The music of the Caribbean — from calypso to reggae, soca to dancehall — has had an impact on the rest of the world all out of proportion to the size of the region, and this special issue of Caribbean Beat celebrates our musical heritage. We consulted a panel of music experts, argued and debated, and drew up a list of 250 of the most influential, musically accomplished, and best-beloved songs from the region. The result is a vibrant history of music in the anglophone Caribbean in the 20th and 21st centuries
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Nowhere in the world is music more central to people’s everyday
lives than in the Caribbean. Schoolboys drumming on their desks, workmen
whistling and singing to speed their labours, mini sound systems blaring
from every city corner, office radios tuned to the latest soca or dancehall
numbers — Caribbean people truly live the rhythms of our music. And,
considering our relatively small populations, Caribbean music has had
a disproportionately huge global influence. In the 1950s, a calypso craze
swept across the United States. In the 1970s, Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff,
and Peter Tosh rode the rhythms of reggae to international stardom. Today,
dancehall crossover artists like Sean Paul are burning up the charts around
the world.
When the editors of
Caribbean Beat set out to produce this
celebration of the region’s music, we knew we’d set ourselves a daunting
task, but we didn’t realise just how enormous it would turn out to be.
First we decided to compile a list of the 50 best songs — the most influential,
most musically accomplished, most beloved — from the entire Caribbean.
We quickly realised this scope was hopelessly wide, and narrowed it down
to the music of the anglophone Caribbean — Spanish, French, and Dutch
Caribbean music need whole magazines to do them justice.
Then, when we attempted to compile our list of 50 songs from the
English-speaking islands, we were overwhelmed by the sheer number of
brilliant performers, recordings, genres, and sub-genres. There were too
many names we couldn’t bear to leave out; 50 began to seem a ridiculously
small number. So to the main list of 50 songs we added 200 more, in a series
of sidebars. With minimal effort, we could have expanded to 500 songs,
or 1,000, without exhausting the possibilities, and we’re sure many of
our readers can rattle off the names of dozens more songs that could have
made the cut.
In compiling our list, we enlisted the help of 20 music experts:
writers, musicians, producers. Some advised us on particular genres,
and others provided us with general lists of songs that we sorted and collated
to arrive at the final 250 songs, each a landmark in Caribbean music. Then
writers Georgia Popplewell, Kellie Magnus, Michael Goodwin, David Katz,
and Simon Lee set out to tell the story of each of these songs, and the
talented men and women who created them.
Over the next 32 pages, these stories add up to a concise history
of music in the anglophone Caribbean in the 20th and 21st centuries,
tracing the evolution of rhythms and genres and the influence of older
musicians on younger, and celebrating the amazing vitality of a place
where the music seems never to stop. In his 1974 song
Endless Vibrations
— the title of which we’ve borrowed for this feature — Lord Shorty declared
that it was time to “change your musical structure / make it super-sweeter
. . . a new musical expression”, heralding the arrival of soca, one
of the most influential Caribbean genres of the last 30 years. That urge
to reinvent, to “make it super-sweeter”, is still the force behind Caribbean
music as it stirs minds, bodies, and souls in the 21st-century world.
1930s, 40s & 50s
Rum and Coca Cola
Lord Invader
1943 • written by Rupert Grant, a.k.a. Lord Invader • a live 1946
performance is available on
Calypso at Midnight • subsequently
recorded by the Andrews Sisters
If Yankees come to Trinidad
Some of de girls go more than mad
Young girls say they treat dem nice
Make Trinidad like a paradise . . .
Look de bandit! Rupert Westmore Grant, better known as Lord Invader,
was born in San Fernando, south Trinidad, in 1916. By the time he died
in New York City in 1961, he would be one of the best-known calypsonians
in the world — thanks, mostly, to the unfortunate circumstances surrounding
the theft of his greatest composition,
Rum and Coca Cola. In 1943,
American comedian Morey Amsterdam, on a wartime visit to Trinidad, heard
Invader singing his as-yet-unrecorded calypso. Amsterdam scribbled down
the words, flew directly back to the US, copyrighted the song under
his own name, and sold it to the Andrews Sisters — who had a huge hit
with it in 1944.
Invader himself didn’t record the song until 1946 — but long before
that he had flown to New York to bring a lawsuit against Amsterdam and
the Sisters. It took ten long years, but in the end Invader was able
to collect US$132,000 from the defendants — almost $700,000 in today’s
money, when you allow for inflation. While he was stuck in NY, he appeared
in important calypso shows staged by big-time folklorist Alan Lomax —
available on CD. Invader’s calypso is a perfect snapshot of the wartime
zeitgeist in Trinidad, especially its smuttiest and most tellingly political
line — the one about “both mother and daughter working for the Yankee dollar.”
Michael Goodwin
10 more classic old-time calypsos
- Brown Skin Gal, King Radio (1933): This catchy kaiso
about absentee fathers became popular again in the 1940s, as a commentary
on US servicemen who got Trini women pregnant then abandoned them.
- The Graf Zeppelin, Atilla the Hun (1934): Composed
to mark the visit of Count Hugo von Eckner’s celebrated airship to Trinidad.
Later recorded in New York.
- Ugly Woman, Roaring Lion (1934): Lion’s explanation
of why you should “never make a pretty woman your wife” was a hit in
the US, broadcast coast-to-coast over NBC — which meant it could be picked
up in Trinidad. Crowds gathered in Port of Spain and San Fernando to hear
it live on loudspeakers.
- Money Is King, Growling Tiger (1935): Tiger’s poignant
commentary on society’s inequalities broke down barriers and made him
an instant star.
- King Edward VIII, Lord Caresser (1937): One of the
best selling calypsos of the 1930s gossiped about the English king’s abdication
in order to marry an American divorcée.
- My Reply to Houdini, Lord Executor (1937): Picong
— a peculiarly Trinidadian kind of repartee — has long been a main ingredient
of classic calypso, and Executor was a master of the art. In this song,
a reply to Lord Houdini’s War Declaration, he administered a lyrical
thrashing to his rival.
- Matilda, King Radio (1938): Very popular tale of an
unfaithful woman robbing her man and fleeing to Venezuela. Was road
march an unprecedented three times, in 1938, 1939, and 1940. Later recorded
and made internationally famous by Harry Belafonte.
- Shame and Scandal, Lord Melody (c. 1940): A comical
tale of a man searching for a wife, who keeps running into his father’s
“outside” daughters. Then his mother solves the problem with an unexpected
revelation . . .
- Papa Chunks, Roaring Lion (1941): “Don’t kill me because
I’ve got the luck, the looks, the wear, and then the pluck . . .” This
smooth, swaggering sagaboy tune from the 1940s was a hit all over again
in 1995, when Lion rerecorded it with a touch of ringbang rhythm.
- A Mother’s Love, Lord Destroyer (1941): In the 1930s
and early 40s a cycle of calypsos celebrated the virtues of motherhood.
Destroyer’s song was the most sentimental of them all.
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Mary Ann
Roaring Lion
1945 • written by Raphael de Leon, a.k.a. Roaring Lion • released
on Parlophone single and on
Calypso Carnival album
VJ Day was bacchanal
The whole island played Carnival
People were jumping to and fro
To the rhythm of a red-hot calypso
Hear them singing, “All day, all night, Miss Mary Ann . . .”
Carnival was suspended all during the Second World War, so when VE
and VJ Days arrived, respectively, in May and August 1945, Trinidad exploded
into Carnival fever. And just as Lion’s lyric recounts,
Mary Ann
was a stupendously popular jump-up tune. It went on to become one of the
most frequently recorded calypsos in history. Curiously, while most writers
attribute the song to Lion (a claim with which Lion himself wholeheartedly
concurs), a few scholars give the credit to King Radio, or even Lord Invader.
At one point, Lion even told Tony Hall that Mary Ann was actually based on
“an old French song.”
MG
Steelband Clash
Lord Blakie
1954 • written by Carlton Joseph, a.k.a. Lord Blakie • first released
on 78 single
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Lord Blakie
Courtesy The Main Library, University of the West Indies, St Augustine
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For many years, it was not uncommon for violence to break
out when rival steelbands met in the streets of Port of Spain during Carnival.
Warlord Blakie’s calypso, a marvel of poetic compression and evocative
detail that won Road March honours in 1954, records one of the last serious
clashes — between Despers and the San Juan All Stars. Chances are Blakie
(who was born Carlton Joseph only 18 earlier) read about it in the paper.
But when asked how he came to write it, Blakie simply replied, “Ah was dey!”
(One can only imagine Blakie’s trademark devilish laugh that must have followed.)
The marvellous refrain, “Never me again to jump in a steelband in Port of
Spain,” gives the song just the right light touch.
MG
Bed Bug (a.k.a Reincarnation)
Mighty Spoiler
1953 • written by Theophilus Phillip, a.k.a. Mighty Spoiler • first
released on 78 single
Spoiler’s biggest hit (helping him win the Calypso Monarch
title in 1953),
Bed Bug is still one of the best-known calypsos worldwide.
While the theme of an insect exploring the female form is apocryphal, and
literary antecedents range from Lord Rochester’s “Satire Upon Mankind”
to Kafka’s
Metamorphosis, Spoiler treats the topic of a man reincarnated
as an insect with characteristic absurdist ingenuity, spiced with salubrious
wit — perfectly balancing on the tightrope of
double entendre without
toppling over into pure smut.
“I heard when you die after burial / you have to come back as some
insect or animal”, Spoiler begins. His surreal sense of humour kicks off
in the chorus, when he springs it on us that he’s chosen to reincarnate
as a repulsive and diminutive insect, so he can “bite them young ladies”,
the proposition becoming more absurd by the moment through the juxtaposition
of the tiny bedbug and his prospective targets: “Is only big fat women that
ah going to bite”. The final verse is the Don Juan bedbug’s extempo-style
picong at the expense of jealous husbands who may be looking for a bite themselves
— “I wouldn’t bite a man if they kill me dead / not as long as the opposite
sex on the bed”.
SL
5 classic smuts
In Trinidad, a “smut” is a song of artful double entendre —
a high literary genre at which almost every calypsonian has tried his or
her hand.
- Dorothy Went to Bathe, Roaring Lion (1945):
Lion’s masterful wordplay allowed him to address the most intimate matters
with tasteful misdirection. This bawdy tale about Dorothy, Trinidad’s archetypal
and ever-desirable sex object, is a perfect example.
- Stickman, Zandolie (1966): Zandolie may
well be the foremost composer of “smut” in the history of calypso. Stickman,
his best composition, is built on metaphors drawn from Trinidad’s stickfighting
tradition.
- The Art of Making Love, Lord Shorty (1973):
This composition replaces double entendre with single entendre
in the most frankly sexual calypso ever written.
- Big Shot Party, Trinidad Rio (1989): A shamelessly
coprophilic account of an epidemic of “intestinal ailments” at a high-class
cocktail party.
- Careless Driver, Drupatee (1989): One of
Trinidad’s most vivacious female calypsonians, Drupatee Ramgoonai brings
a playful East Indian sensuality to Carnival. Here, she castigates a lorry
driver who bumped her granny: “De driver lick down me nani!”
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Jean and Dinah
Mighty Sparrow
1956 • written by Slinger Francisco, a.k.a. Mighty Sparrow • first
released on 78 single • subsequent recordings too numerous to mention
Everyone knows this timeless classic: it put Sparrow on the map as
a calypso superstar, and the primal excellence of his performance is beyond
question. The song is an exquisite mixture of humour, topicality, and political
commentary, and its best line works as an anti-colonialist warning as
well as a post-war sexual brag: “The Yankees gone and Sparrow take over
now.”
When
Jean and Dinah hit the airwaves in 1956, the face of calypso
changed forever. Trinidadian columnist Raffique Shah recalls that the
song “triggered a virtual revolution. From schoolyards to playgrounds,
boys and girls sang
Jean and Dinah even though, as children, we
hardly understood the theme of the song. And I’m writing about little Indian
boys and girls, Africans (Negroes, in those days), Chinese, everyone.”
Of course, it won Road March that year, and Sparrow walked away with
the title of Calypso King. It wasn’t just his fabulous voice, or his dramatic
style, or his excellent composition that put him across. It was attitude
— a characteristic which has never deserted him.
For example, look at his eighth and most recent Calypso Monarch victory:
it was 1992, and the song was
Both of Them. Sparrow’s controversial
decision to re-enter competition after 17 years (since victory number
seven, that is) was the hottest conversation topic in town. When a reporter
asked him why, after winning so many times, he was returning to active
competition, Sparrow’s reply was typically, maddeningly, confident. “Every
once in a while,” he quipped, “the general needs to review the troops.”
Then, the day before the Dimanche Gras finals, a DJ recapped the high
stakes at risk — the money, the honour, the new car — and asked him if
he had any advice for the calypsonians with whom he’d be competing. “Yeah,”
Sparrow replied. “Don’t lean on meh car!”
After that, the contest itself was almost anticlimactic. When Sparrow
and his winer-girls hit the stage like a low-megaton atomic explosion,
the Birdie was in command, a master at the top of his form — a true calypso
monarch. There were plenty of people in the Savannah stands who didn’t
like Sparrow or his song — the loud boos when he was pronounced the winner
proved that. But nobody with an ounce of honesty could deny they’d seen
a legendary performance.
The legend began in Grenada, 57 years earlier, when Sparrow was born
and christened Slinger Francisco. His family brought him to Trinidad when
he was one year old — and he was only 20 when he blew the calypso world
apart with
Jean and Dinah. Ten years earlier, Spoiler had begun remaking
the face of calypso by introducing vernacular speech and contemporary cultural
references from movies and comics. Sparrow finished the job by bringing
an exciting, modern vocal style influenced by Nat “King” Cole, Billy Eckstein,
Frank Sinatra, and an entire pantheon of American pop-jazz stars.
Sparrow took full advantage of his success to advance a number of
social positions with his compositions. In 1957 he sang
Carnival Boycott,
an important protest song that attacked the inequity of offering the top
calypsonian (almost always a black man) a small fraction of the prize money
awarded to the winner of the Beauty Queen competition (generally a light-skinned
woman). He backed his lyrics with action, refusing to compete until the
prizes were balanced more equitably.
No profile of Sparrow, no matter how short, can fail to mention his
lifelong calypso “war” with his pal Lord Melody. Melody and Sparrow created
one of the longest-running and best-loved musical duels in calypso history.
They were shameless, singing songs insulting each other, each other’s family,
each other’s
sisters — and the crowds at the tents loved every minute
of it, recognising great calypso theatre.
The Birdie remains, deservedly, the best-known calypsonian in the
world, continuing to enchant fans around the globe. The only sad thing
about his career is that no one ever came along who seemed capable of
carrying on his legacy. Of course, calypso has changed immensely in the
50 years since Sparrow sang
Jean and Dinah, but — thanks partly
to him — there will always be a place in Trinidad for a brilliant writer
and performer who understands the responsibilities of the calypsonian as
the voice of the people.
