is the best album opener ever

like my total comprehension of the non-english words on juju music is that 'ja funmi' = 'fight for me' and yet i already feel like i have more comprehension of what that song is about than all of the songs on blues for allah

Besides like maybe three or four songs, if you're listening to the Dead for lyrical masterpieces you're surely missing the point.

i didn't know that was why i was listening to them, thank you for correcting my error

king sunny ade is at least twice the guitarist jerry is

help on the way is one of their more gorgeous and smarter studio efforts -- that "yeah" gets me every time. even though the song really stretches live, there's no version I know of that gets that chilly breath of wind at that point

Bob Weir's tone on 'Help/Slipknot!' is oddly reminiscent of Robert Smith's tone on Seventeen Seconds. It must have to do with the phase/flange (?) he's using. Someone with more knowledge of effects can probably school me.

Love that tone, in any case.

i was listening to this again as i drifted off to sleep last night and for the first time i felt weir's "c'mon children! c'mon children! won't you clap your hands?" as actually chilling, i think this may be key to tolerating 'the music never stopped'

also i was momentarily convinced that godchaux was mvp in making the 'help / slipknot' transition work

BFA

Never heard this Dead album (I've heard about a half dozen of their discs, mostly live stuff from '69-72), but Ade's Island Records trilogy - Juju Music, Synchro System (my personal favorite) and Aura - are fucking immortal classics.

Never saw the Grateful Dead live, either, but I saw King Sunny Ade in 1990 - the show started at 8 PM and ended at 4 AM.

So yeah, Juju Music all the way.

I'd take a compilation of side one of each album.

Now, deciding which side one would now become side two is the real problem.

wayne shorter

otoh 'ja funmi' is the best album opener ever

― thwomp (thomp), Monday, November 9, 2015

Man the *drumming* on Help/Slipknot!

Still going with Juju Music though.

bump for the p4k review but also for being a crucial music rabbit-hole thread during my years here

wow i have no recollection of ever posting on this topic before.

otoh 'ja funmi' is the best album opener ever

― thwomp (thomp), Monday, November 9, 2015 5:10 PM

also this is totally otm.