Board Members, Ebenezer Obey

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Toyin Falola

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Apr 22, 2020, 2:47:55 PM4/22/20
to dialogue, Yoruba Affairs

At 78, Ebenezer Obey is still alive and performing. He once performed at a party in my honor. I spent two summers in Lagos in the 1970s listening to his practice sessions, a habit that we formed to listen to free music as there was no money to visit Night Clubs, and we were too socially low to be invited into Owambe parties. We formed our own band of boys, collecting rosters of practice sessions, and moving from one band to another. Bobby Benson was my favorite!

 

A master of Juju music, Obey’s fame rose with the oil boom. By the 1970s when he picked, cash dropped from the skies, greater than the capacity of honey to attract flies. In “Board Members,” a praise song to wealthy Lagos socialites, he turned the roll call of members and the executives of the Association into a very powerful song.

 

In later years, with solid investments in real estate, he disbanded a flourishing juju band to set up a Church but his gospel music was a disaster. To make ends meet, he returned to Juju but it was too late as Fuji music had already taken over.

 

A post-colonial hero, his place in the history of Nigerian music is solid. He occupies a moment and a place, far more than a chapter can represent.

 

Find below perhaps one of his ultimate offering, excelling in percussion, the maximization of the use of drums, the intricate blending of guitars, sweet words of praise for the rich to open his wallet to spend. He started with highlife, after training with the venerable Fatai Rolling Dollar, successfully experimented with highlife-fusion, and finally ending with Juju which allows the use of extensive lyrics. A master of dance steps, without hips, women should not try his moves!!!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LucXsWBz20U

 

Anthony Akinola

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Apr 22, 2020, 2:57:48 PM4/22/20
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In my drinking days, YARO MALAIKA was one of his records I always
requested from the bar man.
Thanks Prof for reminding us of historical records of note.
Regards,
Anthony Akinola

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Toyin Falola

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Apr 22, 2020, 3:07:33 PM4/22/20
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This is Yaro Malaika:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsG6ljkxcTo

 

However, he repeated the trope in E sa ma Miliki, far superior to your favorite, I think, because it accentuates a better coordinated dance step, a far more robust deliberately dramatic changes of voice and percussion at measured intervals. Compare both:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVc7_uL3CPY

Anthony Akinola

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Apr 22, 2020, 3:11:57 PM4/22/20
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 Many thanks.

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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Apr 22, 2020, 5:27:40 PM4/22/20
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An Analysis of Ebenezer Obey's Board Members As Exemplar of Popular Music and the New Musicology.

Board Members was the LP that signaled that Ebenezer Obey had arrived as music mega star  as such it merits an examinination to determine'what makes it tick.' It demonstrates that Obey could go the long haul beyond the 5 minutes small record and sustain interest and excitement over a longer period. 

At this stage Obey also wanted to maintain parity with 'the competition' (KSA: The Golden Mercury of Africa) hence there were three electric guitars and a muted syncopated bass guitar.  The juju band has four guitar functions: Control guitar deftly used by the band leader as demonstrated in Board Members to signal time to change from  one theme of the composition to another; the lead guitar (here played by the great Monday John) to introduce the series of Soyinka flourishes in the composition and to coordinate with both control guitar and  the support guitar($).  In great juju ensembles  like Obey and KSA/GMA there could be up to  four support guitars making a total of eight guitars in play (Christopher Alan, Juju, University of Chicago Press.) Finally there is the bass guitar whose muted sound is syncopated in the background.  It was due to the singular effort of Obey that the bass guitar came out of the shadows to dominate the ensemble as pace setter for all guitar works as well as all manner of drums with its thunderous(amplified) timbre.  ,KSA did not use bass guitar initially  at this stage relying more on his set of gangan drummers led by the great Tiamiyu and  Aladokun.  Adoption of the bass guitar marked the transition from the historical 'egbe onilù to 'ęgbę òşèré ( from drummer group to modern popular musician. ) This transition started with the likes of  Tunde Nightingale and IK Dairo who sported only one guitar in the ensemble.  They all epitomize the Barthesian popular musician whose symbol transformed from the classical grand piano to the guitar ( See Roland Barthes, Image Music Text.)