MG
“Bet your life is something they selling”
During the Second World War, thousands of US military personnel were
stationed in Trinidad. Their presence had an enormous social impact on
locals — the GIs were blamed for loosening the morals of young Trinidadians,
and many women undeniably profited from selling their services for US dollars.
After the war, the bases continued to operate, but with greatly reduced
personnel. Jean and Dinah is a biting commentary on the consequences
of the soldiers’ departure for women such as its eponymous duo.
Well the girls in town feeling bad
No more Yankees in Trinidad
They going to close down the base for good
Them girls have to make out how they could
Brother, is now they park up in town
In for a penny, and in for a pound
Believe me it’s competition for so
Trouble in the town when the price drop low
Things bad is to hear them cry
Not a sailor in town, the night clubs dry
Only West Indians like me or you
Are able to get a drink or two
And as we have things back in control
Ah seeking revenge with me heart and soul
Brother, when I spread the news around
Is to see how them cave men come into town
So when you bounce up Jean and Dinah
Rosita and Clementina, round the corner posing
Bet your life is something they selling
And if you catch them broken
You can get it all for nothing
Don’t make no row, the Yankees gone and Sparrow take over now
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10 more Birdie classics
- Pay As You Earn (1958): A teaching calypso
to convince Trinidadians of the importance of paying income tax.
- Ten to One is Murder (1960): A real-life
tale of drama on the streets of Port of Spain between Sparrow, a nine-man
gang, and their badjohn leader — over a woman, of course.
- Situation in Trinidad / No Doctor No (1960):
Not even Eric Williams was immune from Sparrow’s picong.
- The Slave (1962): Sparrow’s most heartbreaking
composition.
- Dan is the Man in the Van (1963): Fun at
the expense of silly children’s textbooks.
- Congo Man (1965): A clever smut that raises
racial issues with exquisite subtlety.
- Sa Sa Yea (1969): Catchy and roguish song
built around a chorus of protestations (in Creole) from a female character.
- Drunk and Disorderly (1972): A sociopathic
Carnival smash.
- Salt Fish (1976): A smut
that remains one of the mainstays of Sparrow’s repertoire to this day.
- Philip My Dear (1983): Only Sparrow could
make fun of the Queen and get away with it.
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5 classic mentos
Outward appearances may indicate otherwise, but Jamaica’s mento music,
which thrived in the 1940s and 50s, was distinctly different from Trinidad’s
calypso.
- Jamaica Mentos, Lord Messam and His Calypsonians
(c. 1950s): A beautiful medley of Jamaican folksongs, including Mango
Walk, Chichi Bud, and Hog In My Minty, with a proto-reggae rhythm on the
banjo.
- Mango Time, Count Lasher’s Seven (c. 1950s):
A taste of Jamaican life, describing the joys of mango season (with a dozen
varieties of mango name-checked), by mento’s most prolific artist.
- Bulldog, Count Owen and His Calypsonians (c.
1950s): An endearing tale of the neighbour’s dog that steals Owen’s wife’s
cooling turkey. Featuring Owen’s guitar and the great Euton “Lord” Gayle
on banjo.
- Rough Rider, Chin’s Calypso Sextet (1954):
Chin’s vied with Count Lasher as the top golden-age mento act. This number
is a ribald tale full of double entendres, with a nice bamboo sax and banjo
jam.
- Naughty Little Flea, Lord Flea (c. 1950s):
The signature tune of mento’s best known performer tells the tale of a hungry
flea “Looking for a place to nest / Where he can get some food and rest.”
Michael Garnice
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Oh Carolina
Folkes Brothers
1958 • written by John Folkes • first released on 45 single
When Shaggy made it an international hit in 1993,
Oh
Carolina had already been jamming Jamaican dance floors for decades.
In the late 1950s the Folkes Brothers, then a little-known trio, asked
Rastafarian drummer Count Ossie to help arrange a song they had written.
Ossie and his drummers ended up playing backup and their collaboration,
recorded by producer Prince Buster, created an instant classic — one of
the first Jamaican songs to depart from mimicking American R&B rhythms.
Later, a dispute between John Folkes and Prince Buster over who actually
wrote the song had to be settled in court.
Oh Carolina was the Folkes
Brothers’ greatest hit, but for Shaggy — then a US Marine and aspiring artist
— the song was just the beginning. His dancehall cover catalysed his career.
Kellie Magnus
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1960s
The Road
Lord Kitchener
1963 • written by Aldwyn Roberts, a.k.a. Lord Kitchener • first released
on 78 single
Aldwyn Roberts, Grandmaster Lord Kitchener, was one of the most innovative
and accomplished calypsonians in the history of the art form. His long
career, which stretched more than 50 years from 1944 to 2000, showed not
the slightest falling off as he entered his later years; his last songs
were as good as his first ones.
Kitchener’s musical skills — he was a talented bassist — allowed him
to create melodies for his songs that were just as wonderful as his lyrics.
His lifelong love of the steel pan helped establish him as the undisputed
master of songwriting for steel orchestras — and every steelband man in
Trinidad adored him. He wrote everything from scathing topical protests
(
Jerico) to serious social commentary (
Black or White), irresistible
dance hits (
Sugar Bum Bum) to smuts (
My Wife’s Nightie), steel
pan smashes (
Pan in A Minor), Christmas favorites (
Drink a Rum),
playful explorations of his diasporic roots (
Kitch in the Jungle),
and silly party songs (
Leave Meh PP Alone). The list goes on and
on and on.
Kitchie’s calypso career began around 1944, when, as Aldwyn Roberts,
he left his hometown Arima; according to scholar Gordon Rohlehr, he had
served as chantwell for a sheriff band and won the title of Arima’s calypso
king. In Port of Spain, he was noticed by tent manager “Johnny” Khan, “named”
by the Growling Tiger, and invited to join the Victory Tent. Three years
later, in 1947, he was proclaimed the best calypsonian of the year — and
was on his way to London. When he returned, 17 years later, it was as a
hugely successful entertainer with scores of hit records to his credit.
Over the years, Kitchener won ten Road Marches — earning him the title
(just one of many honorifics he’d carry over the years) of Road March King.
Of all his Road Marches, though, none moved his fans as deeply as
The
Road. This song was unique. It wasn’t just a “leggo” designed with clever
sing-along hooks to keep the band dancing and singing on Carnival Tuesday.
The Road was a steel pan tune as well. And in 1963, as the bad old
days of steelband clashes and badjohns faded into the past, to be replaced
by a kinder, gentler, more middle-class kind of steelband, Kitchener helped
his fellow Trinis to sense what was slipping away:
Ah hear information
’Bout the situation
They tell me Tokyo
Is a danger with Desperado . . .
They could play they mas
As long as they don’t tackle me when they pass.
Because the road make to walk on Carnival Day
Constable, I don’t want to talk but I got to say
Any steelband man only venture to break this band,
Is a long funeral from the royal hospital.
Kitchener set these words to one of his sweetest, most soaring melodies,
and that was that. When Carnival revellers hit the streets on Tuesday morning,
they were all singing along with Kitch. And 40 years later, we still are.
MG
10 more classic Kitch songs
- Trouble in Arima (1954): A story from the
streets of Kitchener’s hometown. The art of calypso at its best — picong
for the police, fellow calypsonians, and anyone trying to hold him back
on Carnival day.
- Love in de Cemetery (1962): Vibrant and
comical tale of hiding out in a cemetery for a romantic liaison.
- Mama Dis Is Mas (1964): This iconic ode
to the pleasures of Carnival won both Road March and Panorama titles in
1964.
- My Pussin (1965): One of Kitch’s most famous
songs, its double entendre spirit has often been imitated, but seldom executed
with such panache.
- Rain-o-rama (1973): This orchestral road
march winner recounts the rain-drenched 1972 Carnival, which, owing to a
polio epidemic, was held in May.
- Miss Tourist (1968): About a white tourist
who comes to Trinidad for Carnival and ends up leading the band.
- Tribute to Spree Simon (1975): Another road
march winner, Tribute tells the story of Winston “Spree” Simon, one of
Trinidad’s great pan pioneers.
- Flag Woman (1976): An ode to the formidable
flag-waving women who escort steelbands at Carnival.
- Sugar Bum Bum (1978): The title says
it all: Kitchener at his naughty best.
- Pan in A Minor (1987): No calypsonian composed
for the steelband as masterfully as Kitchener, and this may be his greatest
pan tune ever.
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Broadway Jungle, a.k.a. Dog War
Toots and the Maytals
1964 • written by Frederick “Toots” Hibbert • first released on 45
single
The official title is
Broadway Jungle, but most
fans of this funny but brilliantly biting track know it as
Dog War
— reminiscent as it is of the fighting and howling of dogs in the Jamaican
night. Toots and his crew came up with the song spontaneously during a
recording session with the Skatalites. At first the words meant nothing,
but gradually the song took on more poignancy as the Maytals vented their
frustration at the “jungle” of the music industry, and celebrated leaving
“Coxsone” Dodd, their producer, and moving on to Prince Buster. The song’s
theme of struggle, of searching for more, resonated with fans. The track
went on to be a huge hit in Jamaica and the UK.
KM
Portrait of Trinidad
Mighty Sniper
1965 • written by Mervyn Hodge, a.k.a. Mighty Sniper • first released
on 45 single • subsequently recorded by Baron
This heartfelt celebration of La Trinity won Sniper (real
name Mervyn Hodge) the Calypso King crown in 1965. The song became an
unofficial Trinidadian anthem, and earned Sniper the honour of having
his photograph on a T&T postage stamp. Unfortunately, Sniper’s personal
life did not turn out as well as his song: in fact, he was unable to defend
his title in the 1966 competition due to serving a two-year prison term
for fraud. Valentino and Black Stalin used Sniper’s composition as an ironic
starting point for their own more-critical calypsos,
Dis Place Nice
and
New Portrait of Trinidad. Rumours that the song was actually
written by Bomber are, as yet, unsubstantiated.
MG
5
more ska classics
- It’s You, Toots and the Maytals (1964):
A euphoric and outrageously happy hit about a boy finding the love of
his life. Along with its b-side smash Daddy, it was one of the
biggest Jamaican hits ever.
- Simmer Down, The Wailers (1964): A supposed
warning to Kingston’s rude boys, this song actually celebrates their power.
It was the Wailers’ first hit, selling, according to some estimates, more
than 70,000 copies on its release in Jamaica.
- Jamaican Ska, Byron Lee and the Dragonaires
(1964): Infectious, foot-tapping number loved for its party feeling.
Both band and song featured in a Dr No beach-bar scene.
- Rain or Shine, Don Drummond and the Skatalites
(1965): Signalled a change in ska arrangements, with its use of double-handed
chord melodies played at the upper end of the piano.
- One Step Beyond, Prince Buster (1965): This
manic ska anthem was an inspiration to many 1970s new-wave bands. Covered,
with huge UK success, by the British band Madness in 1979, bringing Prince
Buster back into public eye.
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Obeah Wedding
Mighty Sparrow
1966 • written by Slinger Francisco, a.k.a. Mighty Sparrow • album:
The Calypso Genius
One of the most beautiful melodies in all Sparrow’s music — in all
Caribbean music, for that matter — raises this composition (which is often
mistitled under the name of its heroine, Melda) into our top 50. The lyrics
are cute — Melda is using obeah to get Sparrow to marry her — and inspired
several similar songs over the years, including Brigo’s
Lemme Go
and Shadow’s
Goumangala. But one can’t help thinking that Sparrow
could have sung the San Fernando telephone book to this melody and won the
1966 Road March anyway. One also can’t help wondering if this magnificent
melody — so unlike Sparrow’s other tunes — might have been provided by one
of the Birdie’s “secret” collaborators, like “Piggy” Joseph, or “Joker” Des
Vignes.
MG
Girl I’ve Got A Date
Alton Ellis
1966 • written by Alton Ellis • first released on 45 single
In 1967, Alton Ellis’s
Rock Steady celebrated the
arrival of a new genre. But the rocksteady movement was already in full
swing, thanks to songs like his hit from the previous year,
Girl I’ve
Got a Date. Ellis, known for his protest songs, had love on his mind.
Like many of Ellis’s other hits — including
I’m Still in Love —
Girl
I’ve Got a Date was about his first wife, Pearl. “She was so much in
control of my emotions that, whenever she hurt me, Coxsone [Dodd, the producer]
was happy, in the sense that he knew I had some hit coming out of the situation.”
Dodd was right.
Girl became Ellis’s biggest hit, and a key song in
Jamaican music’s shift from ska to rocksteady.
KM
5 more classic rocksteady songs
- Take it Easy, Hopeton Lewis (1966): Generally
acknowledged as the first rocksteady hit, and the song that established
the new genre’s popularity.
- Rock Steady, Alton Ellis (1966): Maybe the
first song to actually use the term “rocksteady”; its slowed-down tempo,
choppy rhythm, and stretched-out vocals pushed the genre even further from
its predecessor, ska.
- Hold Them, Roy Shirley (1967): The first
track cut and funded by aspiring producer Joe Gibbs on his Amalgamated label.
- You Have Caught Me, The Melodians (1967):
Produced by Duke Reid, this number hinted at the sound of what would become
lovers’ rock.
- On the Beach, The Paragons (1967): Another
Duke Reid hit — some say his finest. On the Beach’s timeless story
of laid-back Jamaican beach vibes is as true today as it was then.
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Fire in You Wire
Calypso Rose
1967 • written by McCartha Lewis, a.k.a. Calypso Rose • first released
on 45 single
This song (also known as
Fire in Mih Wire) came
so close to winning Road March in 1967 that some historians believe it actually
did win. It was the first time a woman even came close. There had been
a few female calypsonians before Rose, but she was the first woman to claim
top calypso honours, and she opened the door for Sandra, Francine, Lady
B, and all the other divas.
“When that song break out in 1967,” Rose told calypso scholar Maude
Dikobe, “everywhere I perform, before the night is over,
Fire must
burn somewhere.”
Rose was born McCartha Lewis in Bethel, Tobago, on April 27, 1940.
Thirty-eight years later, in 1978, she became the first woman to win what
was then called the Calypso King competition. Thanks to her victory (she
sang an original calypso appropriately titled
Her Majesty) the contest
was immediately renamed Calypso Monarch to accommodate her. She was also
the first woman to win Road March — twice, with
Tempo in 1977,
and again, with a song variously called
Soca Jam and
Come Leh
We Jam, in 1978. And like Sparrow, her mentor, Rose’s impact far transcended
her influence on the road. According to Dikobe, Rose’s song
No Madame
helped inspire legislation that raised the minimum wage paid to domestic
workers in Trinidad and Tobago.
MG
9 more classic
calypsos by women
Historically, the calypso genre has been dominated by male performers,
but pioneers like Calypso Rose and Lady Iere paved the way for today’s
crop of powerful female artists.
- Love Me or Leave Me, Lady Iere (c. 1930s):
“Love me or leave me / Or live with Miss Dorothy.” Both as a solo performer,
and in duets with her husband Lord Iere, Edna “Lady Iere” Pierre was the
leading female calypsonian of the 1930s and 40s, famous for her feminist
lyrics.
