Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post showcases a sound file of and lyrics for the early Calypso song "Jail Them" by Roaring Lion (Rafael de Leon).
Information about Roaring Lion is also included in this post.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
Thanks to Roaring Lion for his musical legacy. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post. Special thanks to Guest, jail them for sure and Guest Alexander D Great for their transcription of this song, and thanks to the publisher of this sound file on YouTube.
-snip-
Most of the content of this post was originally published on pancocojams in 2013.
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INFORMATION ABOUT CALYPSONIAN ROARING LION
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roaring_Lion
"Roaring Lion (born Rafael de Leon) (22 February 1908 – 11 July 1999)[2] was a calypsonian (calypso singer/composer). His 65-year career began in the early 1930s and he is best known for his compositions "Ugly Woman" (1933), "Mary Ann" and "Netty, Netty", which are still performed today. The song "If You Wanna Be Happy", which hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on 18 May 1963, as well as the R&B singles chart,[3] is based on Roaring Lion's "Ugly Woman"...
From a young age, Roaring Lion (de Leon's adopted stage name) became known for his skill in creating calypsos (particularly in his ability to extemporize lyrics on any subject). Contrary to his humble origins, he cultivated a refined stage persona and always appeared sharply dressed...
Roaring Lion achieved fame for his linguistic prowess as much as for his catchy tunes. His lyrics, delivered in rapid-fire style, show an impeccable command of the English language (as well as Trinidadian slang), and are replete with witty turns of phrase, humorous metaphors, and clever alliteration and internal rhymes...
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SHOWCASE SOUND FILE: Jail Them - Roaring Lion
cool4rocknroll,Uploaded on Dec 12, 2010
Jail Them
Roaring Lion
Calypso Season
Mango
T&T 1989
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LYRICS: JAIL THEM
(Roaring Lion)
Jail them (or 'dem'), before it's too late
Jail all these back market reprobates
Murder, John public can't buy
They raising the price of foodstuffs too high.
Day after day there's a hue and cry,
They can't buy food, the price is too high,
Black market is rampant through rank and file,
Bobol and profiteering is now the style.
No use to lament comment nor wail,
From Caesar to Caesar to no avail,
It's everywhere to be seen,
The law is being contravened,
So the police should intervene-ah
Jail them...
Bush doctors are doing a raging trade,
To charge for their bushes they are not afraid,
Sixty cents for a piece of shadow bengy
A dollar for a twig of timawi
Ninety cents for two leaves of kuzay maho
The damn bush is growing right in front your door.
There's every where to be seen,
The law is being contravened,
So the police should intervene-ah
Jail them...
-snip-
This transcription is a combination of the lyrics for this song that were posted by Guest,jail them for sure Date: 12 Jul 09 - 11:01 PM and Guest, Alexander D Great Date: 01 Aug 09 - 11:01 AM on http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=22819&messages=13 Lyr Req: Jail Them (Rafael de Leon / Roaring Lion). Any corrections or additions are welcome.
Here's another post [comment] by Guest Alexander D Great from that same mudcat folk music forum discussion thread:
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jail Them (Rafael de Leon / Roaring Lion)
From: GUEST,Alexander D Great
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 11:01 AM
Hello everyone,I just want to clarify a few things about these lyrics.
With Guest's permisson I shall refer to their posting on 12th July of the lyrics and make the following adjustments.
Line 8 "Boller" is, in fact, "bobol", which is a common word for corruption in trinidad.
Line 17 is "shadow bengy" , line 18 is "timawi", line 19 is "kuzay maho", all types of herbs used in cooking.
Line 20 is "the damn bush is growing right in front your door.
Alex
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Viewer comments are welcome.
Showing posts with label old time Calypso music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label old time Calypso music. Show all posts
Thursday, January 30, 2020
2005 Caribbean-Beat.com Article Excerpt- "Ol Time Calypso: Long Time Music"
Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents an excerpt of a 2005 article about old time Calypso music.
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and folkloric purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owner.
