Edited by Azizi Powell
This is the second in a multi-post pancocojams series on the name "Dorothy" in Calypso songs.
This post quotes a pdf on Caribbean music about how women with the name "Dorothy" were usually portrayed in Calypso songs.
This pancocojams post also presents full or partial transcriptions of several Calypso songs that feature a woman with the name "Dorothy".
Please add to this post by sharing the lyrics of some Calypso songs that you know which include the name "Dorothy", regardless of how "Dorothy" is depicted in that song. Thanks in advance.
Click the tag "the name Dorothy in Calypso music" for additional posts in this series.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all of the Calypsonians for their musical legacies*. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to GUEST,Tony for his transcription of "My Troubles With Dorothy" and thirteen other old Calypso songs on the Mudcat folk music forum discussion thread whose link is given in this pancocojams post.
-snip-
It's important to me that I make it clear that I don't agree with or condone the anti-women lyrics of many of Calypso songs with or without the name "Dorothy".
****
QUOTE ABOUT HOW WOMEN NAMED "DOROTHY" ARE DEPICTED IN MANY CALYPSO SONGS
From pdf "Historical Culture of Gender and Hetero/Sexual Violence in Calypso in Trinidad: Treat ‘Em Rough" By Maude Dikobe [This link is found immediately below this section.]
"Calypso’s overwhelming endorsement of violence against women cannot be overstated. Stereotypical representation in calypso of women as sexually forward, cheats, unhygienic, and so on, helps to control them. One has only to recall “Dorothy” a sexual archetype about whom countless calypsos have been written:2 Dorothy personifies many of the worst stereotypes about women in Trinidad: She is “a stuckup slut whose only positive aspect is her seductive availability.” Given her immodesty and deceitfulness, she deserves to be “controlled.”
****
TEXT EXAMPLES OF SOME CALYPSO SONGS THAT INCLUDE THE NAME "DOROTHY"
These songs are given in no particular order. A link to the source of these transcriptions is before the song's title.
From http://genderlinks.org.za/wp-content/uploads/imported/articles/attachments/historical_culture_of_gender_hetersexual_violence_maude_dikobe.pdf "Historical Culture of Gender and Hetero/Sexual Violence in Calypso in Trinidad: Treat ‘Em Rough" By Maude Dikobe [in] GENDER & MEDIA DIVERSITY JOURNAL [page 117-125]; written January 1, 1970, published in Gender Links
3rd Edition; 2007
Excerpt of “Love Me or Leave Me,” Lady Iere
"You got to love me or leave me
Or live with Miss Dorothy
This time is too hard
For me to mind a man that is bad"
**
Excerpt of "My Darling Dorothy" (c. 1944) by Roaring Lion
"Good Lord since I marry Dorothy she had me going crazy
(x2)
When is good I can’t stand the pressure
She want me to commit murder
She has a sailor man
She has a Chinee man
Then she left a Chinee man
To come with a police man
Then she left the yankee man
And go pick up the steel band man"
****
Transcriptions by GUEST, Tony 05 Jul 14 in https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=154911 Lyr Add: Woopsin - The Lion (calypso)
-snip-
This guest shared these two transcriptions and twelve additional transcriptions of old Calypso songs. He added this comment to his "post":
"Here's my entire collection of Calypso lyrics, full of mistakes, in case it's of any use to you or to anyone else reading your posts."
"My Troubles with Dorothy" by Philip Garcia, aka Lord Executor (rec Port-of-Spain 2/26/38)
"I was weak an' broken down,
all my nerve shattered an' gone.
Who cause dat cruelty to me,
nobody but de woman called Dorothy.
Now, Dorothy, a nice high brown,
weighing two hundred and sixteen pound,
An' I, the Executor, the feather-weight,
she made me tremble like an earthquake.
Now Dorothy would sit on my knee,
an' feed me wid de vitamins of quality,
An' all the time she would say to me,
"Executor, you losing vitality."
De D an' de O an' de R an' de A,
and de T an' de H an' de Y, dey say.
Now, Dorothy darling, you made me tame.
You wan' Executor to lose his name.
She had a habit an' a way to sit on my back,
to ride me as a race-horse upon de track,
Leavin' me in sorrow, pain an' disgrace,
jus' like Campbell riding a race.
I met her, it was in T rou Macacq.
In translated word means the monkey track.
It was there I tol' her ____ ____,
an' she tol' me, "_____ _____ you're imbecile."
She tol' me "Executor, you mus' stay with me,
brutalize me, you can even beat me.
Do what you like, you can tear up me clothes.
But, you know, I'm a woman dat love your blows."
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/02/my-troubles-with-dorothy-by-lord.html "My Troubles with Dorothy" by Lord Executor (Lyrics & YouTube Sound File Of This 1938 Calypso Song) for a sound file of this song.
**
"One Morning" by Lord Beginner (rec New York 3/15/35)
"I went on a spree (one morning).
I went to see Dorothy.
I met in a collision.
Was me an' a policeman.
'Fore day mornin', one mornin'
I knock the door without any fear.
I said "Dorothy, darling, are you here?"
But I put myself in a calaloo.
The police was knocking the back door too.
I even called her by her sweet name, Dee.
I said "Mommy, open de door for me."
And, when I peep through the jalousie,
I saw the craf was awaitin' me.
She got right up an' she turn de lock.
But at de back door was a different knock.
In walk up the branch of the law, an' told me,
"Mister, what you come for?"
I said, "I came here to cut my shine."
Said, "But you come here for what is mine."
I had to appeal to sweet Dorothy.
She said, "Tonight, let us sleep in peace."
I said, "My boy, don't you contemplate.
For Dorothy is a heavyweight.
And if you are strong you can win de fight,
but I'm going to box like Dempsey tonight."
The night was so cold I couldn't even sleep.
Under the blanket I had to creep.
I stole a chance and I cuff de craf,
an' de policeman shout out, "Beginner half!"
'Fore day mornin', one mornin', roll if you're rollin'.
I went in a dream at de middle of the night,
as if something was holdin' me tight.
I got up an' I make her with a caress,
and I found my head on the police chest."
****
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0rlDLOpzLg
Ms Dorothy Roaring Lion, published by Nia Radix, Dec 31, 2011
comment by Larry Marsden, 2014
"Miss Dorothy went to bathe and the catfish made a raid, and Dorothy bawl 'ah me' catfish gone with my Lignum Vitae"(tree of life)
all yuh real Kaiso heads...figure it out!!! LOL!"
****
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