Fela Kuti confronts Paul McCartney in Lagos

On 15 September 1973, the day after Paul and Linda McCartney and Denny Laine watched a performance by Fela Ransome-Kuti in Lagos, Kuti paid them a visit in the studio.

Word had got to Kuti that Wings were planning to use African music on their next release, which he believed was the reason they were recording sessions in Nigeria. Kuti arrived at EMI Studios with a sizeable entourage while Wings were preparing for a recording session.

“Fela came into the control room while the rest of the entourage stayed in the studio, and we had a chat. ‘Hey man, you know, listen, I’ve not come here to steal your music. And it saddens me that you think that. Let me play you something that we’ve been recording.’ I said, ‘The nearest thing we’ve got is this thing “Mamunia”.’ I said, ‘Let me play it to you.’

So he listened and kinda liked it. And he said, ‘It’s not like Nigerian music.’ So he realised that we weren’t stealing his music, and we became really good friends.

They’d seen it happen before, where people would come to Lagos, be friendly, then go home and have hits with their style of music. So I think they were a little paranoid. And they were frightened of that happening again. ‘This is our music. If there’s any money to be made, we must make it.’ I knew he was right about that.”

Alarmed at the confrontation, Denny Laine went to the studio control room and phoned former Cream drummer Ginger Baker, who ran a studio in Lagos.

I got a phone call that Fela and the army – this is about 40 strong – had arrived at EMI studios and stopped the session. They took over EMI.

I said, ‘It is Paul McCartney, we really can’t do this, blah, blah and the sessions continued. They wouldn’t have done it without my intervention.

Although the situation was mostly defused, Kuti went straight to a Lagos radio station where he gave an interview which was also broadcast by the BBC World Service.

Just in case Paul McCartney is over here in order to steal African music,, or in order to help African music to gain a wider audience than it has, I would like to make it clear that if he wants to steal it, we will fight him, and if he is under the impression that we need a wider audience to carry on with what we are doing, he is mistaken. We have enough people right here in Africa who enjoy and appreciate our music to keep us satisfied, and with our two studios in Lagos, we don’t even need to travel abroad to record.

Kuti then went to the Lagos Evening Times offices, where he was interviewed by columnist AB Attah. The resulting article contained a quote from McCartney in the studio: “Looks like you don’t want me here,” he said. “I have not come to steal Afro rhythms, though Fela’s music blew my mind.”