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Sunday, September 15, 2019

Osibisa - Woyaya (information, videos, & lyrics)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post showcases the 1971 Ghanaian song "Woyaya" by Osibisa. Information about Osibisa is also included in this post.

The content of this post is presented for cultural, inspirational, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks Sol Amarfio, the composer of the song "Woyaya" and thanks to all the members of Osibisa. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these examples on YouTube.

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INFORMATION ABOUT OSIBISA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osibisa
"Osibisa is an Afrobeat band, founded in London in 1969 by four expatriate African and three Caribbean musicians.[1] Their music is a fusion of African, Caribbean, jazz, funk, rock, Latin, and R&B. Osibisa were the most successful and longest lived of the African-heritage bands in London, alongside such contemporaries as Assagai, Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath, Demon Fuzz, and Noir, and were largely responsible for the establishment of world music as a marketable genre.

[...]

History
In Ghana in the 1950s, Teddy Osei (saxophone), Sol Amarfio (drums), Mamon Shareef, and Farhan Freere (flute) played in a highlife band called The Star Gazers. They left to form The Comets, with Osei's brother Mac Tontoh on trumpet, and scored a hit in West Africa with their 1958 song "Pete Pete." In 1962 Osei moved to London to study music on a scholarship from the Ghanaian government. In 1964 he formed Cat's Paw, an early "world music" band that combined highlife, rock, and soul. In 1969 he persuaded Amarfio and Tontoh to join him in London, and Osibisa was born.

Joining them in the first incarnation were Grenadian Spartacus R (bass); Trinidadian Robert Bailey (keyboard); Antiguan Wendell Richardson (lead guitar and lead vocalist); and Nigerians Mike Odumosu and Fred Coker (bass guitar) and Lasisi Amao (percussionist and tenor saxophone).

[...]


The name Osibisa was described in lyrics, album notes and interviews as meaning "criss-cross rhythms that explode with happiness" but it actually comes from "osibisaba" the Fante word for highlife.[3][4] Their style influenced many of the emerging African musicians of the time and even now”...

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SONG "WOYAYA"
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woyaya
"Woyaya is the second album by Ghanaian Afro-pop band Osibisa released in 1971 by MCA. Reissued in 2004 in a two-CD pack together with the self-titled album Osibisa by BGO Records.

Album title
Although conventionally spelled Woyaya the album's title is actually Wɔyaya (with an open-o), which comes from the Ghanaian Ga language. The title song was covered in 1973 by Art Garfunkel on his debut solo album Angel Clare and by the group The 5th Dimension in the album Living Together, Growing Together.

[...]

Personnel
Teddy Osei – tenor saxophone, flute, African drums, percussion, vocals
Sol Amarfio – drums, fontonfrom, bongos, African drums, cowbells, percussion, vocals
Mac Tontoh – trumpet, flugelhorn, cowhorn, kabasa, percussion, vocals
Spartacus R (Roy Bedeau) – bass guitar, prenprensua, assorted percussion
Wendell Richardson – lead guitar, vocals
Robert Bailey – organ, piano, timbales, percussion, vocals
Loughty Lasisi Amao – tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, flute, congas, fonton"

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From https://wordsofwisdom.uucg.org/january-1-woyaya-we-are-going/
...Written by Ghanaian drummer Sol Amarifio, Woyaya is the title song of a 1971 album by Oisibisa, a musical group of Ghanaian and Caribbean musicians. It was frequently heard in work camps throughout central West Africa in the 1970s and 1980s... “Woyaya,” like many other African scat syllables, can have many meanings. According to the song’s composer, it means “We are going.”...

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LYRICS- WOYAYA
(composed by Sol Amarifio)

We are going,
Heaven knows where we are going,
But we know within.
And we will get there,
Heaven knows how we will get there,
But we know we will.
It will be hard, we know,
And the road will be muddy and rough,
But we’ll get there,
Heaven knows how we will get there,
But we know we will.
Woyaya, woyaya, woyaya, woyaya.

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SHOWCASE YOUTUBE EXAMPLES
Example #1: OSIBISA "Woyaya" (1971) [sound file]



TheJPDM•Published on Jan 19, 2010

From the album "Woyaya"

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Example #2: OSIBISA - Woyaya (live in Greece 1995)



Stefanos Panagiotakis, Published on Aug 18, 2014

This classic hit comes from their 2nd album WOYAYA of 1971.Here the band perfoms it live at their concert in Salonica ,Greece,February 1995 (#9 song in the play list of this evening)..

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Example #3: Osibisa - Woyaa yaa (we will get there)



Kizito Digital [publishing October 2018

[...]

Song: Woyaya (Remastered)
Artist: Osibisa
Album: Singles A's & B's & 12 Inches
Writers: Teddy Osei, Amarfio Solomon

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Example #4:Osibisa woyaa Yaa #powerful Africa Song with lyrics



Latest News, Published on Dec 12, 2018

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