A talented musician with a permanent scowl on his face. The emblematic scowl, of course made possible by two long laugh lines clinically etched on each side of his bilateral cheeks. They stood like two vertical decorative running boards gracing the sides of an automobile. He’s one of those unreadable folks with a poker face and could be too stingy with his smile. And when or if he manages to give one away, it’s usually non-enthusiastic or one well-concealed.
I liked Prince Gen. Adekunle right away when I first heard one of his records on the Radio in the early 70s. His sound was arguably the most refined at the time but he was somehow unsung. He had two master guitarists in his band- Dayo Kujore and the prodigy- Shina Peters. He had Segun Adewale- the ultimate composer and arguably, the most sonorous voice in all of Juju, perhaps till date. While Adekunle himself took care of the lead vocals and the rhythm section. The duo of Kujore and Peters held down the mass attraction for the band with their entertaining pop-licking and psychedelic guitar riffs.
He lacked the popularity and the mass appeal of KSA and His African Beats Band, or of the Ebenezer Obey-led Inter-Reformers Band, or that of the Idowu Animasaun and His Lisabi Brothers Band. But of the lot; Adekunle’s sound for a while was the cleanest, most pure and essentially the most rhythmic. He was always well-groomed from his head to his toe. Classy in appearance and in total carriage. He perfected the look of a shy man with a wry smile that seemed to work hard at ‘sneaking’ out of the corner of his mouth in bits. It was like he gave smiling a very good thought before agreeing to letting it all out in full. He seemed to have a neurological habit of twitching on one side of his face when he gave interviews long ago. Too insignificant to notice, especially for one not paying diligent attention. I doubt very hard if it’s Tourette’s though! He spotted a nice haircut some of us kids would have loved to copy but our parents would definitely forbid it! It wasn’t a hairstyle way too garullous, it was more like a pompadour; noted with the way the very top floated upwards to the invincible stratosphere. The hair exaggerated his height, just a tiny bit. And I am sure he liked that! He hid the directions of his gaze behind various shades of sunglasses. The sunglasses were always there! You never saw him without them! The very rare occasion I saw him without those shades was when the quick rush of guilt set in! I pitifully realised they weren’t worn necessarily for vanity purposes. They were necessities- worn by a self-conscious man, who strives to hide away a particular physical anomaly: a bad eye!
I loved his tour bus even more! A ‘Greyhound’ type that was long and sleek! My curiosity never waned one bit till I got the answer to one question that gnawed at me about it. “What are those huge panels, that jutted out into the open space on its roof?” I asked my uncle one day in 1976. And It was like a huge burden lifted off my shoulders when my uncle told me: “those are actually air-conditioner panels.” A joy to see the “PRINCE. GEN ADEKUNLE AND HIS SUPERSONIC SOUND” nicely stenciled in blazing fire-engine red over a white background on both sides.
Adekunle had the crisp sound, the psychedelic guitar riffs, the pompadour and best of all, he had the Bus! I damn sure loved the Bus well and above all! As a kid, I think I had a huge crush on his tour bus!