- Tempo, Calypso Rose (1977): On the way to
her historic Calypso Monarch win in 1978, Rose took Road March honours
with this tune expressing every Carnival reveller’s deepest wish: “Gimme
more, gimme more / tempo, tempo!”
- Runaway, Singing Francine (1978): The other
major female calypsonian of the 1970s, Francine Edwards is best known
for her social commentary. Runaway, a song about relationships
gone wrong, encouraged women to walk away rather than accept mistreatment
at the hands of their men
- Sexy Employers, a.k.a. Die with My Dignity,
Singing Sandra (1987): This feminist anthem, written by Tobago Crusoe,
is a defiant protest against sexual harassment in the workplace.
- Woman Is Boss, Denyse Plummer (1988): Plummer
had already made a name for herself as a singer of light pop songs when
she decided to enter the calypso arena in 1986. At first, audiences weren’t
ready for a white female calypsonian, but Plummer persevered. With 1988’s
Woman Is Boss, she made her determination clear, and her
energetic feminist anthem was a huge popular success.
- Whoa Donkey, United Sisters (1993): The
Sisters (Singing Sandra, Tigress, Lady B, Marvellous Marva) came within
a gnat’s whisker of winning Road March with this high-energy performance.
- De River, Sanell Dempster (1999): Twenty-one
years after Rose’s Tempo, Dempster became the second woman to with the Road
March title. On Carnival Tuesday, when De River came flooding down,
everyone was happily swept away.
- Castara Kid, Lady B (2001): Beulah Bobb’s
fierce tribute to former Trinidad and Tobago prime minister and president
Arthur N.R. Robinson (a fellow Tobagonian) was sadly, her last hit — in
September 2001 she died after a valiant struggle with cancer.
- Is Carnival, Destra (2003): In the 1990s,
sampling — borrowing melodies and rhythms from existing songs — became
popular among soca performers. Is Carnival, with a little help from
Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time, a guest appearance by
Machel Montano, and unpretentious lyrics, was magic on the streets.
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5 more classic calypsos of
the 60s
- Never Ever Worry, Lord Pretender (1961):
“Doh mind how things looking bad.” The extempo legend’s greatest hit reminds
us there’s always someone who has more worries than you.
- Split Me in Two, Mighty Dougla (1961): “Dougla”
is a Trinidadian word for a person whose ancestry is more or less half African
and half Indian. In 1961, Clatis Ali won the Calypso Monarch crown with
this wry tune about the impossibility of returning to “the motherland”
when one is, like many Trinis, a “mix-up”.
- Bomber’s Dream, Mighty Bomber (1964): Grenada-born
Clifton Ryan, a.k.a. the Mighty Bomber, won his only Calypso King title
with this tune, a tribute to his friend the Mighty Spoiler (who died in
1960) in which he channelled the late master’s breathtaking lyrical style.
- If the Priest Could Play, Mighty Cypher (1967):
For much of its early history, Carnival was viewed with scorn by the upper
classes, who were alarmed by its anarchic spirit. But in the 1950s and
60s, as “pretty mas” evolved and Carnival came to be considered a national
festival, respectable folk began to shed their inhibitions. Cypher’s calypso,
inspired by a Catholic priest who broke the taboo and joined in the jump-up,
is an invitation to revellers to let go: “If the priest could play, who
is we?”
- Black Is Beautiful, Mighty Duke (1969):
As the Black Power movement neared its height, Duke — the only calypsonian
to have won four consecutive Calypso Monarch titles, from 1968 to 1971 —
co-opted its slogan with humour and lyrical ingenuity to create this powerful
song.
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54-46 (That’s My Number)
Toots and the Maytals
1968 • written by Frederick “Toots” Hibbert • first released on 45
single
No Caribbean music list would be complete without the
man credited with coining the word reggae. Consensus affords that
distinction to Frederick “Toots” Hibbert, who with his 1968 hit
Do
the Reggay put the word into the lexicon. But it was
54-46, arguably
the most iconic of his plethora of hits, that earned Toots and his band
the Maytals their place in music history. Long before rap music made celebration
of jail time
de rigueur for young black artists, Toots penned his
protest against what he contended was false imprisonment — an 18-month
stint in jail for marijuana possession. In 1960s Jamaica, this was a particularly
stigmatising crime, but Toots made magic with his celebration of his prison
number, at a time when few people would have dared to air their dirty laundry
musically.
“They gave me a privilege,” says Toots on his website, tootsandthemaytals.com.
“[For nine months] I didn’t have to do any other work, just play the guitar
. . . I realise I don’t have to fight them, I can write about them in my
song.”
Maybe it’s the dignity and the pained honesty in Toots’s soulful voice
that have made the song a fan favourite.
54-46 continues to resonate
with audiences as a song of protest and endurance. With a new version on
his latest album, which boasts guest appearances by an eclectic blend of
all-stars — Eric Clapton, the Roots, and Shaggy — it’s clear that Toots Hibbert’s
number is far from up.
KM
Wake the Town
U Roy
1969 • written by Ewart Beckford, a.k.a. U Roy, and Arthur “Duke”
Reid • album:
Version Galore
He turned incidental microphone chatter into an art form
nearly a decade before the birth of hip hop: Jamaican “DJs” were minor figures
who chatted jokes on sound systems or pepped up a record with miscellaneous
shouts, but U Roy changed everything at Treasure Isle studio in 1969,
with
Wake the Town, a fluid toast that complimented the lyrics
of a previously recorded hit (Alton Ellis’s rocksteady classic
Girl
I’ve Got a Date). Thus was created the blueprint for rap. “I didn’t
think that something like this would ever happen, and that it would still
be going on until now,” says U Roy of the phenomenon. “Who could ever tell
that this thing would ever reach like this, with people having number one
on the chart!”
David Katz
Satta Massaganna
The Abyssinians
1971 (originally released as
Far Far Away, 1969) • written
by Donald Manning and Bernard Collins • album:
Satta Massaganna
There is a land, far far away
Where there’s no night
There’s only day
With its tight harmony, haunting melody, and vision of an African
Utopia,
Satta Massagana was the perfect anthem for the burgeoning
black consciousness of the late 1960s and early 70s. 1969: Donald Manning,
an ardent student of Ethiopian religion, culture, and language penned the
song with his longtime friend, Bernard Collins, and created a group to
record the song. Originally released in 1969 as
Far Far Away, the
song took off two years later when it was released as
Satta Massagana
(Amharic for “give thanks”), and has become the unofficial roots reggae anthem.
Numerous cover versions attest to its importance — notably Third World’s,
on their 1976 debut album.
KM
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Nani and Nana
Sundar Popo
1969 • written by Sundar Popo • first released on 45 single
Widely credited as Trinidad’s first recorded song to use
both Hindi and English lyrics,
Nani and Nana launched the career
of Sundar Popo, an Indo-Trinidadian singer from the village of Barrackpore
who would go on to produce more than 15 albums and have his material covered
by the well-known Indian pop duo Babla and Kanchan. A huge crossover hit
in Trinidad and Guyana,
Nani and Nana marked a turning point for
East Indian music, as it brought the genre known as chutney to the attention
of non-Indian audiences. The song, which told the tragic-comic tale of an
Indian grandmother and grandfather eking out a living in Trinidad (“Nani
drinkin’ white rum / And Nana drinkin’ wine”), featured both western-style
instrumentation and Indian instruments such as the harmonium, dholak, and
dhantal. Like many Indo-Caribbean singers, Popo began his career as a singer
of film songs, but clearly appreciated chutney’s crossover potential, and
went on to produce songs in Trinidadian dialect as well as Hindi, usually
describing situations from rural Indo-Caribbean life and often touching upon
critical themes such as political repression, relationships, and emigration
(notable examples include
Scorpion Gyul and A Mother’s Love).
Combined with catchy melodies, it was this kind of subject matter that helped
establish chutney by the mid 1970s as the dominant form of music in the Indo-Caribbean
community.
Georgia Popplewell
5 more chutney classics
- Boloji Bolo, Sholay Ali (1963): Tell me
more about you, says the singer to his sweetheart in this proto-chutney
hit.
- Rajender Jheem Jheem, Haniff Mohammed (c. 1970s),
covered by Adesh Samaroo in 2004: Based on a joyous devotional song
praising God, this classic favourite won new fans when it was covered by
hot chutney artist Adesh Samaroo in 2004.
- Nanda Baba, Anand Yankaran (1989): This
mega-hit, which had its genesis in a traditional bhajan (religious song)
about the childhood days of Lord Krishna, made Yankaran an instant chutney
superstar.
- Guyana Baboo, Terry Gajraj (1993): The best-known
tune by Guyana’s leading chutney performer announces his longing to return
to his homeland after years abroad. When in Trinidad, he performs a version
called Trinidad Baboo.
- Lootayla, Sonny Mann (1995): A huge crossover
hit with saucy lyrics that enjoyed unprecedented airplay at fetes and
on the road during Trinidad Carnival 1996.
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1970s
Life Is a Stage
Brother Valentino
1971 • written by Emrold Phillips, a.k.a. Brother Valentino • first
released on 45 single
A vanishingly small minority of kaisonians continue writing
and performing great, classic calypsos year after year. Brother
Valentino is one of them, but in spite of a long, illustrious career he
would probably be recognised as a distinguished composer if he had written
only this one song — a profoundly disturbing solipsist masterwork in which
he takes Shakespeare’s metaphor as the literal truth, to show us a world
in which we are all simply playing parts in a movie. The only concession
Valentino makes to the notion of free will is that he implies we can choose
our own script.
Don’t blame Dr Williams
Any time yuh get bad administration
That was meant to be
The fella playin’ his role superbly . . .
MG
4 more classic calypsos of
the 1970s
- Dis Place Nice, Valentino (1975): Clever
calypso portraying the collusion between local politicians and multinationals
as a new form of colonialism, and deploring the excesses of Trinidad’s oil
boom.
- King Liar, Lord Nelson (1977): Do calypsonians
really believe they can outwit anybody? This lying-competition tale takes
the art of exaggeration to the extreme.
- Mr Trinidadian, Maestro (1974): This scathing
commentary on flaws in the national character was delivered with such
skill that Maestro — one of the most promising younger calypsonians of
the 1970s, killed in a car accident when he was in his prime — had his
audiences in stitches even as he derided them.
- The Law Is an Ass, Short Pants (1979): This
scathing critique of the justice system in Trinidad and Tobago was refused
airplay and censored during the Calypso Monarch semifinals.
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Many Rivers to Cross
Jimmy Cliff
1972 • written by Jimmy Cliff • album:
The Harder They Come
Singer, songwriter, actor. Jimmy Cliff has won legions of fans with
his body of music and his star-making turn in the 1970s cult classic
The
Harder They Come — a film that writer Kevin O’Brien Chang has called
“the single most powerful purveyor of reggae internationally . . . other
than Bob Marley.”
Not bad for a guy who got his start singing in an ice cream parlour.
At 14, Cliff summoned the braggadocio he’d later display onscreen and sauntered
into an ice cream parlour and record studio owned by Kingston businessman
Lesley Kong. Cliff delivered an
a capella rendition of a song he
had written,
Dearest Beverly, before Kong and his patrons, and the
ice cream impresario was so impressed he signed the teenager to his first
record deal.
Cliff’s career took off with hits like
Miss Jamaica
and Wonderful World, Beautiful People; by 1972 he was living and working
in Europe, when Jamaican writer-director Perry Henzell came calling with
The Harder They Come. The film struck a chord with its outsize tale
of music industry corruption and socio-economic conditions in Jamaica, and
Cliff won rave reviews for his portrayal of its rude boy hero, Ivan Martin.
But the star of the film was clearly the soundtrack, which boasted outstanding
songs by performers like Toots and the Maytals and Desmond Dekker, plus four
Cliff classics:
The Harder They Come, You Can Get It, Sitting in Limbo,
and the superb
Many Rivers to Cross.
With its achingly earnest lyrics and melancholy delivery,
Many
Rivers showcased Cliff’s talents as a singer, songwriter, and musical
everyman, and reignited his musical career. Music journalist Ian McCann
has called it “the kind of astonishing anthem that comes along once in a
career — if the artist is lucky and exceptionally talented.” Cliff wrote
the song in Jamaica, dissatisfied that his stint in England had not gone
as planned. Ostensibly, the song is about a heartbroken man grieving the
departure of his woman, but with its quasi-religious lyrics, church organs,
and Cliff’s spiritual singing, it became much more. As Chang notes, it’s
the song played in Jamaica whenever someone important dies.
Soulful and heartbreaking, the song became Cliff’s signature ballad,
and an international number-one when UB40 covered it in 1983. It’s a favourite
of numerous international artists, including Cher, who famously sang it
at the funeral of Sonny Bono. But reggae purists know that the best version
of all is Cliff’s, sung with an unaffected sweetness that heightens the
power of his words.
Cliff may not have earned the same level of international adulation
as his friend and sometime collaborator Bob Marley, but with more than
20 albums he’s earned his place as the last surviving icon of reggae music,
and an artist who can only be categorised as versatile. He’s well known
and loved equally for his easy-listening, pop-flavoured reggae and his biting
social commentary, and has remained adept at combining thought-provoking
and often sad lyrics with bubbly, infectious beats. Still going strong at
60-something, Cliff has proven as timeless and enduring as the music he
creates.
KM
5 more Jimmy Cliff songs
- I Can See Clearly Now (1965): Written by
Cliff, made famous by Johnny Nash. It was Nash’s biggest hit.
- Wonderful World, Beautiful People (1969):
An infectious combination of pop and ska, showcasing Cliff at his upbeat
best.
- You Can Get It If You Really Want (1970):
Also a hit for Desmond Dekker, Cliff’s original version of the can-do song
is considered superior, and a true reflection of his character.
- Vietnam (1970): This song struck a chord
with American youth and fellow artists like Bob Dylan, who called it the
best protest song he ever heard.
- The Harder They Come (1971): Cliff’s most
famous track, it captures the rebellious energy of the film of the same
name.
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Bassman
Mighty Shadow
1974 • written by Winston Bailey, a.k.a. Mighty Shadow • album:
Bass
Man
The Shadow (Winston Bailey) has always looked the universe straight
in the eye — only to find, far too often, pain and madness staring back.
Bassman, the hit that put him on the map, is not the only Shadow
composition to explore inner conflict and the struggle of the artist to
survive. But its simplicity and purity give it the unmistakeable impact
of great art.
For every time I lie down in mih bed
Ah hearing a bassman in mih head . . .
I don’t know how dis ting get inside me
But every morning he driving me crazy
Like he taking me head for a panyard
Morning and evening, like this fella gone mad . . .
I don’t want to but I have to sing . . .
It also happens to be an incredibly catchy number, with an unforgetable
bass guitar line, punctuated by bursts of joyous brass. It won him the
1974 Road March title, beating even Kitchener, then at the height of his
powers. Twenty-six years later, in 2001, Shadow won Road March again, with
Stranger, a masterful song in the tradition of the classic “leggos”
of the 1960s and 70s that stood out from the repetitive “jump and wave”
soca tunes of recent years. But when has Shadow ever not stood out?
