A TRAGEDY IN COMEDY!: (Hypnosis 6)
Essays on the Mystique of KSA The Sage
by Tunji Ajayi
Prologue to Hypnosis 6: I got to understand early in life that, for whatever hobby one has deep passion, one hardly finds excuses for failure to engage in it. The strong Will to follow one’s passion often paves the Way to pursue it. Yes. For anything a man has unbridled passion, he will always find time for it regardless of inherent danger in its pursuit. Little did I realize the danger I escaped all in a bid to satisfy my passion, especially during my youthful days.
In those good old days there was no vainglorious chant of “child abuse” cliché as we often do now at every slight opportunity. Children performed house chores before they trekked to their schools. Mine was about 7 kilometers away from home, and would again return in the scorching sunshine, only to be faced with more house chores before having lunch! During holidays or weekends we went to the farm to bring farm produce or firewood home. No taxi to the farm. We carried loads on our heads. But a good lesson was being learnt, albeit in a subtle way. Love for hard-work and appreciation of dignity of labour. But this is termed “child abuse” now! But aren’t we sowing the seed of laziness and permissiveness? What a man sows he reaps.
My brother and I would, most often, elope from home to play football, even at the expense of reading our books or reviewing class notes. Yet, in that state of lassitude and fatigue we often eloped again to watch Sunny Ade playing either at the then Osogbo Sports Club, or the Recreation Club on invitation by his patrons and social clubs. We never missed Sunny Ade’s weekly TYC shows on NTA or live shows in the town. To us, a miss was sacrilegious, perhaps a “faux pas”! Thus, it never happened. On every occasion we were spanked mercilessly by our mother. But at another time, the stubbornness in us would still drive us back to the venue.
But how did little urchins gain entrance into the entertainment venue, often manned by armed security guards and policemen, without having and paying gate fee? A logical deduction? - What a man loves to do, he finds way to do it by all means. As we cunningly sneaked inside via the entrance, most often, we bore lacerations from the police horsewhip, but we hardly felt any pain until after Sunny Ade’s sizzling show! Another deduction? Gain expected often submerges the pain suffered; and there is no gain without pain. But then, good music is like a soothing balm to deep lacerations! Great music has therapeutic value. Hence, Bob Nesta Marley quipped: “One thing about good music, when it hits, you feel no pain . . . hit me with good music.” Once Sunny Ade hit us with his good and evocative music after police laceration, we felt no pain, until the shows ended!
Most often when the police and security guards appeared so tough-looking and uncompromising, we simply opted for a more dangerous escapade. There were tall trees overlooking both venues. We simply climbed the trees in the cold eerie night; dangling like loose monkeys on the feeble trees while watching his esoteric and dazzling performance. A third logical deduction? – In pursuance of a passion, a man is often oblivious of danger and perhaps death; deep passion is often associated with stupidity and foolhardiness, even on a dangling tree, at the brink of a precipice!
Ø > >Please enjoy this week’s portion of The Hypnosis 6: A Tragedy In Comedy > > >
(Continued from last week . . . .)
The music star, with wailing siren heralding his kingly arrival in a convoy of cars, was entering the venue when suddenly the crowd surged forward to catch a glimpse of the controversial star whom a court injunction, apparently which hinged on “contract in restraint of trade” had compelled to be off the music stage for several months. My ‘accomplice’ younger brother fell down badly. He sustained a deep cut on the chin, while his blood oozed out profusely! His cloth was well soaked in his own blood.
Good “music with its sudden charms, can bind a wandering sense and calm troubled mind”, so says the writer James Morton. The veracity of this assertion remains incontrovertible. It is very true. We remained undaunted. Sunny Ade must be watched live! I quickly worked out a solution. I reasoned. “What else do medical doctors do other than stop profuse bleeding with their cotton wool?” I frantically searched for cotton wool to cover the wound to stop the profuse bleeding. “Fortunately”, I didn't get any from the few shops nearby, as it was too late in the night. Blood flows on! Danger looms.
Part of my mind was on Sunny Ade’s podium, where he opened the stage with the sonorous and ricocheting guitar wizardry in “E kilo f’omo ode” while the expectant crowd shouted in high crescendo, while hailing the Master Guitarist to high heaven in unison. The music maestro had been off stage for about a whole year! The other part of my mind was how to stop the profuse bleeding. I looked at Sunny Ade’s glittering Guitar oozing out sonorous tune; and was enchanted by the melodious tune ricocheting from his musical podium. I looked at my brother bleeding profusely. I did not know what choice to make, whether to help a bleeding brother or enjoy Sunny’s enchanting musical melody! I developed a ubiquitous mind! Oh, what a confusion in the eerie night of a sizzling entertainment blitz by a musical connoisseur, elegantly poised to rule the world’s musical empire!
A quick rush to the State Hospital nearby revealed that he needed some stitches quickly, and no quantity of cotton wool on earth could ever have stopped the bleeding. The medical doctors ran helter-skelter in search of their life-saving tools. The rush revealed the enormity of the danger! My brother was on the verge of collapsing, having lost much blood. He wouldn't have survived with my cotton-wool medical solution! But the timely stitches saved his life! Truly, good music is an opium. Nonetheless, I still went back to watch Sunny Ade's live performance that same night; while mummy back home suffered severe trauma throughout the night for the momentary ‘loss’ of her two little scallywags. Up till this day, his chin scar always makes me reminisce on Sunny Ade's enchanting artistry on the guitar. A real Tragedy in Comedy indeed! But will there also be a Comedy in Tragedy?
Please join me on this page next week Saturday, Deo Volentim on Hypnosis 7
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