Sorrow, Tears & Blood

Fela wrote the title track of this album in response to the 1976 Soweto Uprising in which thousands of South African students protested the forced teaching of Afrikaans, the colonial language of Apartheid. During the uprising and the ensuing riots, hundreds of students were killed. The song calls out killings that have gone on in the name of authority and totalitarian rule as well as the instruments of repression of colonial Africa the police and the army. The music parallels the somber tone of the lyrics; focused and direct, and avoids the usual bombastic funk of Fela compositions.