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Caribbean music
My first visit to the Caribbean was in 1966. I took a three-weeks vacation on a round-trip ticket from Toronto, and the first stop was Nassau (Bahamas). At the airport I told a taxi to take me to the cheapest guest house he knew of. Well, it was cheap enough, somewhere "over the hill" where white tourists never stayed. I was the only white person staying there, which the other guests (all Black Americans - Negroes, they were called then) thought was strange. Which it was, at that time. I had backpacked around the Middle East the year before, so felt comfortable with people of different cultures. A bunch of them took me to a seedy nightclub called "The Big Bamboo" - named for a popular calypso song of the time. Here is the song:
I thought it would be fun to devote a thread to Caribbean songs that mean something to we who post on the thread, starting with the song that began my long association with the region. My air ticket took me on to Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, St Thomas, and Trinidad. I don't have a song associated with my visit to every one of those places, but I'll work something out... |
Re: Caribbean music
Im so glad that satire and double meanings are alive and well in caribbean music. Last year panorama [govt funded public event] was cancelled because a promoter who provided the stage wanted to give a for money event at the same venue, so the stage wasnt finished - mayhem ensued. This year a great soca tune lambasting various people has appeared. |
Re: Caribbean music
Originally Posted by uk_grenada
(Post 12535976)
Im so glad that satire and double meanings are alive and well in caribbean music. Last year panorama [govt funded public event] was cancelled because a promoter who provided the stage wanted to give a for money event at the same venue, so the stage wasnt finished - mayhem ensued. This year a great soca tune lambasting various people has appeared. I have to say I couldn't understand much of what they were singing - but I guess the locals were OK with it! Here is an early "soca" tune from the '60s by a popular Bajan group - a wonderfully catchy tune, with references to the region's politicians of the day. My bride and I went to a concert by The Merrymen in one of the hotels in Nassau when we were working there - great fun! They were five white boys, which surprised us: but I have never heard a better chorus. They're still going, I think - in their seventies, now! |
Re: Caribbean music
This is funny |
Re: Caribbean music
I believe this is one of the finest songs, and performances. |
Re: Caribbean music
One of my all time favourites is Sparrow's "Dan is de Man in de Van". This calypso is a scornful look at how school education in the British colonies was (in general) designed to keep black children "in their place" at the bottom of the totem pole. If you listen carefully, it covers all of the common nursery rhymes, which the singer claims*** are the only things he was taught during his school days.
*** A bit tongue-in-cheek, but still... it makes for a clever and amusing song. |
Re: Caribbean music
Yes, sparrow is still performing, i met him in a rural rum shop in Grenada a few years back, he was visiting relatives and the jungle drums were on form... |
Re: Caribbean music
I always think that the best Caribbean music is the steel bands.
Funnily enough, the University Of Miami has a steel band which gives the locals a run for their money. Check them out on video from U Tube. |
Re: Caribbean music
Originally Posted by daveincolchester
(Post 12542043)
I always think that the best Caribbean music is the steel bands.
Funnily enough, the University Of Miami has a steel band which gives the locals a run for their money. Check them out on video from U Tube. |
Re: Caribbean music
Thanks for the above link.
Loved it. |
Re: Caribbean music
This, too, from Trinidad - maybe the catchiest soca tune of all.
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Re: Caribbean music
So Gordon, do you go to hear soca performers or to carnival anywhere - sparrow always has a christmas concert - if you havent seen him you should. Grenada carnivals imminent, the build ups good...
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Re: Caribbean music
This is good |
Re: Caribbean music
Kitchener was one of the greatest artists, his sugar bum bum is of course globally ‘the caribbean’ but this is better i think |
Re: Caribbean music
Here's a nice one - quite relaxing... Tiny Winey by Byron Lee
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