I don't like too much SET UP!!! For example, even though this is a FUN CALYPSO which I listen to from time to time -- it is antithetical to my calypso pleasure principle.
BROTHER NEDDY INTRO
Well ah want to tell you a story
About meh brother name NEDDY
Maybe yuh heard it already
But you can listen here today ...
Now we have already hit the CHORUS and we really don't have a lot of information.
If you happen to be from Barbados, don't think that I am criticizing THE MERRYMEN. I have the greatest admiration for their achievements. To the extent that if there was ONE PERSON in the entire world of CALYPSO who I could interview -- it would be EMILE STRAKER. What he accomplished with CALYPSO is a story that should be told to the world.
Anyway, let me move on to CALYPSOS that tickle me pink with their lyrical structure.
I will start with TEN TO ONE IS MURDER. From the opening line you get pulled right into the middle of the action and the accompanying music is just as dramatic.
Well dey playing bad
Dey have me feeling sad
Well dey playing beast
So why dey run for police ...
Ah doh have to say NO MORE about that structure!!!
My next example is I DOH MIND -- this one is very highly rated in my mind!!!
In the heat ah THE JAM
She want to GO HOME
She say all meh family GONE
We go be alone ...
That is KILLER!!!
My third entry might surprise a lot of people. But remember that I eh in the PAN TING and I doh understand one note about what dem TRINIDAD PANORAMA arrangers does be trying to do to my SWEET CALYPSO. But just as dem PAN LOVERS does get all dey thrills with dem runs and chromatics and european idiom (and the new SAMPLING and QUOTING impingement craze) in the PANORAMA ARRANGEMENTS -- I does get my thrills from CALYPSO lyrics.
My third example is HOT HOT HOT -- SURPRISE!!! But I still marvel at the intensity of the message in such a MASSIVE GLOBAL PARTY HIT.
Meh mind ON FIRE
Meh soul ON FIRE
What to do on a night like this
Music SWEET ah just CYAR RESIST ...
Lord, meh hand shaking and meh eyes watering just from typing dem lyrics. So ah have nothing more to explain ... either yuh get it or YUH DOH GET IT.
Now ah have to go put up dem four songs for allyuh to hear.
Replies
In remembrance of GEORGE VICTORY and ARROW