  In Board Members the rudiments  of the later role of the bass guitar did not begin to materialise until towards the end:   

          Omo ya oye, omo ya oye.
          Yinka Rhodes nlę o şé
          Òmo olólá
 Bass guitar theme:
          Mi mi mi doh reh, doh mi mi mi

So what is the external structure of Board Members in our popular music discourse of the New Musicology: Overture, Aurature and Closure? ( the term Aurature foregrounds the fact that unlike the classical musicology that privileges what the eye sees on the music score sheet, the New Musicology privileges what is actually heard of the lyric or orature and what is heard from the instruments.)  It therefore constitutes a Reception theory of musicology rather than the Production theory of music which classical musicology is. The Overture in Board Members is composed of two reverse core cords (mi re doh mi re doh), + re re re mi mi re+ mi re doh doh re re)

It could be further mathematically represented as:

        2mi re doh +3re2mire +mi re2doh 2re

The bass guitar above can be represented as:

          3Mi doh re + Doh3mi


From this it is plain the Overture is compound reverse core chord.  A core chord is a composition with the three elements of pitch present in the correct order doh re mi;  a reverse core chord goes the other way  from the end of the core chord to its beginning: mi re doh (the classical scale has been further broken down from this basic sounds like the primary colours are mixed in painting to create other colour spectrum).  The pitch of Board member board member as it is sung in the album is mi re doh mi re doh.  Because there is no core chord or reverse core chord  in the remaining guitar opening which is a mimic of the subsequent lyric we have there are miscellaneous  chords. Because the reverse core chord  comes up twice before the miscellaneous chords we have a complex reverse core chord Overture.  If there is  only  one reverse core chord in the  overture then we would have a compound core chord since a complex core chord has more than one core chord or reverse core chord stringed together in a composition.  

The Aurature is composed of the middle segment starting from the lyric ' Board member, board member omo
Akéréle board members tàwani' and runs on to end  before the close and forms the bulk of the ergonomics of play where all the musical resources : motif(s), themes and interstitial chords are displayed ( both instrumental and lyrical).
The Closure is the  bands stylistic end. It could be lyric, instrumental or combination of both and the chords deployed.

In Board Members the Closure is lyrico-instrumental and ends in a call and response:

Obey:  Ómo òro....  (Mi re doh re)
Choral Refrain:  Òró po o... (Doh mi re)

Because the Closure is continuous from band leader to chorus the chord is organically fused and shows a reverse compound core chord. If the 're' had come before 'mi' then we would have two core chords and a complex chord but that rendition would not be natural and would fail musically.

Olayinka  Agbetuyi

April 22, 2020




Sent from Samsung tablet.


-------- Original message --------
From: Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu>
Date: 22/04/2020 19:54 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Board Members, Ebenezer Obey

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Toyin Falola

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Apr 22, 2020, 5:38:24 PM4/22/20
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This is the best analysis. Why don’t you write it up and send it to me and I will publish it as a journal essay. Listen to his offering below that validates all your arguments:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ09gQBt1IU

OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Apr 22, 2020, 7:55:33 PM4/22/20
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Okay will do.  In Ota Mi Dehin Lehin Mi. Obey consolidates his  indisputable supremacy in Juju music. I have written itts analysis so many times in my head its like its already published (unlike others I consider a work published the moment I have it fully written in my  mind  and not when or whether it is actually published)

OAA



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu>
Date: 22/04/2020 22:53 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Board Members, Ebenezer Obey

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (toyin...@austin.utexas.edu) Add cleanup rule | More info

This is the best analysis. Why don’t you write it up and send it to me and I will publish it as a journal essay. Listen to his offering below that validates all your arguments:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ09gQBt1IU

 

 

From: dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com>


Reply-To: dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 at 4:27 PM

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Okechukwu Ukaga

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Apr 22, 2020, 8:28:52 PM4/22/20
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Olayinka,
Thanks for sharing your wonderful analysis with us. Brilliant!!!!
Regards,
Okey

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