Ebenezer Obey

Odolaye Aremu

Ebenezer Obey has multiple ‘voices’. He could be excited, forlorn, advisory, celebratory, triumphant, evangelical and oftentimes sagacious. To say that the man in his long career understood his fanbase was an understatement. Even to the lowkey fans still struggling to fully yield, the Commander is adept at communicating his messages in any or his best of his best voices.

For example, in Àjò Yíó (This Here Trip), a bluesy Juju/Highlife track he recorded on one of his tours to the UK in the early 70s; he sang in a variety of cadences/emotions that a listener could read to be delightfully sober to exactly fit the song.

A tune dedicated to, or inspired by being a diasporian in the 70’s UK – coursing through the challenges of schooling, working or living abroad. He masterfully infected the listener with the homesickness suffered by these sets of people.

In the same song, he sounded like a confused man walking alone, on a cobblestoned street layered with snow and catching cold in the brutal UK winter of 1970. Wondering to himself, tearing up as he walked on if his decision to ever travel abroad was a wise one from the look of things. The way he dragged hard and a bit long on the titular: “Ajo Yi Oooo” felt like the pitiful sound a shivering man in the damn cold would make. In the same song, he sounded again like a man in the middle of the pleasure of coitus – particularly the lust-filled:

“Haaaaaa” that came before “Arigidi Baba Toyin o. Omolaja mi dakun!” That unmistakable sigh most of us exude while hitting beautiful strokes in the throes of passion.

In the same song, he seemingly, with a melancholic cadence reassured his loved ones at home in Nigeria of his eventual return back to base. As if to say that “unlike Ambrose Campbell and Dele Ojo that left and never looked back, we shall return!” Obey was usually at his best when he serenaded his band boys, which he did quite often whenever he took the International Brothers or later the InterReformers band on tour abroad back in those days.

His accompaniments remarkably helped in communicating the song well in all of those various cadences too! Shy as he is, he’s still not a marvel in live situations but seemingly and conveniently at home on records.

Monday John was subtly poetic on the lead guitar during the intro and in the subsequent crafty play in the background. And Samson Ogunlade, the actual MVP of the track – and on percussion excellently gave the song a genius backing that was at a time long ago – a staple in the Aladura Movement. He played beautifully on that track!