March 01, 2009

Board Members

I was digging through what I call "my archives" (and what my wife calls "that junk in the attic") when I came upon a pile of magazines from way past. If I'm not mistaken I picked them up sometime during the mid-eighties from Stern's, when they were still a little cornershop in Whitfield Street.

One of the magazines, the September/October 1981 issue of Africa Music, contained an interview with juju master Ebenezer Obey, "popularly called "Chief Commander" by his closest fans as well as adversaries". The interview (pdf copy here) is full of references to his religious ardour ("I see myself as a musician, gospeller, and businessman who will spend the rest of his life spreading the gospel").

Two quotes caught my eye: "We have also seen how cassettes are threatening to wipeout the music industry by its negative effects" and "Among those old hits, 'Board Members' remains the all time bestseller and my own favourite".

So I am posting the cassette version of this classic album from 1972, re-released on Obey's own Obey label.

Obey OC 38 (new link Nov.10, 2012)
at

2 comments:

  1. icastico1 March 2009 at 08:26

    Thanks also for this one.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous2 March 2009 at 01:36

    Great piece of music! I was a kid in the eastern region when this album was released and has been looking for this LP for the past 20 years! Thanks for this classic album which I think is Obey's best work. It is also one of the best highlife or juju album ever released in Nigeria! God bless!

    ReplyDelete