Ebenezer Obey – Obey In the 60’s

Obey, whose full names are Ebenezer Remilekun Aremu Olasupo Obey-Fabiyi, was born in Idogo, Ogun State, Nigeria. He began his professional career in the mid-1950s as a member of the Fatai Rolling-Dollar's band. He later formed a band called The International Brothers in 1964, playing highlife/juju fusion. The band later metamorphosed into Inter-Reformers in the early-1970s.
Obey began experimenting with Yoruba percussion style and expanding on the band by adding more drum kits, guitars and talking drums. In an effort to rise above his competition, Obey began to develop new musical "systems," adding as many as 20 new musicians to his band at a time, extending the length of his album tracks, and pumping out hit after hit. Obeys’ musical strengths lie in weaving intricate Yoruba axioms into dance-floor compositions. Typical of Nigerian Yoruba social-circle music, the Inter-Reformers band exceled in praise-singing for rich Nigerian socialites and business tycoons.

Since the 1960s, Ebenezer Obey has been one of the most popular, prolific, and influential musicians in Nigeria, releasing over fifty albums, developing juju style, and conducting an informal and highly creative campaign against his competitors in the musical world. Though his lyrics were traditional, his musical direction was highly innovative. A stylish and bluesy guitarist whose music has been contagious in Nigeria for years, Obey is also renowned for Christian spiritual themes in his music and has since the early-1990s retired into Nigerian gospel music ministry.

No doubt my favorite musician of all time and I also dare to say that this album is on my top 2 of all time. Here is Obey in the 60’s………..Enjoy!

5 comments:

  1. Do you know i don't know him? Will check the link out.

    Cool blog you!

    Adiya
    http://thecornershopng.blogspot.com

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  2. @ Adiya I am not surprised you do not know him. He is mostly known by older folks and in the south western region of the country. Thanks for stopping by though. I hope you will nominate this blog @ the Nigerian blog awards?

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  3. As a matter of common decency I would appreciate it you would at least mention that you 'borrowed' this classic album from my blog (http://wrldsrv.blogspot.com).......

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  4. Dear Worldserve,
    I do not want to believe you think you are the only one who still owns a copy of this album. FYI, I happen to have all vinyl copies of Ebenezer Obey's albums (including the 45lp) so please don't think too much of yourself dear friend. If anything at all, learn to respond and not react. I can send you a copy of the album if you need it.

    100% Naija

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  5. Pls we don't only want to know about the artistes, but also to download and listen to their music

    ReplyDelete