Sunday 17 May 2009

Music therapy. Fela Kuti: Everything Scatter

Not many men can make this big girl dance, but you did it. Not many men can direct a sound to sweep away the BOOMBOOM chant that followed me through the playground, resonating in my mind for years and years.

All this heavy stuff. Moving. Big thighs driving big heels into the ground, just so the room sends ripples back at them. Oh I hear you quiver - spread it around.

Clear the living room and open the window because this full-sized drama is hitting three acts and an encore. Spine becomes a tall grass in a shifting breeze and the flesh follows, lumps and bumps wrapping around that fragile stalk like pillows. They don’t cut the air - they round it out, make it all curve.

You give me 10 minutes and 31 seconds and I give you my hair down, my feet in love with this sunbeam that is diving like a kamikaze through the gap between the curtains.

You give me mad brass and mosquito rhythms and I give you my unspoken pleasure that my precious bulk does not stop on a dime, but keeps going like an unexpected shudder that consumes the whole body.

You make me believe that there are 10,000 people in your band, and I will unfurl into the cool breeze that stirs the incense and makes everything sweet and heady.

Not many men can make me stretch like a Sunday afternoon on the cusp of a full-blown summer, but you did it.

Now play it again.

10 comments:

Renee said...

This is a lovely post.

Renee xoxo

Dale said...

:-) Wonderful!

Anonymous said...

we waste so much time damning our bodies when we could be jiggling our curvy bits. glorious music, glorious post, m'amie :)

david mcmahon said...

Great work. Where can we see this performance?

La Scala?

YouTube?

(Greetings from wintry Australia)

Laura said...

Your comment on my blog led me here, thank god. This is one of the most beautiful bits of prose I've read in a damn long time. I think I'll stick around...

Yoli said...

How beautiful and sexy!

A Cuban In London said...

This is one of the better elegies I have ever read about the great Fela Kuti. I have got a couple of his albums, including 'He Miss Road' and the minute I put them on my stereo my body starts moving and shaking. Many thanks.

Greetings from London.

What About The Girl? said...

Hey Chickadee! Congratulations on POTD!

ellen abbott said...

POTD sent me here and I am so glad. Think I'll stick around. If you like, come visit me.

PurestGreen said...

Thanks all! :)