MG
3 more classic Shadow songs
- My Belief (1975): A gentle treatise (with
a reggae-influenced beat) explaining Shadow’s world-view, which can best
be described as pantheistic. “I believe in nature,” he’s said. “I think
this is where the inspiration for My Belief originated.”
- Music, a.k.a. Dingolay (1992): It is unimaginable
that Shadow did not win Calypso Monarch in 1992 for this eloquent meditation
on the power of music, written by a master musician.
- Poverty is Hell (1994): It is equally unimaginable
that Shadow didn’t even make it to the Calypso Monarch finals in 1994
with this song, perhaps his most incisive social commentary.
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6
more early soca classics
- Bionic Man, Maestro (1977): After being
reinvented as half man, half machine, Maestro claimed, “No woman would
dare tell me ah foolin’”.
- Um Ba Yao, Merchant (1978): “I dream I was
in Africa / I was a warrior.” A jump-up tune that also manages to be a song
of praise to the ancestors. Re-recorded by 3Canal in 2000, in remembrance
of Merchant.
- Soca Baptist, Blue Boy (1980): The
infectious rhythm of Soca Baptist made Blue Boy an overnight star,
but Shouter Baptists were displeased by the lyrics. When asked to ban the
song, Prime Minister Eric Williams replied, “Let good sense prevail.” The
general public loved the song all the way to Road March victory.
- Lorraine, Mighty Explainer (1982): “Lorraine,
doh cry, ah leavin / Ah cyah miss dis jammin’”. Explainer’s declaration
to his woman in New York that he must return to Trinidad to play mas was
the hit of Carnival 1982.
- Meh Lover, Lord Nelson (1983): This easy-rocking
groove celebrating the pleasures of partying with your special someone
is one of the most popular soca hits ever.
- Tiny Winey, Byron Lee and the Dragonnaires (1985):
The lyrics are inane, but the melody couldn’t be catchier. Reworking a song
by Indian duo Babla and Kanchan, Byron Lee created one of the most enduring
soca hits of the 1980s.
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Endless Vibrations
Lord Shorty
1974 • written by Garfield Blackman, a.k.a. Lord Shorty • album:
Endless Vibrations
New times call for new music, said this seminal number
by Lord Shorty, one of the coiners of the term “soca” for the sound that
swept traditional calypso aside in the 1970s. In Shorty’s original conception,
the word was “sokah”, the “kah” signifiying an East Indian input, but
Endless Vibrations is a pure demonstration of soca as an amalgamation
of soul and calypso, complete with heavy horn lines and James Brown squeals.
The lyrics are peppered with the street slang of 1970s urban America —
“right on”, “funky feeling”, “dynamite” — lifted straight from the
works of Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye, and applied to what may appear
to be a less noble cause: better partying for one and all. A great song,
but one that has a lot to answer for: with its call for a more visceral
approach to music, and party-oriented content,
Endless Vibrations
heralded the era of “jump and wine”.
GP
No Woman No Cry
Bob Marley and the Wailers
1975 • credited to Vincent Ford, believed to be written by Bob Marley
• album:
Natty Dread • subsequently recorded by Johnnie Clarke,
the I-Threes, Light of Saba, Jimmy Cliff, Beenie Man (as
No Mama No Cry
), and many others
 |
Bob Marley
URBANIMAGE.TV/Adrian Boot/56 Hope Road Music
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Good friends we have
Oh, good friends we’ve lost
Along the way
In this great future
You can’t forget your past
So dry your tears, I say
Bob Marley is a global icon. He has been saluted as the first “Third
World Superstar”, and he is certainly Jamaica’s most famous son; in fact,
for much of the world, Marley’s music is the first part of Jamaican culture
they have ever encountered. Apart from a highly successful international
marketing campaign fostered by Chris Blackwell’s Island Records label, Bob
Marley’s music has widespread appeal because of its universal qualities.
Although he started out singing ballads and love songs, much of his life’s
work addressed themes of overcoming oppression and facing hardship with fierce
determination, while also retaining a devout belief in the righteousness of
the almighty and the overriding power of love. All this was delivered through
songs that were laden with a raw human honesty and poetic sensibility that
struck a chord with countless listeners all over the world.
As has been well documented, Marley’s beginnings were certainly humble:
he was born Robert Nesta Marley in 1945 in the small Jamaican country
town of Nine Miles, deep in the interior of the parish of St Ann; his
mother Cedella was a poor black teenager with little formal education,
while his father, Norval St Clair Marley, was a white Jamaican working
for the government, then already approaching 50. “Nesta” was raised by
his mother in Nine Miles until he was five, when his father sent him to
Kingston, ostensibly to better his education. Instead, the boy was placed
with a stranger in a downtown slum and made to do drudgework. Upon discovering
this situation a year later, his mother brought him back to Nine Miles for
a period, but then moved with him to the ghetto of Trench Town in western
Kingston, where she had taken up with a bus driver and erstwhile herb dealer
called Toddy Livingston, whose son Bunny quickly became Bob’s closest
friend. They lived in what is called a “government yard” — a lower-income
housing scheme in which several basic dwellings are arranged in a single
courtyard with one point of entry and a communal standpipe as the sole
water supply.
As Marley entered his teens, he became fixated on making it as a vocalist.
As the sound of ska took Jamaica by storm in the early 1960s, and while
the independence movement gathered steam, Bob made his first two recordings
for producer Leslie Kong at age 16, but neither was particularly successful.
After receiving vocal coaching from singing legend Joe Higgs in Trench Town,
he subsequently formed the first version of the Wailers, initially referred
to as the Teenagers, with Bunny Livingston, original lead singer Junior
Braithwaite, a tall baritone called Peter Tosh, plus early members Cherry
Green and Beverley Kelso. Arriving at Studio One in late 1963, the group
was signed to an exclusive contract, scoring many significant hits in ska.
Following Braithwaite’s departure to America, Studio One founder “Coxsone”
Dodd placed Marley in his natural role of leader. Both female members drifted
away, leaving the robust core of Marley, Tosh, and Livingston as the Wailers
in the mid 1960s.
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Marley met his wife Rita at Studio One, where she was singing
in the Soulettes group. As financial arrangements at Studio One were not
to their liking, both groups defected to form the Wail ‘N Soul ‘M label
in 1967, as a vehicle for self-produced work. A lack of proper distribution,
however, meant the concern foundered, and when Marley joined his mother
in the US, it seemed the group might split. Returning to Jamaica in 1969,
after receiving the registration papers that would have drafted him into
the Vietnam War, Marley re-formed the Wailers for popular new works with
Leslie Kong and Lee “Scratch” Perry. Then, in 1971, they broke through with
the self-produced
Trench Town Rock on their new Tuff Gong label,
poaching Perry’s powerful rhythm section of Aston “Family Man” and Carlton
“Carly” Barrett in the process. Although recordings for Danny Sim’s JAD
concern failed to make an impact, time spent in Europe facilitated their
deal with Island Records, leading to the well-received albums
Catch a
Fire and
Burnin’; Bunny and Peter then quit the group to go solo,
leaving Marley to carry the group name alone.
No Woman No Cry was first recorded for
Natty Dread,
Marley’s first solo album — an album that had high expectations placed
on it as the Wailers’ first LP without Tosh and Livingston. The song itself
is full of pathos, as it recounts the tough but loving days Bob and Rita
spent in the “government yard”. Though the song is said to have been written
by Vincent “Tartar” Ford, an old friend from the Trench Town yard, many
suspect that Marley actually wrote it and credited Ford as a way to bring
him earnings. It is one of Marley’s most endearing numbers, delivered in
a smoothly sentimental tone. It hit big in Jamaica on its initial release,
leading to popular cover versions by Johnnie Clarke, Jimmy Cliff, and others,
while the live version recorded at London’s Lyceum Theatre has proven to
be particularly appealing abroad. Beenie Man’s 1994 adaptation is indicative
of just how popular the song has continued to be in the dancehall era.
DK
10 more
Bob Marley classics
- Trench Town Rock (1970): The first ever
release on Marley’s own Tuff Gong label, this song is about living conditions
in the ghetto and the elevating effects of music.
- Get Up, Stand Up (1973): Has the Rastafari
ethos ever been expressed more clearly? This call to arms cuts across all
religious and political boundaries — it’s even been adopted as the anthem
of Amnesty International.
- I Shot the Sheriff (1973): “I wanted to
say, ‘I shot the police’, but the government would have made a fuss — so
I said, ‘I shot the sheriff’ instead . . . it’s the same idea: justice.”
- Lively Up Yourself (1974): “You lively up
yourself, and don’t say no.” This celebration of reggae music opened Natty
Dread, Marley’s first album without Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer.
- War (1976): The impressive lyrics are based
on a speech by Haile Selassie. One of the world’s best-known anti-racist
songs.
- Rastaman Vibration (1976): An exhilarating
affirmation of Rastafari values: “I and I vibration, yeah / Positive!”
- Waiting in Vain (1977): This tender love
song, supposed to have been written for Cindy Breakspeare, showcases Marley’s
ability to touch universal feelings, as only true poets can.
- Exodus (1977): After the attempt on his
life in 1976, Marley endured a self-imposed exile in London, during which
he recorded this vision of a glorious end to human suffering.
- Turn Your Lights Down Low (1977): Surely
the most romantically seductive song in the whole reggae canon. “I want
to give you some love / I want to give you some good, good loving . . .”
- Could You Be Loved (1980): In contrast to
the political themes Marley was tackling at the time, this lovely song’s
simple, uplifting message was intended to appeal to an international audience.
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Legalise It
Peter Tosh
1975 • written by Peter Tosh • album:
Legalise It • subsequently
recorded by Luciano
A number-one anthem in praise of the wisdom weed,
Legalise
It is the most popular ode to marijuana ever recorded. Peter Tosh
was a revolutionary firebrand who formed the Wailers with Bob Marley and
Bunny Wailer;
Legalise It was the number that kick-started his
solo career.
As noted in the biographical film
Stepping Razor Red X, Peter
grew up believing that the political system that governed Jamaica was a
victimising vampire after his blood; the barbed wire that scratched his eyes
in a pre-teen incident seemed aimed at him by malevolent forces. In his
teen years, the tall baritone was a perfect foil to Bob Marley in the Wailers;
Tosh was almost an early love rival in Marley’s courtship of his bride-to-be,
and his commanding stage presence and skilful use of harmony helped bring
the group to stardom in the ska years.
As a songwriter, Tosh employed an acerbic wit that often gave his
material a spiky edge, and from 1969 his work was decidedly revolutionary.
Songs like
400 Years and
No Sympathy evinced an awareness
of the tribulation facing African descendants in the Eurocentric aftermath
of the colonial period.
Tosh was also frequently in trouble with the law, having been arrested
at a Kingston demonstration against the colonial regime of Ian Smith’s
Rhodesia in the mid 1960s. He would later be nearly beaten to death by police
because of his continual defiance.
Legalise It makes a convincing
argument for decriminalising herb; last year, its sentiment was finally heeded
by authorities in Britain, who downgraded the criminal status of marijuana
possession.
DK
Marcus Garvey
Burning Spear
1975 • written by Winston Rodney • album:
Marcus Garvey • backing
track subsequently used in
Marcus Garvey Words by Big Youth
Burning Spear salutes the prophetic Jamaican hero of black
self-determination with a driving rhythm laden with gravity and pathos.
Lead singer Winston Rodney wrote the song believing that many had forgotten
Garvey and his message: “I run a research to see if anyone were there singing
about Marcus Garvey, but no one was really hitting that point, so I decided
to get into that musically; I think Garvey did have a strong plan, and if
more people did pay attention to Garvey and his work, it’s possible things
would be easier for folks like we today.” Expertly produced by sound system
operator Jack Ruby, it brought Spear to the attention of overseas audiences
and formed the basis for Big Youth’s
Marcus Garvey Words, an international
smash built on the same rhythm.
DK
Blackheart Man
Bunny Wailer
1976 • written by Neville Livingston, a.k.a. Bunny Wailer • album:
Blackheart Man
Of the original Wailers trio, Neville “Bunny Wailer” Livingstone
had the reputation of being the most devout. A spell in prison for ganja
possession resulted in greater introspection, rendering his lyrics cryptically
poetic utterances. As producer Lee “Scratch”’ Perry once noted, “The message
that Bunny writes is not so easy to understand, like Bob and Peter would
write. See, Bunny is a man who believes in [the doctrine of Rastafari] so
much that he gives himself less time to think.” Bunny was the first Wailer
to go solo, following a gruelling British tour.
Blackheart Man is
his meditation on the true face of Rastafari — not a demonic beast that eats
children’s hearts, as Jamaican folklore would have it, but a saintly character,
striving to better the world.
DK
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Police and Thieves
Junior Murvin
1976 • written by Junior Murvin and Lee “Scratch” Perry • album:
Police and Thieves • subsequently recorded by the Clash and Boy George;
rhythm used in
Soldier and Police War, by Jah Lion;
Grumblin’
Dub, by the Upsetters;
Bad Weed, by Junior Murvin; and others
Hailing from Port Antonio on Jamaica’s north-east coast,
Junior Murvin wrote hits for producer and vocalist Derrick Harriott, and
his falsetto recordings for Harriott and Sonia Pottinger were popular. After
performing with show band Young Experience, Murvin appeared at Lee Perry’s
Black Ark studio in 1976 to cut this number, exploring the symbiotic relationship
of cops and robbers. As Murvin remembers, “While I was singing in Young
Experience I took time out, sit back and just draw up all the things that
are happening; sometimes I go by Folly Ruins, just sit by the sea, punch
my tape recorder and sing. When the band break up, that’s what carry me
to Lee Perry in Kingston.” The song caused shockwaves in Britain, leading
to the Clash’s punk cover version.
DK
Two Sevens Clash
Culture
1977 • written by Joseph Hill • album:
Two Sevens Clash
Like many Jamaican stars, Joseph Hill got his start at
“Coxsone” Dodd’s Studio One. In 1976 he formed the band Culture with his
cousin, Albert Walker, and a friend, Kenneth Paley, in a small country town.
Two Sevens Clash, a chilling tale of Marcus Garvey’s prophecies (the
title refers to the year of the song’s release), cut in Kingston for producer
Joe Gibbs, brought instant international stardom. As Hill notes, “It is
not known over the world that Marcus Garvey was disrespected highly in
the first place; when they look and see their back is going up against the
wall, then that was the time we reminded them what Marcus Garvey say. If
I and Burning Spear did not start making suggestion of Marcus Garvey and
keep making suggestion of Marcus Garvey, they would still be making the
same mistakes.”
DK
10 more 70s reggae classics
- Pressure Drop, Toots and the Maytals (1969):
Featured on the landmark soundtrack of The Harder They Come, this
dance-floor classic is notable for its sparse, fragmented lyrics, interspersed
with moans.
- Rivers of Babylon, The Melodians (1972):
“Oh, the wicked carried us away in captivity, / Required from us a song”
— the Melodian’s free adaptation of Psalm 137 is a hymn-like expression
of the Israelite theme. Boney M recorded a hit disco version in 1975.