Thanks to Garry Steckles for writing this article. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this article, and thanks to www.caribban-beat.com for publishing this article online.
****
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
As a reminder, I feature excerpts of articles, pdf files, and books as a means of highlighting those writings and as a means of encouraging people to read the entire work, if possible.
This pancocojams post is part of an ongoing focus in this blog on African American names, and names and naming practices, particularly in the United States. Click the tags below for additional pancocojams post on these subjects.
****
ARTICLE EXCERPT:
From https://www.caribbean-beat.com/issue-74/long-time-music-0#axzz6CUbl1ZRg
Ol’ time calypso: long time music
It took him more than 30 years, but Garry Steckles finally discovered the joys of real old-time calypso By Garry Steckles | Issue 74 (July/August 2005)
..."around 2002...thank goodness, is around the time I stumbled on a whole old world of calypso — the music that happened before 1968. Sure, I knew Sparrow’s Jean and Dinah from 1956, and a handful of “big tunes”, but I had no real clue about how utterly brilliant the calypsonians of earlier eras had been. I’m talking, particularly, about the 30s, 40s, and 50s, the key decades in which calypso as we know it today evolved from its 18th-century origins as Carnival street music and became an art form embracing every conceivable topic.
These were the decades that gave us the Roaring Lion, Atilla the Hun, Caresser, King Radio, Tiger, Pretender, Lord Invader, Lord Blakie, Lord Executor, the Growler, Sparrow, Kitchener, and dozens more.
And these guys, believe me, had a way with words. Though they seldom got international recognition, they were craftsmen on par with Cole Porter and Irving Berlin. Mostly, they were of the street, and they lived largely on the fringes of polite Trinidadian society. They drank their rum and they chased their women, but they wouldn’t have dreamed of demeaning themselves by using a word that was in questionable taste, much less of the four-letter variety.
Topics of choice ranged from major political events to everyday happenings. A nightmare trip to Grenada on an inter-island schooner. A Christmas spent in hospital. A West Indies cricket triumph. A scandal at the Treasury. Ghana’s independence. A clash between rival steel bands during Trinidad Carnival. The origins of calypso. The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. An unfaithful or capricious lover. Avaricious London landladies. Tight-fisted concert promoters. The price of rice. A jealous husband. A dishonest politician. And, of course, there was always “smut” — lyrics rampant with double entendres and sexual innuendo, but never, ever, overtly crude or profane.
The Mighty Sparrow once told me that he saw calypso as the voice of the people. “We write about what the man in the street is saying, what he’s thinking . . . and we can say things you guys in the media could never get away with.”
A classic example of early calypsonians’ willingness to tackle difficult and controversial topics came in the late 30s, when Trinidad was in the throes of a strike by chronically underpaid oilfield workers — a turning point in the island’s history. The oil workers’ leader was Uriah “Buzz” Butler, and among their unlikely supporters were both the governor of Trinidad and Tobago, Sir Murchison Fletcher, and the acting Colonial Secretary, Howard Nankiwell, both of whom spoke in the island’s legislative council citing substandard wages and living conditions as the true cause of the strike. Their honesty cost them their jobs. It was a complex subject, and the names alone were a daunting challenge to any songwriter — but not too daunting for those old-time calypsonians.
