“Zombie” by Fela Kuti

"Zombie" gave its name to the 1976 album Fela Kuti made with Africa 70, and it's Afrobeat built as a battering ram. Fela sings lead, plays saxophone and keyboard, and produced it, driving a band that sets the trumpets of Tunde Williams and Nwokoma Ukem and Lekan Animashaun's baritone sax over the guitars of Oghene Kologbo and Okalue Ojeah, Nweke Atifoh's bass and a thicket of congas, claves and maracas, with seven more singers behind him.

The target was the Nigerian army. After a decade of military rule, soldiers were everywhere under General Olusegun Obasanjo, and Fela painted them as zombies who do whatever they're told. The more popular the song got, the worse things grew between him and the military government, until it all came to a head with the 1977 attack on the Kalakuta Republic.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.