- Fire Burning, Bob Andy (1974): Andy has
always been respected as one of Jamaica’s greatest reggae songwriters.
Here he tackles the inequality and injustice of Jamaican society.
- Move Out A Babylon, Johnny Clarke (1974):
An impassioned tribute to the innocence at the heart of Rastafari.
- Tenement Yard, Jacob Miller and Inner Circle
(1976): A heartfelt tale about the lack of privacy in Kingston’s ghettos,
where dozens of people were crammed into each small “government yard”, sung
by an amazing performer who died at the age of 25.
- Dreamland, Bunny Wailer (1976): Some say
Bunny Wailer’s signature song, about a heavenly land “far across the sea”,
is a fable of repatriation to Africa and a return to better times. Others
claim it’s just a wistful fantasy.
- Uptown Top Ranking, Althea and Donna (1977):
“See me in a ’alter back / See me give you heart attack” — Althea Forrest
and Donna Reid were still in their teens when they cut this saucy, slow-skanking
tune about strutting their bling bling and driving male admirers crazy.
In 1978, it hit number one on the UK charts.
- 96 Degrees in the Shade, Third World (1977):
Third World’s masterpiece protests against injustice by telling the story
of Jamaica’s bloody 1865 Morant Bay Uprising.
- Equal Rights, Peter Tosh (1977): Combining
social commentary with a rallying call, the title song of Peter Tosh’s
Equal Rights album made him friends the world over and many
enemies at home.
- Stepping Out of Babylon, Marcia Griffiths (1979):
“Babylon can be either a situation or a system, but it is hell to anyone
who knows of love,” says the “queen of reggae”. “We want to step from a
lower life into a higher one . . . an inner evolution.”
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One Love
Bob Marley and the Wailers
1977 (original version recorded 1965) • written by Bob Marley, Neville
Livingston, a.k.a. Bunny Wailer, and Clement “Sir Coxsone Dodd; 1977 version
credited to Bob Marley and Curtis Mayfield • album:
Exodus
Named as “Anthem of the Millennium” by the BBC for its universal appeal,
and long used by the Jamaica Tourist Board as a theme song,
One Love
is probably the best-known Wailers song ever recorded. Though most listeners
are familiar with the languorous version that Marley recorded for his
Exodus album in 1977, the song was originally recorded as a jumping
ska number by the Wailers vocal trio at Studio One in July 1965; this first
cut has Marley and fellow Wailer “Bunny” Livingston trading lead lines,
many of which are adapted from biblical passages. In 1977, Marley revisited
the tune for Island Records, this time incorporating portions of Curtis
Mayfield’s soul classic
People Get Ready, and the following year
it gave its name to the legendary One Love Concert for Peace in Kingston.
DK
Caribbean Unity
Black Stalin
1979 • written by Leroy Calliste, a.k.a. Black Stalin • album:
Caribbean
Man
Leroy Calliste, the Black Stalin, is one of Trinidad’s most beloved
and respected calypsonians — and arguably its best living lyricist. Although
he began recording in the 60s, he didn’t make his first LP until 1979
— and this magnificent manifesto was its centerpiece. Written in response
to lingering disappointment at the failure of Caribbean federation,
Caribbean
Unity insisted on the future of West Indian unity in the most eloquent
terms: “One race / From the same place / That make the same trip / On the
same ship.” Although some feminists objected to Stalin presenting himself
as a Caribbean
man (as opposed to a Caribbean
person), this
song was widely embraced as the first anthem for the entire Caribbean,
and brought Stalin his first Calypso Monarch crown.
MG
1980s
Sayamanda
André Tanker
1980 • written by André Tanker • first released as a single,
and later on the
Children of the Big Bang album
Of all André Tanker’s glorious songs,
Sayamanda is probably
the best known and loved, sung throughout the Caribbean as an anthem celebrating
the roots, soul, and connections of the black Americas — “From Trinidad
to North Carolina / Hold on! Hold on! / Nigeria to Richmond, Virginia .
. . Sweet soul music down Louisiana”. Simple yet profoundly positive lyrics
recall the fragmented days of slavery, resistance, and ultimate survival,
the shackles replaced by “a chain of freedom across the world”.
From its opening chugging Orisha rhythms and the call to “ring de
bell” of the Shouter Baptists — Trinidad’s indigenous Afro-Christians —
Sayamanda has a hymnlike quality, an affirmation of faith in the living
spirits of the past and their relevance to a future governed by freedom,
love, and unity: “chain of colours, riddum and music, yea / Soul connection,
chain of love”.
Tanker himself intended
Sayamanda as a homage to
Andrew Beddoe, an Orisha priest and master drummer, who was probably the
single most important influence on Tanker’s musical development. It was
Beddoe who gave him an insider’s introduction to the African-derived rhythms
that are the major roots not only of Trinidadian but of all Creole music.
The realisation of these interconnections in Caribbean music, religion, and
culture was a liberation and focus for Tanker. So
Sayamanda, in one
sense, is “I a man dere ,” Tanker said. “Man may exist in Trinidad or Nigeria
or Brazil, but we could share a similar consciousness and feel togetherness.”
SL
5 more André Tanker songs
- Basement Party (1980): Tanker’s tribute
to the revels held by West Indian immigrants in New York, frequently interrupted
by police due to complaints of noise (sending the illegals in the crowd
scurrying for cover). Later covered by David Rudder.
- Morena Osha (c. 1970s): A paean to the beauty,
grace and strength of Caribbean women in the form of a song about the
inaccessible Morena Osha.
- Forward Home (c. 1970s): A persuasive case
for not emigrating, and the value of remaining true to one’s roots
- Smokey Joe (c. 1970s): The song that says
everything about mas: its ephemerality, its capacity to delude, its absolute
necessity. Later popularised by Valentino.
- Ben Lion (2002): A calypso-à-clef
recasting the man behind the World Trade Centre attacks as a winer boy,
among other things.
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5 more classic calypsos of
the 80s
- Progress, King Austin (1980): “The
price of progress is high”, sang Austin in this calypso about changing times
and values.
- We Living in Jail, Penguin (1984): Rising
crime in the 1980s forced many Trinidadians to “burglar-proof” their homes
with iron bars. Criminals run free, sang Penguin, “While poor you and
me / behind lock and key”.
- Pan in Danger, Merchant (1985): One of the
most moving tributes to the steel pan ever created.
- The Sinking Ship, Gypsy (1986): “Captain,
the ship is sinking / Captain, the seas are rough.” Gypsy’s commentary
on the state of Trinidad and Tobago’s economy, with its clever lyrics and
gentle melody, foretold the fall of the PNM government at the end of 1986.
- Burn Dem, Black Stalin (1987): When Stalin
performed this ferocious anti-colonial number at the Calypso Monarch finals,
the crowd in the Grand Stand lit matches and torches to show their support.
Who knows what would have happened if he hadn’t won that night?
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5 80s
reggae classics
- Black Woman, Judy Mowatt (1980): The title
track of Mowatt’s first solo album positioned her as a powerful spokesperson
for Rastafari and feminism.
- Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Black Uhuru (1981):
Originally released in the late 1970s as a solo track for lead singer Michael
Rose, this expression of the obstacles facing young Rastas was recut by
Black Uhuru and became one of their signature hits.
- Rally Round, Steel Pulse (1982): A musical
crash-course for those who’ve never read Marcus Garvey, and a call for solidarity
among people struggling to survive in alien countries.
- Pass the Kutchie, Mighty Diamonds (1982): A
massive number one in Jamaica; the pop cover by Musical Youth, renamed
Pass the Dutchie, was a worldwide smash (a “kutchie” is
a marijuana pipe; a “dutchie” is a cooking pot).
- One Blood, Junior Reid (1989): “You could
be an African or an Englishman / . . . One blood.” This anthem of unity,
proclaiming that, no matter your colour, the same red blood runs through
all our veins, resonates with listeners around the world.
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Redemption Song
Bob Marley and the Wailers
1980 • written by Bob Marley • album:
Uprising
Of the literally hundreds of songs Bob Marley recorded during the 20
years of his professional career,
Redemption Song is easily the
most moving. A poignant number that speaks of the centuries of injustice
facing black people in the west,
Redemption Song is a triumph of
simplicity, featuring Marley alone on vocals and acoustic guitar, in its
best-known version. Although the lyrics speak specifically of the legacies
of slavery in lines like “Old pirates yes they rob I / sold I to the merchant
ships / minutes after they took I / from the bottomless pit”, other lines
have a broader appeal: the call to “emancipate yourself from mental slavery”
as “none but ourselves can free our minds” is one that any self-determined
individual will appreciate, and lines like “Have no fear for atomic energy
/ cause none of them can stop the time” hold a particular resonance in
the apocalyptic age of nuclear power and chemical warfare.
Redemption
Song also became something of a swansong: it was recorded less than
a year before Marley’s untimely death from cancer at age 36.
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Bob Marley
URBANIMAGE.TV/56 Hope Road Music/Adrian Boot
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After Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh left the Wailers to
go solo, circa 1974, Bob Marley became increasingly prominent as an international
figure; in addition to his standing in the music world, Marley was also
identified as an iconic representative of postcolonial struggle and the
chief ambassador for the Rastafari movement, as well as something of a
male sex symbol. The rebellious course his music had taken in the late
1960s solidified on the international albums
Catch a Fire and
Burnin’;
following the departure of Tosh and Bunny,
Natty Dread and
Rastaman
Vibration furthered the defiance.
Then, on
Exodus and especially on
Kaya, both of which
took their final shape while Marley was exiled in London following his attempted
assassination in 1976, softer ballads and love songs became more prominent,
in part because of a budding romance with Cindy Breakspeare, a Jamaican
beauty queen and former Miss World. The album to place the focus back in
the rebellious sphere was
Survival, which is also notable as the
first to surface from Marley’s newly constructed Tuff Gong studio, a space
fully under his control.
Uprising continued the bold vein, containing
only one love song among the protest and devotional material, and the acoustic
version of
Redemption Song was the final track on the album. The full
band version surfaced on the b-side of the
Redemption Song single,
but the spongy keyboards and off-beat percussion of this alternate rendition
make the song feel cluttered, ultimately detracting from the power of its
lyrics. When listening to
Uprising, in retrospect, the acoustic
Redemption
Song seems a ghostly echo closing the album, as though Marley somehow
knew of his impending death.
DK
Hot-Hot-Hot
Arrow
1982 • written by Alphonsus Cassell, a.k.a. Arrow • album:
Hot
Hot Hot • subsequently recorded by Buster Poindexter, Menudo, LL Cool
J
Walk out on the street and ask some random stranger to name a calypso.
Chances are, if they can come up with even one, it will be
Hot-Hot-Hot.
Thanks to his high-energy performance on the original 1982 recording,
and a fortuitous series of smash hit cover versions, Arrow, a singer from
Montserrat, is now undoubtedly the most successful soca artist of all time.
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Arrow
URBANIMAGE.TV/Adrian Boot
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Simplicity is always a good thing when you’re looking for
a hit, and
Hot-Hot-Hot couldn’t be simpler. The lyrics are almost
non-existent, but as they drop the word “hot” into a variety of settings,
dancers get to sing along even if they’re hearing the song for the first
time. The opening lick (“Oh lay, oh lay, oh lay, oh lay”) provides a nice
melodic break from the “hots”, and the driving rhythm track provided by
arranger Leston Paul is totally irresistible. If more than 25 of our readers
have not danced to
Hot-Hot-Hot, at some point in their lives, we’d
be surprised.
Calypso scholar Ray Funk informs us that in a salsa version
Hot-Hot-Hot
was the theme song of the Mexico World Cup competition in 1986. Buster Poindexter
released his cover version three years later, which went on to become an
international smash. Subsequent renditions by Menudo, Xavier Cugat, and
even LL Cool J pushed the song higher on the international pop charts. It
appears on a Sesame Street CD, and graced TV ads for KFC, Toyota, and Pizza
Hut. It was even recorded in Hindi as
Kuchh Gadbad Hai!
Now that’s hot.
Born and raised in Montserrat, Arrow grew up in a musical family: both
of his older brothers had been local calypso kings. He sang his first
calypso in 1967, and went professional two years later. Arrow was the
first soca artist to perform at Jamaica’s Reggae Sunsplash, and he put
out his first LP in 1974. Although, as a foreigner, he could not compete
in Trinidad’s annual Road March competition, Arrow did appear for several
years in Trinidadian calypso tents, including the Original Young Brigade,
Shadow’s Kingdom of Wizards, and Spektakula. He continues to tour widely,
bringing a taste of true Caribbean party flavour to audiences around the
world. If I’m hot, and you’re hot, Arrow is still hotter than hot.
MG
5 more “small
island” classics
Given the larger populations of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, it’s
not surprising that the music of these two countries dominates the region.
But the “small islands” have produced performers whose contribution to Caribbean
music is not negligible (Sparrow was born in Grenada, after all).
- Tourist Leggo, Short Shirt (1977): Antiguan
Short Shirt’s call to party (a leggo is a jump-up tune) came so close to
winning the Trinidad Road March title that Carnival organisers changed the
rules to ban foreigners from qualifying for the contest.
- Subway Jam, Swallow (1981): Swallow, often
called Antigua’s king of calypso, is best known for his infectious melodies
and catchy hooks. Subway Jam pays tribute to Brooklyn’s Labour Day
Carnival.
- Workey Workey, Burning Flames (1989): The
Flames, Arrow’s former backup band, blended soca with a touch of zouk to
create Antigua’s 1989 Road March. It went on to be an international sensation,
and Burning Flames went on to win the Antigua Road March an unprecedented
seven times in a row.
- Teaser, Beckett (1990): He’s sometimes credited
with swaying the 1984 general election results in his native St Vincent
and the Grenadines with his song Horn For Them, but Teaser was Beckett’s
breakthrough tune.
- Old Woman Alone, Talpree (1999): Wilt “Talpree”
Cambridge was Grenada’s top dancehall performer when he decided to give
soca a try. Old Woman Alone, with its praises for mature women and
hilarious elbow-swinging dance, was a massive hit at West Indian carnivals
around the world.
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Night Nurse
Gregory Isaacs
1982 • written by Gregory Isaacs and Sylvester Weise • album:
Night
Nurse
Gregory Isaacs is practically synonymous with lovers’ rock,
and this sensuous song provides all the explanation necessary. The vocal
delivery on the title track of his 1982 album is buttery, unhurried, and
unmistakably Gregory — a signature style that many have tried, but failed,
to imitate. Classic Gregory Isaacs is laconic and lovelorn, and
Night
Nurse is just that; an ode to a woman and a promise of a memorable
night that somehow manages to convey both the singer’s pain and his passion.
Though fans christened him the “Cool Ruler”,
Lonely Lover — the
title of his 1980 album — may have been a better moniker, given his penchant
for, and skill at, chronicling lost love and longing.
KM
5 more early dancehall classics
- Dancehall Stylee, Sugar Minott (1980): A
great lovers’ rock singer, Minott switched gears and lit a fire under the
growing dancehall phenomenon with this track.