Here’s what Atilla the Hun had to say about those turbulent times:
Han’ me the Port of Spain*
To read Mr Nankiwell’s speech again
Replete with tac’ and sympathy
Fair play and Christian charity
We promise that whatever they do
Trinidad will remember you
Imagine the moral courage of that man
In the legislative council to stan’
And give his opinion without no fear
In the midst of the members sitting there
To get to his feet and openly say
That the oppressed worker deserves more pay
We should erect, right in this city
A monument to his memory
— From Mister Nankiwell’s Speech by Atilla the Hun
And here’s Atilla’s take on the report of a crown-appointed commission into the unrest (during which, incidentally, 14 people died when police were called in to break up a rally in Fyzabad in support of the strike):
They criticise our ex-governor
The beloved Sir Murchison Fletcher
And Howard Nankiwell, they said that he
Had uttered speeches wrong to a marked degree
They castigated him severely
Our ex-Colonial Secretary
But all these things just appear to me
An example of English diplomacy
They said, through the evidence they had
That the riots started in Fyzabad
By the hooligan element under their leader
A fanatic Negro called Butler
Who uttered speeches inflammatory
And caused disorders in this colony
The only time they found the police was wrong
Was when they stay too long to shoot people down
A peculiar thing of this Commission
In that 92 pages of dissertation
Is there no talk of exploitation
Of the worker or his tragic condition
Read through the pages, there is no mention
Of capitalistic oppression
Which leads one to entertain a thought
And wonder if it’s a one-sided report
— From Commission’s Report, by Atilla the Hun
Perhaps the greatest lyricist of them all was the Roaring Lion. Here’s what he had to say towards the end of his long life about the condition of mankind — not exactly a hot topic with the shake-your-bootie brigade. This is from a song the Lion, whose legendary career started? in the 30s,?recorded in 1993:
If your grandpas were slaves centuries ago, what’s that got to do with you?
You were never slaves, you were free, and also quite independent too
It is true that whites bought African slaves and treated them like pigs in a pen
But according to history who sold those slaves
Was blacks sold blacks to white men
But we’re all God’s children and we need one another
This the Bible has emphasised
So regardless of colour you better believe
Six feet of earth makes us all one size
— From Six Feet of Earth by the Roaring Lion
It’s a far, far cry from the music that reigns in the Caribbean today.
* Attila was using the common term for the Port of Spain Gazette
© MEP Publishers | Ol' time calypso: long time music | Caribbean Beat Magazine https://www.caribbean-beat.com/issue-74/long-time-music-0#ixzz6CUby0FzV
To reproduce an excerpt of this article, please ensure you include a link back (see above)... caribbeanbeat on Facebook
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This pancocojams post presents an excerpt of a 2005 article about old time Calypso music.
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and folkloric purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owner.
Thanks to Garry Steckles for writing this article. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this article, and thanks to www.caribban-beat.com for publishing this article online.
****
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
As a reminder, I feature excerpts of articles, pdf files, and books as a means of highlighting those writings and as a means of encouraging people to read the entire work, if possible.
This pancocojams post is part of an ongoing focus in this blog on African American names, and names and naming practices, particularly in the United States. Click the tags below for additional pancocojams post on these subjects.
****
ARTICLE EXCERPT:
From https://www.caribbean-beat.com/issue-74/long-time-music-0#axzz6CUbl1ZRg
Ol’ time calypso: long time music
It took him more than 30 years, but Garry Steckles finally discovered the joys of real old-time calypso By Garry Steckles | Issue 74 (July/August 2005)
..."around 2002...thank goodness, is around the time I stumbled on a whole old world of calypso — the music that happened before 1968. Sure, I knew Sparrow’s Jean and Dinah from 1956, and a handful of “big tunes”, but I had no real clue about how utterly brilliant the calypsonians of earlier eras had been. I’m talking, particularly, about the 30s, 40s, and 50s, the key decades in which calypso as we know it today evolved from its 18th-century origins as Carnival street music and became an art form embracing every conceivable topic.
These were the decades that gave us the Roaring Lion, Atilla the Hun, Caresser, King Radio, Tiger, Pretender, Lord Invader, Lord Blakie, Lord Executor, the Growler, Sparrow, Kitchener, and dozens more.
And these guys, believe me, had a way with words. Though they seldom got international recognition, they were craftsmen on par with Cole Porter and Irving Berlin. Mostly, they were of the street, and they lived largely on the fringes of polite Trinidadian society. They drank their rum and they chased their women, but they wouldn’t have dreamed of demeaning themselves by using a word that was in questionable taste, much less of the four-letter variety.
