Fela Kuti - Upside Down

180gm vinyl LP pressing. Upside Down and Zombie, both released in 1976, were made at the mid-point of an extraordinary three-year purple period during which Fela recorded 24 albums of new material. Upside Down is unusual in that it includes a second lead vocalist, Fela's American friend Sandra Izsadore, who he'd known since touring the US in 1969. Izsadore, a black rights activist, introduced him to the writings of Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Rap Brown, Stokely Carmichael, Huey Newton and other revolutionary thinkers. Fela later credited Izsadore with helping inspire his philosophy of Blackism. Izsadore can take credit for something else, too: she affirmed Fela's use of weed. Fela had first smoked in London in 1960 or 1961; during his time with Izsadore, he began to use weed regularly, continuing to do so until the end of his life. "Go Slow" was one of several songs Fela recorded which critiqued the consequences of over-rapid urbanization - in this case, traffic jams - using them as a metaphor to describe deeper social breakdowns.