- Lost My Sonia, Cocoa Tea (1982): Not even
Sonia’s departure could disrupt Cocoa Tea’s mellow, laid-back delivery.
- Here I Am, Barrington Levy (1985): Energetic
and buoyant, only Barrington Levy could get an audience to sing “Skiddly-wop
Skiddly-whoa”.
- Ring the Alarm, Tenor Saw (1985): Two years
before his untimely death, Tenor Saw created the ultimate soundclash anthem.
- Greetings, Half Pint (1986): A remake of
a remake, Greetings may well be dancehall’s oldest song,
but nearly two decades after its third incarnation it still rocks dance
floors.
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Revolution
Dennis Brown
1984 • written by Dennis Brown • album:
Revolution
Emanuel. D. Brown. The Crown Prince of Reggae. Dennis Brown’s
legions of fans have christened him with enough nicknames to match his
prolific catalogue, spanning his years as a child prodigy, teenage balladeer,
and musical legend before his untimely death at age 42. Brown’s sweet,
soulful voice earned him a reputation as the “purest” of reggae artists.
He’s best loved for
Revolution — a powerful roots song that has
been described as “a churning spiritual call to arms”. One of few reggae
singers to survive the shift to dancehall intact, Brown recorded a 1995
version of the song, with then arch-rivals Beenie Man and Bounty Killa.
Four years later, one of Jamaica’s great musicians was dead.
KM
Under Me Sleng Teng
Wayne Smith
1985 • written by Wayne Smith • album: Under Me Sleng Teng
It’s rare for a single song to incontrovertibly define a
shift in music. But for the shift to digital reggae that song is, without
question,
Under Me Sleng Teng. True, other artists like Sly and Robbie
had been experimenting with digital technology, but
Sleng Teng —
based on a riff from Eddie Cochran’s
Something Else — was the first
fully computerised reggae rhythm. Controversy surrounds who found the rhythm
on the now famous Casio keyboard with Wayne Smith — singer Noel Bailey or
session musician Tony Asher. Regardless, the rhythm, and Smith’s wailing
“way in my brain” refrain, took hold.
Sleng Teng may have been the
first song where the rhythm was more important than the song or the singer.
A flood of versions and near-versions followed, most of them forgettable,
but some equally classic, like Anthony Roses’s
Tempo.
KM
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The Hammer
David Rudder
1986 • written by David Rudder • album:
The Hammer, Charlie’s
Roots
David Rudder is probably the best-loved performer in Trinidad, and
he is surely one of our finest songwriters. The Hammer, one of his most
successful excursions into Caribbean mythology, is also one of the most
deeply felt celebrations of steelband culture ever written. Starting as
a commemoration of Rudolph Charles — arranger, pan tuner, and captain of
the legendary Desperadoes steelband, who had passed away ten months earlier
— it is also a conscious attempt to spotlight the cultural contributions
of Laventille, one of the poorest areas in Port of Spain, and the birthplace
of the steel pan.
Along with another Rudder composition,
Bahia Girl,
The Hammer
was so hugely popular that it helped him accomplish one of the most astonishing
feats in calypso history — a 1986 triple-crown victory that allowed him
to walk away with Young King, Road March, and Calypso Monarch titles —
not to mention the sobriquet “King David”. “Almost overnight,” wrote
American journalist Daisann McClane, “he became a national hero on the
order of Marley in Jamaica, Fela in Nigeria, and Springsteen in New Jersey.”
In
The Hammer, Rudder reminds us that steel pan was born “behind
the bridge,” in the poverty-stricken, crime-ridden neighbourhood of Laventille.
Young men like Winston “Spree” Simon, chronically unemployed and unemployable,
had plenty of time on their hands to develop the primitive oil-drum steel
pans of the early 1940s, turning them into well-tuned instruments that
would captivate the entire island — and then the entire world.
But those primal steel pan metallurgists might never have lifted the
first tuning hammers if not for the rich cultural heritage that flowed
through the streets of their community. Ever since the late 19th century,
when Trinidad’s colonial authorities outlawed drums at Carnival (because
they seemed to inspire “inappropriate” behaviour on the part of the black
population), the people of Laventille had been crafting alternative percussion
solutions: first tamboo bamboo, then primitive “untuned” steel bands, and
finally the sophisticated melodic instruments built by men like Simon and
Ellie Mannette.
Early on, politicians like Prime Minister Eric Williams understood
the importance of draping themselves in the proletarian symbolism of the
steelband, but at the same time the middle classes didn’t want their sons
(or, God forbid, their daughters) to have anything to do with the “criminal”
elements in the bands — the badjohns who were responsible for the violent
street fighting recorded in Blakie’s
Steelband Clash. But by 1986,
when Rudder sat down to craft
The Hammer, the bad old days of steelband
history were fading into memory.
King David would change that.
Born in the east Port of Spain district of Belmont on May 6, 1953, Rudder
spent much of his early childhood living near a pan yard and a Shango
yard, in a neighbourhood where many boys dreamed of being entertainers.
Even then, Rudder’s artistic interests were not purely musical: at one
point he became an apprentice to the late Ken Morris, a master craftsman
known for his copper work and Carnival designs. Years later, while working
as an accountant with the Trinidad Bus Company, Rudder began performing
as a backup singer in Lord Kitchener’s calypso tent. Then, in 1977, he joined
the brass band Charlie’s Roots.
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Trading off lead vocals with his friend Christopher “Tambu”
Herbert, Rudder began to build a reputation. Audiences sensed that there
was something special about this young man. Trinidadian columnist Wayne
Brown got close to it when he wrote that Rudder “has acquired the notion
of singing as a kind of self-sacrifice, involving surrender of personality
. . . to become at once a symbiotic extension of the audience and the anguished
medium of the song.” As critic Debbie Jacob noted, “Rudder’s popularity
flowed from his obvious talent and from the radically different image he
cultivated of himself as a singer. He did not take a calypso name, did not
drink [alcohol], and rarely fraternised with the other calypsonians.”
At the same time, Rudder was respected as one of the few band singers
who wrote all his own songs. In the classic days of calypsonians like Radio,
Tiger, and Atilla, this was a given — but more recently it had become the
exception rather than the rule. This is the source of Rudder’s splendid
honorific, “Lyrics Man.”
From the first moments of
The Hammer, which are broken by the
harsh racket of someone pounding on a steel pan, we sense that we’re in
for a thrilling ride. (In performance, Rudder started the song with a slow,
spine-chilling chant, “Laventille, here we come,” but he dropped it for
the recording.) And he makes it clear that he will not separate the glory
of steelband history from the violent elements that were intimately associated
with it. Charles (referred to in the song by two of his many nicknames,
“Hammer” and “Trail”) not only uses his tuning hammer “upon a pan”, he
also uses it, sometimes, “on a stupid man.”
In the end, Rudder gives Charles a demi-god’s exit, as thunder evokes
the clamorous hammering of the song’s opening:
On a silver chariot, riding to the sun
Leaving fire in its wake, spirits on the run
As we gathered round that day
I hear Sister Sheila say
How las’ night she see a sign
She see the hammer and it doing fine
Same time thunder roll, she bawl out, “You see?
“He done start to tune a pan already!”
Charles reappears in the definitive version of Rudder’s 1992 masterwork,
De Long Time Band (which can be heard on Andy Narell’s
Long
Time Band album) as “a man with a towel on his shoulder, a hammer
in his hand”, who takes Little Man’s ancient tenor pan and disappears with
it, foreshadowing Little Man’s death later that night and his ascension
to the great steelband in the sky.
Clearly, King David is not done creating Caribbean mythology.
MG
10
more David Rudder classics
- Madness (1987): Is it a Carnival fete
or a refuge for the mentally insane? Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference.
- Dedication (1987): A tender “praisesong”
to the steelband movement. Written by Gregory Ballantyne, and therefore
one of the few Rudder hits not written (or co-written) by himself.
- Haiti (1988): “Toussaint was a mighty
man, and to make matters worse he was black.” A capsule history of Haiti,
lamenting that country’s neglect by most of the world.
- Panama (1988): A satire on corruption in
1970s Trinidad; can you spot the names of certain once-prominent individuals
hidden between the lines?
- Hoosay (1991): The Muslim festival of Hosay
as an allegory for the 1990 coup attempt in Trinidad.
- Long Time Band (1992): Rudder’s dream of
a return to the days when mas had soul.
- Dus’ in Dey Face (1993): The steelband competition
as war, 1990s-style (the battles take place not in the streets, as in
the 1950s, but on the Savannah stage). Written to commemorate Exodus Steel
Orchestra’s 1992 Panorama win, which took some people by surprise.
- Madman’s Rant (1996): When the “chant of
a madman” starts making sense, watch out. A chronicle of Rudder’s increasing
disillusionment with his homeland.
- High Mas (1998): The paternoster recast in
calypso form. “Give praise, children!”
- The Ganges and the Nile (1999): The two great
rivers used as a metaphor for Trinidad’s two major racial groups and their
interactions.
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Calypso Music
David Rudder
1987 • written by David Rudder • album:
Calypso Music, Charlie’s
Roots
The year after his triple-crown win (see
The Hammer),
King David Rudder came with a song that deflected the spotlight from himself
directly onto the art form he loved. This passionate celebration of calypso
is hardly the first or only Trinidadian love song to its own culture —
but it is surely the best researched. It’s a virtual compendium of quotable
lines, including one of the most frequently cited descriptions in all calypso,
the one about “Lyrics to make a politician cringe / Or turn a woman’s body
into jelly”. And it boasts a marvellous moment of sly, scholarly humour:
seconds after he quotes Spoiler’s memorable war-cry, “Ah wanna fall”, Rudder
declares, “I wanna rise!” as the music modulates to a higher key. Even today,
almost 20 years after it was written, the first notes of the song’s instrumental
intro can send chills down your spine.
MG
Rally Round the West Indies
David Rudder and Charlie’s Roots
1988 • written by David Rudder and arranged by Pelham Goddard • album:
Haiti
One of several gems on
Haiti, widely considered to be one of
the finest albums ever released by Charlie’s Roots, and the first to emphatically
foreground Rudder as front man, Rally quickly established itself as the
anthem of West Indies cricket (the WICB eventually adopted it as their
official song). Its opening bars are pure Roots, featuring both the loping
guitar of Tony Voisin and the group’s signature brass line playing the
chorus’s mournful melody.
Rally succeeds in being both topical
(in 1988, West Indies cricket had only just begun showing signs of decline)
and an enduring lament for the glory days of West Indies cricket, spiced
with a minuscule dash of hope for the future (“Pretty soon the runs are
gonna flow again like water . . . / Say we going to rise again like a blazing
fire”) which is skilfully undercut by the song’s general (and beautiful)
lugubriousness. When you come to think of it, it’s the perfect reflection
of the attitude of the West Indies cricketing establishment.
GP
Ring de Bell
Brother Resistance
1987 • written by Lutalo Masimba, a.k.a. Brother Resistance • album:
Rapso Take Over
A landmark in the history of of rapso — the Trinidadian
genre defined by its practitioners as “the power of the word in the rhythm
of the word” — by one of its most important figures,
Ring de Bell
features the mesmerising drum line, chanting, and “conscious” subject matter
that are among the trademarks of the form. To this the song adds — both
as instrument and metaphor — the bell used to punctuate key ceremonial
moments in Spiritual Baptist ritual, one of the many sources rapso counts
as an influence (others include Rastafarianism and the African oral tradition
going back to the griots or chantuelles). The bell, and the refrain of “Ring
it all over / Ring de bell down dey”, is used to draw attention to the need
for justice, freedom and other human rights issues.
GP
3 more classic cricket calypsos
- Victory Test Match (a.k.a. Cricket, Lovely Cricket),
Lord Beginner (1950): C.L.R. James wrote that, in order to assert
West Indian independence, it was important for the West Indies to take
on the colonial masters at their own game — and win. In 1950, the Windies
did it, beating England at Lords, the very home of cricket. Lord Beginner
immortalised the victory with this song, which received its first rendition
in front of thousands of joyous fans celebrating in London.
- Gavaskar, Lord Relator (1972): Unsurprisingly
popular in India, Gavaskar pays tribute to the youthful batsman of the
same name who, at the age of 21, on his debut series in the West Indies,
seemed impossible to out, breaking several records.
- Kerry Packer, Mighty Sparrow (1979): When
Australian tycoon Kerry Packer put big money into his World Series Cricket,
luring away some of the best players from the West Indies, Sparrow was none
too pleased. The opening line: “Ah say ban dem immediately.”
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Watch Out My Children
Ras Shorty I and the Love Circle
1989 • written by Garfield Blackman, a.k.a. Ras Shorty I • album:
Watch
Out My Children
In less skilful hands, the anti-drugs message of this song
could have come off as artless propaganda. But Ras Shorty I (formerly Lord
Shorty, one of soca’s main innovators) was a masterly songwriter and musician,
and his ultra-talented family band the Love Circle backed him splendidly
on this stirring song, which was released to wide acclaim in 1989. Singing
the lead vocal, Shorty I — who famously renounced the soca performer lifestyle,
became a devout Christian, and withdrew with his large family to rural
Trinidad — takes on a persona which is practically himself: the father
— indeed, the patriarch — instructing his children about the evils of drugs
and encouraging them to follow the straight and narrow.
One of the song’s many strengths is that it acknowledges the complexities
of being a young person in the modern world (“I know you are young and
restless / But you don’t have to be careless / You see sober thinking leads
unto righteousness / To happiness / Spiritual bliss”), a condition which
Shorty I himself understood only too well. Another strength of jamoo, “Jehovah’s
music”, the style developed by Shorty I during his rural phase, is its
blend of the biblical and the Trinidadian, so that it’s not about cocaine
(which is in fact never mentioned by name), but about “A fella called Lucifer
/ With a bag of white powder”. The fact that a song promoting a Christian
solution to the drug problem could capture such a widespread audience (it
was adopted by the United Nations for its anti-drugs campaign in 2000) is
a miracle in itself.
GP
Chauffeur Wanted
Mighty Chalkdust
1989 • written by Hollis Liverpool, a.k.a. Mighty Chalkdust • album:
Total Kaiso
Six-time Calypso Monarch Hollis “Chalkdust” Liverpool has
criticised many performers for writing and singing shallow, debased calypso;
his ability to get away with this sort of high-handed criticism is much
enhanced by his own extensive library of exquisite compositions.
Chauffeur
(also known as
The Driver Can’t Drive) is a perfect example. This
classic 1989 calypso employs an inspired, extended metaphor that compares
Trinidad to an expensive maxi-taxi, and A.N.R. Robinson, Trinidad’s then
prime minister, to an inept chauffeur mishandling the vehicle. Chalkie’s
detailed account of the suffering caused to one and all by the careering
maxi was so funny, and so inarguable, that many feel the song made a significant
contribution to the fall of the NAR government in 1991. Ah lie?
MG
3
more classic Chalkie songs
- Ah Fraid Karl (1972): A political commentary
calypso professing great fear of attorney general Karl Hudson-Phillips,
one of the most formidable Trinidadian lawyers of his generation, who many
thought was preparing to challenge Eric Williams for leadership of the government.