Topics of choice ranged from major political events to everyday happenings. A nightmare trip to Grenada on an inter-island schooner. A Christmas spent in hospital. A West Indies cricket triumph. A scandal at the Treasury. Ghana’s independence. A clash between rival steel bands during Trinidad Carnival. The origins of calypso. The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. An unfaithful or capricious lover. Avaricious London landladies. Tight-fisted concert promoters. The price of rice. A jealous husband. A dishonest politician. And, of course, there was always “smut” — lyrics rampant with double entendres and sexual innuendo, but never, ever, overtly crude or profane.
The Mighty Sparrow once told me that he saw calypso as the voice of the people. “We write about what the man in the street is saying, what he’s thinking . . . and we can say things you guys in the media could never get away with.”
A classic example of early calypsonians’ willingness to tackle difficult and controversial topics came in the late 30s, when Trinidad was in the throes of a strike by chronically underpaid oilfield workers — a turning point in the island’s history. The oil workers’ leader was Uriah “Buzz” Butler, and among their unlikely supporters were both the governor of Trinidad and Tobago, Sir Murchison Fletcher, and the acting Colonial Secretary, Howard Nankiwell, both of whom spoke in the island’s legislative council citing substandard wages and living conditions as the true cause of the strike. Their honesty cost them their jobs. It was a complex subject, and the names alone were a daunting challenge to any songwriter — but not too daunting for those old-time calypsonians.
Here’s what Atilla the Hun had to say about those turbulent times:
Han’ me the Port of Spain*
To read Mr Nankiwell’s speech again
Replete with tac’ and sympathy
Fair play and Christian charity
We promise that whatever they do
Trinidad will remember you
Imagine the moral courage of that man
In the legislative council to stan’
And give his opinion without no fear
In the midst of the members sitting there
To get to his feet and openly say
That the oppressed worker deserves more pay
We should erect, right in this city
A monument to his memory
— From Mister Nankiwell’s Speech by Atilla the Hun
And here’s Atilla’s take on the report of a crown-appointed commission into the unrest (during which, incidentally, 14 people died when police were called in to break up a rally in Fyzabad in support of the strike):
They criticise our ex-governor
The beloved Sir Murchison Fletcher
And Howard Nankiwell, they said that he
Had uttered speeches wrong to a marked degree
They castigated him severely
Our ex-Colonial Secretary
But all these things just appear to me
An example of English diplomacy
They said, through the evidence they had
That the riots started in Fyzabad
By the hooligan element under their leader
A fanatic Negro called Butler
Who uttered speeches inflammatory
And caused disorders in this colony
The only time they found the police was wrong
Was when they stay too long to shoot people down
A peculiar thing of this Commission
In that 92 pages of dissertation
Is there no talk of exploitation
Of the worker or his tragic condition
Read through the pages, there is no mention
Of capitalistic oppression
Which leads one to entertain a thought
And wonder if it’s a one-sided report
— From Commission’s Report, by Atilla the Hun
Perhaps the greatest lyricist of them all was the Roaring Lion. Here’s what he had to say towards the end of his long life about the condition of mankind — not exactly a hot topic with the shake-your-bootie brigade. This is from a song the Lion, whose legendary career started? in the 30s,?recorded in 1993:
If your grandpas were slaves centuries ago, what’s that got to do with you?
You were never slaves, you were free, and also quite independent too
It is true that whites bought African slaves and treated them like pigs in a pen
But according to history who sold those slaves
Was blacks sold blacks to white men
But we’re all God’s children and we need one another
This the Bible has emphasised
So regardless of colour you better believe
Six feet of earth makes us all one size
— From Six Feet of Earth by the Roaring Lion
It’s a far, far cry from the music that reigns in the Caribbean today.
* Attila was using the common term for the Port of Spain Gazette
© MEP Publishers | Ol' time calypso: long time music | Caribbean Beat Magazine https://www.caribbean-beat.com/issue-74/long-time-music-0#ixzz6CUby0FzV
To reproduce an excerpt of this article, please ensure you include a link back (see above)... caribbeanbeat on Facebook
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
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