- Ah Put On Meh Guns Again (1976): The
calypsonian as retired gunslinger, forced to take up arms against a sea
of corruption and ridiculousness in Trinidadian life and politics.
- Kaiso in the Hospital (1996): One of Chalkie’s
lifelong themes is the alarming decline of the calypso art form.
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1990s and beyond
Dollar
Colin Lucas and Taxi
1991 • written by Colin Lucas • album:
Taxi • subsequently recorded
by Carl and Carol Jacobs
In 1991, a year in which “jump and wave” lyrics were poised
to take over Carnival, Colin Lucas (real name George Lyndersay; day job,
general manager of the Port Authority of Trinidad and Tobago) and the
soca band Taxi proved that a party song can be as cleverly constructed
as the most exquisite social commentary. This is an impeccable road march
(even if it didn’t actually win), with a brilliant extended metaphor that
just won’t quit. In fact,
Dollar did win road march — every place
but Trinidad. Angela Pidduck quotes Lucas as saying: “When I congratulated
Super Blue, who had won the Road March with
Get Something and Wave,
he replied that . . . although he had won . . . I had what he considered
an everlasting, eternal song which would outlive us both.” That gets an
Amen from
this corner.
MG
Old Time Days
Richard “Nappy” Mayers
1992 • written by Richard “Nappy” Mayers • album:
Old Time Days
Collection
The Trinidad and Tobago music scene has always been heavily
dominated by calypso and soca, but one person who managed to enjoy some
success with pop compositions as well as soca and calypso was the prolific
songwriter and arranger Richard “Nappy” Mayers. An occasional solo performer,
better known, perhaps, as the writer of songs for the likes of David Rudder
and Nadie La Fond (for whom he wrote the pop hit
I Wanna Make Love to
You), Mayers scored big with this poignant, folksy solo number, which
distilled the feelings of his generation (and those older) at the end of
Trinidad and Tobago’s oil boom years, when the country’s already fraying
social fabric started showing signs of falling apart altogether. The song’s
impossible longing for a return to a simpler life (“I know those days are
past and gone / But I must try to carry on”) is echoed in Mayers’s wistful
humming in the song’s opening bars, along with acoustic guitar and light
touches of synthesised steel pan.
GP
10
more classic party songs
- Soca Man, Baron (1987): “Niceness every time”,
sang the Baron, and his audiences lapped up the subtle double entendre.
This was one of the few songs in the modern calypso era to be demanded
in the same calypso tent two years in a row.
- Wet Mih Down, Johnny King (1988): Years before
Wet Fete and Water Colours, Johnny King made the case for a good dousing
— partying is a hot business, you know.
- We Ain’t Going Home, Chris “Tambu” Herbert (1990):
A pre-gospel Tambu expresses the view of every dyed-in-the-wool party animal
— that no Carnival ever fete lasts long enough.
- Get Something and Wave, Superblue (1991):
In 1991, post-coup Trinidad was looking for a way to release the previous
year’s anxiety. When Austin Lyons, a.k.a. Blue Boy, renamed himself Superblue
and came out with this frenetic, fun number, a nation collectively exhaled
— then started to wave.
- All Aboard, Atlantik (1991): “Ship ahoy!”
Soca band Atlantik and lead vocalist Tony Prescott had partiers lining up
to join the soca boat with this laid-back number.
- Bacchanal Time, Superblue (1993): The most
popular Road March ever, in terms of actual votes tallied. It borrowed
lyrical hooks from previous songs, introduced the apparently deathless
soca line “jump and wave”, and sent mas players into a frenzy.
- Movin’, Nigel and Marvin (1996): A prime
example of the “instruction” song, this massive hit had thousands-strong
mobs moving en masse from the left to the right — over and over again.
- Big Truck, Machel Montano and Xtatic (1997):
The “big truck” is an integral part of Carnival, carrying the DJ and his
sound equipment on the road. Machel’s song, opening with a blaring horn
and a gleeful “Yeah, yeah!”, ruled the road in 1997.
- Footsteps, Wayne Rodriguez and Xtatic (1998):
With a hook lifted from the Police’s Every Breath You Take, the late Wayne
Rodriguez took the Road March title with this celebration of Carnival’s
foot-stomping rhythms. “On the ground, on the ground!”
- In the Ghetto, Bunji Garlin (2001): Edgy
ragga number which succeeded in being both a critique and a validation
of the lifestyle and living conditions of Trinidad’s working class.
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Murder She Wrote
Chaka Demus and Pliers
1992 • written by John Taylor and Everton Blender • album: All She
Wrote
They seemed like a mismatch — Chaka Demus with his edgy
bass and Pliers with his honey-toned voice. Both had had previous hits
— Demus hitting the charts with Admiral Bailey with the song
One Scotch,
while Pliers had scored with the 80s ballad
Your Love is Burning,
and had previously recorded
Murder She Wrote as a solo. The version
with Chaka D proved that opposites attract, and that the real magic lay
in the sweet contrast of their voices. Produced by Sly and Robbie, this
playful, mellow song was a dancefloor favourite for years. Demus and Pliers
went on to score several international hits, including 1993’s
Twist
and Shout, which went to the top of the UK charts, and were the first
Jamaican act to place three consecutive singles in the Top 5.
KM
Untold Stories
Buju Banton
1995 • written by Mark Myrie, Donovan Germain, and Junior Tucker •
album:
Til Shiloh
It’s the kind of song that can turn a rambunctious party
crowd into a reverent church choir. Whenever, wherever
Untold Stories
played in 1995, young and old, rich and poor, Rasta and Christian found
themselves compelled to sing out loud. Buju Banton had made a name for
himself with witty, catchy dancehall songs, and courted controversy with
the homophobic
Boom Bye Bye, but the groundbreaking
Til Shiloh
album earned him the mantle of “the Bob Marley of dancehall”. Reflecting
Banton’s growing immersion in the Rastafari faith and greater attention
to socially conscious lyrics, Untold Stories marked the arrival of a more
mature Buju. But fans of his old material needn’t have worried. Stories
is set in a perfectly balanced album that proves Buju can make you think
while he can still move your feet.
KM
5 more 90s dancehall classics
- Border Clash, Ninja Man (1990): Ninja Man
rides dancehall’s legendary “punaany” riddim to immortalise an otherwise
unimportant stage show.
- Trailer Load of Girls, Shabba Ranks (1991):
An unabashed ode to women, women, women, and more women. Ranks went on to
win back-to-back reggae Grammys.
- Slam, Beenie Man (1995): Suggestive? Yes.
Sexist? Sure. But Beenie Man captured dancehall sentiments perfectly, and
created a song so popular he had to put out a part two.
- Fed Up, Bounty Killer (1996): Critics denounced
his biting lyrics, and radio stations banned the song, but none could
deny the potency of this cry from the “Poor People’s Governor”.
- Yuh Nuh Ready, Tanya Stephens (1996): Foreshadowing
her rise to the position of dancehall’s edgiest diva, Stephens scored
one for the ladies with this strident salute to female sexuality.
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Black Woman and Child
Sizzla
1997 • written by Miguel Collins, a.k.a. Sizzla • album:
Black Woman
and Child
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Sizzla
URBANIMAGE.TV/Adrian Boot
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A controversial figure in dancehall, Sizzla is one of the
new breed of stars to come up in the apocalyptic state of contemporary
Jamaica. He is known on the music scene as a “sing-jay” — that is, a rapper
who blends singing with his toasting, and he is identified as an adherent
of the “Bobo Dread” branch of the Rastafari faith, a fiery sub-group following
the near-fundamentalist teachings of spiritual leader Prince Emmanuel Edwards.
Much of Sizzla’s early work was produced by Fatis Burrell for the Xterminator
label, but the outstanding
Black Woman and Child was cut for Bobby
Digital and his son, Calibud. A heartfelt piece of modern message music,
reaffirming ethnic pride, it displays the best of Sizzla’s capabilities,
and shows how striking dancehall music can be.
DK
Who Am I
Beenie Man
1998 • written by Anthony Moses Davis, a.k.a. Beenie Man • album:
Many
Moods of Moses
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Beenie Man
URBANIMAGE.TV/Tim BarrowURBANIMAGE.TV/Tim Barrow
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Beenie Man is hardly the only dancehall artist to ride a
silly rhyme to the top of the charts. But there was something infectious
about the “Sim Simma” hook that caused listeners around the world to join
him in the hunt for the keys to his Bimma. For many non-Jamaican fans, it
was the only line they could sing. But that was just fine with Beenie, a specialist
at producing party anthems whose wild beats, catchy refrains, and callouts
(“Zagazow”, “Oh Na Na Na”) hid stanzas with profane or utterly nonsensical
lyrics. He’s experimented with gospel, country, hip hop, ballads, and has
even attempted to walk the spiritual path like Buju Banton, but fans love
Beenie best for his party anthems.
KM
Voices from the Ghetto
Singing Sandra
1999 • written by Christophe Grant • album: Soca Divas 2000
There’s little doubt that when powerhouse calypso singer
Sandra Des Vignes won the 1999 Calypso Monarch crown with
Voices From
the Ghetto she was singing from experience. Sandra had already made a
huge impact on the art form with her powerful feminist anthem
Sexy Employers
(a.k.a.
Die With My Dignity), written by Tobago Crusoe as a defiant
protest against sexual harassment in the workplace. Now Christophe Grant’s
poetic protest against the grim cruelties of poverty gave her the vehicle
she needed to demonstrate the full range of her awesome dramatic talents.
And in performance Sandra reinvented the song with one soft-spoken aside:
“Ah from de ghetto,” she whispered, “an’ ah know what ah talkin’ about.”
MG
5 later roots reggae classics
- Hello Mama Africa, Garnet Silk (1993): A
sweet salute to Africa by an angelic voice cut down before his time.
- It’s Me Again Jah, Luciano (1995): One of
reggae’s best-loved balladeers, Luciano topped the charts with this sweetly
earnest prayer, winning over a new generation of fans to a classic reggae
sound.
- Why Be Afraid (Jah By My Side), Tony Rebel (1996):
Rebel uses his rich rhythmic voice to create the perfect reggae song — a
prayer you can dance to.
- It Was Written, Damien “Jr Gong” Marley (2001):
Stepping out of the shadow of his father, Jr Gong defines himself as an
artist with a little help from big brother Steve.
- Thank You Mama, Sizzla (2002): Proving that
roots reggae is alive and well, Sizzla scores with a heartfelt ode to moms
everywhere.
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5 more classic calypsos of
the 90s
- Free Show Kaiso King, Trinidad Rio (1990):
A keenly articulated protest against taking calypsonians for granted and
expecting them to perform for free. Rio’s outrageous promises about what
he’d do if wily promotors ever paid him all the loot they owed him included
loaning the prime minister enough to pay off Trinidad’s IMF debt.
- Black Man Feeling to Party, Black Stalin (1991):
Some called it escapist, but Stalin’s song, like so many other calypsos,
was a celebration of Trini joie de vivre and the freeness of spirit that
characterises Carnival.
- Jahaji Bhai, Brother Marvin (1996): As popular
as it was controversial, Brother Marvin’s call for unity among Trinidad’s
races — joined in what he called the “brotherhood of the boat” — won him
the 1996 Calypso Monarch crown.
- Pan in a Rage, The Original De Fosto Himself
(1996): De Fosto is one of the greatest living composers of pan tunes
— some call him Kitchener’s heir in this regard. This electric number
won the Renegades steel orchestra their seventh Panorama title in 1996.
- Little Black Boy, Gypsy (1997): His audience
either hated this song or loved it. Gypsy’s call for young men of African
descent to “be conscious” and strive for success ignited debate over ethnic
stereotypes and social prejudice.
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Talk Yuh Talk
3 Canal
1999 • written by Wendell Manwarren and Stanton Kewley • album:
The
Fire Next Time
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3 Canal
Courtesy 3 Canal/Photographer Jeffrey Chock
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By the release of
Talk Yuh Talk in 1999, the then
two-year-old 3 Canal had already made a name for themselves as creators
of hard-edged but joyous rapso numbers like
Blue and
Mud Madness.
The social critique implied in these songs via the symbolism of redemptive
dirtying is foregrounded in
Talk Yuh Talk, the group’s angriest and
most overt social commentary to date. A clever rant against bogus political
rhetoric, the song borrows the language of stickfighting (an old Trinidadian
tradition which combined elements of warfare and performance), addressing
the politician as “you mocking pretender” (one of the taunts stickfighters
threw at each other), among other uncomplimentary names.
GP
2 classic parang tunes
Sung in Spanish, parang is as Trinidadian as calypso.
- Alegria Alegria, traditional: This joyous
song, celebrating the Annunciation, was a favourite of late parang queen
Daisy Voisin.
- Rio Manzanare, traditional: A popular example
of secular parang, in which the singer asks the Manzanare River to let
him pass, to get help for his sick mother.
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2 Caribbean rock songs
Trinidad has a thriving rock music scene whose best bands blend reggae
and calypso with mainstream rock.
- Little Miss Popular, Oddfellows Local (1993):
With this song, the Oddfellows shook off the influence of R.E.M. and created
a sound and style uniquely theirs: a true Caribbean rock aesthetic.
- Real Love, The Orange Sky (1997): Inspired
by lead singer Nigel Rojas’s visit to a Hare Krisha temple, Real Love
is an expression of spiritual yearning.
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3
more classic rapsos
- Blow ’Way, Lancelot Layne (1971): The grandaddy
of the rapso movement set the tone with this stand-up-for-your-rights
rant.
- Clear de Way, Chantuelle (1994): A call for
a new world order from one of the vibrant young groups that emerged in the
90s.
- Flambeau, Ataklan (1998): “The hope and future
of rapso” protests Shadow’s not winning the Calypso Monarch title.
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Bring Down the Power
Ella Andall
2000 • written by Garfield Blackman, a.k.a. Ras Shorty I, and Ella
Andall • album:
Bring Down the Power
From its dramatic intro — “Bring down the power, I say!”,
belted out by Ella Andall to the accompaniment of rising African drums
—
Bring Down the Power draws the listener in through its mesmerising
rhythms and Andall’s powerful voice. It’s calypso and Orisha anthem rolled
into one, fuelled by a deep-seated belief in the power of the spoken word.
The Afrocentric strain in Trinidadian music is normally hybridised in mainstream
calypso and soca, but in Grenada-born Andall’s music it finds a purer expression
that is reflected in the seriousness of her themes.
Bring Down the Power,
while firmly grounded in religion, puts forward a universal message of love
as the ultimate force for healing.
GP
5 “Bajan Invasion” songs
Starting in the early 1990s, a number of Barbadian bands and performers
scored major hits in the Trinidad Carnival season, and then at carnivals
and parties across the Caribbean, leading to talk of a “Bajan invasion”.
- Ragga Ragga, Red Plastic Bag (1993): This
insanely catchy tune — slyly poking fun at Jamaican dancehall — was an international
smash hit, recorded in seven languages, and giving birth to the ragga soca
sub-genre.
- Dr Cassandra, Gabby (1995): “Jook, jook,
jook, jook” — Gabby’s cheeky ringbang number about a housecall from an
obliging female doctor was the toast of the 1995 Trinidad Carnival, and
still appears regularly on party playlists.
- Pump Me Up, krosfyah (1995): “Pump me up
wid de music / . . . Cause you know I’m addicted.” Some said the band was
pandering to the pop charts with this high-octane crossover soca, but
Pump Me Up was the hit at Barbados Crop-Over, and launched
krosfyah on the world stage — it was even certified gold in Canada.
- Aye Aye Aye, Alison Hinds and Square One (1997):
This sexy, up-tempo zouk-soca fusion made Alison Hinds a star in the French
Caribbean islands. The name of the album it was released on says it all:
Sweetness.
- Weakness for Sweetness, Natalie Burke(1996):
More “sweetness”, and the title of this easy-rocking ragga soca doesn’t
refer to cane sugar, of course — or Nutra-Sweet.
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Gimme the Light
Sean Paul
2002 • written by Sean Henriques • album:
Dutty Rock
Ubiquitous doesn’t do it justice.
Gimme the Light has been the
monster dancehall hit of the decade, eclipsing previous records and creating
in its wake unprecedented opportunities for a slew of dancehall artists.
With a distinct voice that bears echoes of veteran deejay Super Cat, an
irresistible hook, and superb production by Jamaican-based Jeremy Harding,
Sean Paul created dancehall history, taking his locally produced dancehall
record to the top of the international charts. With the follow up singles
Get Busy and
Like Glue, Sean Paul put the dance back in dancehall,
creating international party anthems that defined the summer of 2003.
By 2002, Sean Paul Henriques was already a star in Jamaica, and had
earned international respect with smash hits like
Infiltrate and
Deport Them, and a solid debut album,
Stage One. But
Gimme
the Light brought the klieg lights of international stardom. Suddenly
Sean Paul was everywhere — performing such mainstream gigs as the “Tonight
Show” and “Saturday Night Live”. He became the first dancehall artist to
grace the cover of
Vibe magazine, the urban music bible, a nod to the
rising importance of both the artist and the genre.
Vibe’s Rob Kenner
told the
Jamaica Star the cover signalled that “Sean Paul and reggae
have reached the point where they can stand beside any of the international
rap or R&B stars . . . [Reggae] has an influence on America . . . and
Sean is at the forefront.”
In the blazing shadow of Sean Paul’s success, it’s hard
to remember that dancehall had been enjoying crossover success for years.
Artists like Beenie Man had solid followings in the international market,
and were established stars in the urban community. Shaggy had achieved multi-platinum
success and mass market appeal with his brand of hybrid, pop-infused dancehall,
but it took
Gimme the Light and the
Dutty Rock album from
which it came to bring unapologetic Jamaican dancehall to pop culture attention.
The album was designed to cross over, but on Sean Paul’s terms. His concession
to his crossover market was to create a singable hook, bring in some urban
guest stars like Busta Rhymes, the Neptunes, and Tony Touch, and to focus
his songs on the universal subjects of the urban music scene — weed and
women. But the language would be 100 per cent Jamaican.
“Dancehall reggae is not just about the killer riddims; people
the world over love the way we speak,” the artist has said. Record sales
have proven him right. Though some critics argued that less than 25 per
cent of his lyrics are intelligible — most of his songs are performed in
Jamaican patois — that hasn’t stopped fans from singing along, buying
records, and disproving the myth that dancehall music is an ethnic category
with limited mainstream potential. His success has opened the doors on
American radio and television for artists like Wayne Wonder and Elephant
Man, both of whom happen to be his label-mates on Jamaican-owned indie
VP Records. Only time will tell whether dancehall’s international light
will continue to burn this brightly.
KM
5 classic “crossover” songs
- Telephone Love, J.C. Lodge (1988): International
audiences warmed to Lodge’s lilting voice and the Steelie and Cleevie
rhythm that also made Gregory Isaac’s Rumours a hit.
- House Call, Maxi Priest and Shabba (1991):
Maxi’s silky voice and Shabba’s gravelly growl were the perfect combination
for this pop-dancehall hit.
- Here Comes the Hot Stepper, Ini Kamoze (1994):
A best-selling record in 1994, Hot Stepper was one of the first reggae
songs to top the Billboard charts.
- Who Let the Dogs Out, Anslem Douglas (1998):
Its “barking dog” hook was the hit of Carnival 1998. Then the Baha Men covered
it in 2000 and it became a massive global hit, winning instant recognition
just about everywhere in the world.
- It Wasn’t Me, Shaggy (2000): Proving that
brazen denial has universal appeal, Shaggy rode this hilarious up-tempo track
to the top of the international charts.
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10
more songs our list wouldn’t be complete without
- Yellow Bird, traditional: This gently lilting
tune, made famous by Harry Belafonte, has its roots in an old Haitian
lullaby, Choucounne.
- Sans Humanité, traditional: No one
knows who composed it, or when exactly it entered the calypso canon, but
who can imagine the artform without this haunting eight-line tune, with
no fixed lyrics and hence freely available for any calypsonian to adopt
and adapt? Calypso scholar Gordon Rohlehr surmises it may have been influenced
by Catholic liturgical chants, and the “sans humanité” refrain with
which it concludes links it to the songs that accompanied violent 19th-century
stickfighting bouts. It was the melodic basis of many early 20th-century
calypsos, and today it lives on as the traditional tune for extempo competitions,
in which calypsonians show off their quick wits and lyrical skills by inventing
picong on the spot.
- Mangoes, traditional: “Gimme penny to buy
mango rose, mango vert.” Made popular by Trinidadian Olive Walke’s Le Petite
Musicale, this charming folksong, which is still taught to schoolchildren
in Trinidad, lists various varieties of the Caribbean’s favourite fruit.
- Linstead Market, traditional: “Mi carry mi
ackee go a Linstead Market / Not a quattie worth sell”, laments the narrator
of this well-loved Jamaican song.
- West Indian Weed Woman, a.k.a. Man Piabba, Bill
Rogers (c. 1929): Often thought to be a traditional folk song, West
Indian Weed Woman is actually the composition of the Guyanese calypsonian
Bill Rogers, who made a splash in 1920s Trinidad with a musical style called
bhagee.
- Evening Time, Barbara Ferland, lyrics by Louise
Bennett (c. 1930s): Originally written for one of Jamaica’s famous Christmas
pantomimes — where the inimitable writer and performer “Miss Lou” first
made her mark — Evening Time is a nostalgic favourite recorded numerous
times over the decades.
- The Legend of Kaieteur, Philip Pilgrim, lyrics
by A.J. Seymour (1944): This rare example of classical music from
the Caribbean — a large-scale choral work by a young Guyanese composer
who died shortly after completing it, based on a poem by A.J. Seymour —
is little remembered outside Guyana, but its prominent revival for the
first Carifesta in 1972 reminded listeners that there’s almost no musical
genre the Caribbean isn’t ready to embrace.
- Island in the Sun, Irving Burgie (1957):
“This is my island in the sun / Where my people have toiled since time
begun.” A cliché? Yes, but for many people around the world this
wistful song, especially the version recorded by Harry Belafonte, is what
they think of when they think of Caribbean music. Composer Irving Burgie,
born in the US of a Barbadian mother, also wrote familiar tunes like Jamaica
Farewell and Day-O, introducing international audiences in the
1950s to the rhythms of the islands.
- Easy Snappin’, Theophilus Beckford (1961):
In the 1950s, recorded music in Jamaica was dominated by the influence
of American R&B. Easy Snappin’ clearly belongs to this genre,
but its offbeat rhythm hints at the major musical shift that would occur
in the next decade: the emergence, in rapid succession, of ska, rocksteady,
and reggae.
- Big Bamboo, The Merrymen (1961): This crowd-pleasing,
laid-back calypso number from the ever-popular Barbadian quintet proved
that Bajans can do double entendre.
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Reading list
Hundreds of books have been written about Caribbean music. In researching
this feature, we found the following particularly helpful:
Bob Marley: Songs of Freedom
Adrian Boot and Chris Salewicz; Rita Marley, executive editor
(Bloomsbury, ISBN 0-7475-1853-X)
Atilla’s Kaiso: A Short History of Trinidad Calypso
Raymond Quevedo (UWI Department of Extra Mural Studies, no
ISBN)
Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King
Lloyd Bradley (Penguin Books, ISBN 014-0237-63-1)
Calypso and Society in Pre-Independence Trinidad
Gordon Rohlehr (self-published, ISBN 976-8012-52-8)
Calypsonians from Then to Now, Parts 1 and 2
Rudolph Ottley (self-published, ISBN 976-8136-63-4 and 976-8157-50-X)
Caribbean Currents: Caribbean Music from Rumba to Reggae
Peter Manuel (Temple University Press, ISBN 156-6393-39-6)
The Political Calypso: True Opposition in Trinidad and Tobago
Louis Regis (University of the West Indies Press, ISBN 976-640-056-3-1)
Reggae Explosion: The Story of Jamaican Music
Chris Salewicz and Adrian Boot (Harry N. Abrams, ISBN 081-0981-69-6)
Reggae Routes: The Story of Jamaican Music
Kevin O’Brien Chang and Wayne Chen (Ian Randle Publishers,
ISBN 976-8100-67-2)
The Rough Guide to Reggae (Rough Guide Music Reference)
Steve Barrow et al (Rough Guides Limited, ISBN 185-8285-58-5)
Solid Foundation: An Oral History of Reggae
David Katz (Bloomsbury, ISBN 0-7475-5910-4)
Wake the Town and Tell the People: Dancehall Culture in Jamaica
Norman Stolzoff (Duke University Press, ISBN 082-2325-14-4)
World Music, Volume 2: Latin and North America, Caribbean, India, Asia
and the Pacific: The Rough Guide (Rough Guide Reference Series)
Simon Broughton and Mark Ellingham (Rough Guides Limited,
ISBN 185-8286-36-0)
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Caribbean Beat is hugely grateful
to the music experts who helped us produce this celebration of Caribbean
music.
John Arnold is co-founder and musical director of Tobago’s
celebrated Signal Hill Alumni Choir. He also hosts Radio Tambrin’s World
Music programme, and is an event planner at the Tobago House of Assembly’s
Tourism Division.
Barbadian musician and producer Nicholas Brancker has released
two albums of his own Caribbean jazz, In Contempt and NEWA,
and produced numerous recordings by artists like Arrow, Alison Hinds, and
Rupee. He was nominated for a Grammy for his work on Sherri Winston’s album
Love Is. (Hear In Contempt on channel eight of BWIA’s
inflight entertainment this month.)
Kevin O’Brien Chang and Wayne Chen are co-authors
of Reggae Routes: The Story of Jamaican Music.
Carolyn Cooper is professor of literary and cultural studies
at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, where she also heads
the Reggae Studies Unit. She is the author of Noises in the Blood,
a study of Jamaican popular culture, and the forthcoming Sound Clash:
Jamaican Dancehall Culture at Large.
Alvin Daniell is a composer of calypsos and pan music,
and a historian of the music of Trinidad and Tobago. He has produced and
presented television and radio programmes about music, adjudicated at many
music competitions and festivals, and is a former chairman of the Copyright
Organisation of Trinidad and Tobago.
Ray Funk is a district court judge in Fairbanks, Alaska,
but is perhaps better known as a historian of Trinidad calypso, with extensive
archives covering the evolution of the genre. Since 1997 he has written
the influential Kaiso Newsletter, distributed via email. He is currently
collaborating with the Historical Museum of Southern Florida on a major
exhibition called Calypso: A World Music.
Laura Gardner is editor in chief of JahWorks.org, an online
magazine covering Jamaican music and culture. She is a former editor of
Reggae Review, and has contributed to magazines like The
Beat. She works at the University of California, Berkeley.
Michael Garnice, a long-time aficionado of Jamaican music,
runs the only website devoted to mento, www.mentomusic.com. He
lives in Brooklyn.
Michael Goodwin writes widely about Trinidadian music
and culture. (He is also a technical writer, screenwriter, and software
designer.) He has co-produced two Raw Kaiso CDs for Rounder Records,
and has written about Singing Sandra, Andy Narell, Crazy, and others for
Caribbean Beat.
Julie Harris is creative director at Lonsdale Saatchi
& Saatchi Advertising in Port of Spain, but she is better known as a
composer and theatre director. She worked for over ten years with the
Little People children’s theatre group in Kingston, Jamaica, and since
moving to Trinidad in 1998 she has composed music for two theatrical productions,
Maubee and More Maubee, and scored a short film.
Born in San Francisco, currently based in London, and a frequent visitor
to Jamaica, David Katz is the author of People Funny Boy: The
Genius of Lee Scratch Perry, and, most recently, Solid Foundation:
An Oral History of Reggae.
Simon Lee was born in the UK and is currently based in
London, but he lived for over 14 years in Trinidad and spent most of the
1990s roving and writing about the Caribbean. He writes a weekly column
for Trinidad and Tobago’s Sunday Guardian and acts as a Caribbean cultural
consultant for various London museums, while he works on a book about Caribbean
music.
Kellie Magnus is a Jamaican writer based in New York.
She writes on the Caribbean arts, entertainment, and media scene. She is
also the author of Little Lion Goes to School: A Caribbean Children’s
Story.
Wendell Manwarren is a Trinidadian actor and musical performer.
He is a co-founder and member of rapso group 3 Canal, and has appeared
in numerous theatrical productions, including Derek Walcott’s The Joker
of Seville.
Trinidadian Rafi Mohammed is one of the Caribbean’s leading
promoters of chutney and other musical genres of Indian origin. He is
the host of the “East Meets West” channel in BWIA’s inflight audio entertainment,
and his website rafimohammed.com contains information on dozens of
chutney artists.
Mungal Patasar is a master sitar player and founder of
the pioneering Indo-calypso-jazz group Pantar. His music combines Trinidad
and Tobago’s many cultural influences into a unique fusion style, demonstrated
on Pantar’s album Nirvana. Patasar is also director of the Caribbean
School of Music.
Georgia Popplewell is a writer and television producer
based in Trinidad. She is Caribbean Beat’s music editor, and writes
regularly on sport and film as well. She is co-director of Tangerine Publishing,
and the editor of The Ticket, a magazine for local moviegoers.
Writer and editor Garry Steckles has been covering Caribbean
music for more than 35 years, and he has hosted radio shows in Montreal
and St Kitts. He has written the “Riddem & Rhyme” column for Caribbean
Beat for many years, and his work has appeared in dozens of newspapers
and magazines in North America and the Caribbean. Steckles and his wife
Wendy are also the proprietors of the renowned StoneWalls Tropical Bar and
Eating Place in Basseterre, St Kitts.
Roger Steffens has written numerous books on reggae and
Bob Marley, and lectures worldwide on “The Life of Bob Marley”, most recently
in Australia. He is the founding editor of The Beat magazine, and
chairman of the Grammy reggae committee. His enormous reggae archive has
just been acquired by the government of Jamaica; it will become the nucleus
of the new National Museum of Jamaican Music.
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