Sparrow is Summoned!

OK, this is weird.
I took the day off to work the library used book sale.
On the way back from lunch, I thought, probably be
slow in the afternoon, I'll pick up a paper and do the crossword.

Instead of jumping to Variety, I read thru the main news,
for word on the Govt Shutdown (I still have to go to work,
I've been declared essential, but might not get paid until June.
The last shutdown we thought we were essential,
but we were only self-important, and barred at the office door.)

I see an entertainment ad on page 5, strange place for it,
oh, its the Dakota, that fancy jazz place downtown,
wait! what? Club ad for <<Mighty ---->>?

Oh, letdown, it's the "Mighty Clouds of Joy".
At least its not the Mighty, Mighty Bosstones.
Wait? Whats the next line?

Mighty Sparrow and Calypso Rose!!

Apr 21. I phone the club and there are just a few seats left.
Gotta check the bank balance, get permission from the wife,
offer a perfunctory invitation to my kids,...
No takers?... OK, go on-line....
Bingo!! (or should that be Bongo!) Got me a reserved seat.


Around ten days ago, I revive my blog for no discernible reason,
cut and paste in some of my old favorites,
then get fresh inspiration to post
a dozen Sparrow tunes and start writing
a layman's introduction to Sparrow and Calypso.

Ten days later, I find out Sparrow,
who retired several years ago,
is coming to my hometown.

Can I help but think I put Obeah on him
and executed a Summoning Spell?
This worked better than any chain letter or
internet prayer circle.

In my cultural universe, there's James Joyce,
Mighty Sparrow and Leo Kottke, with a few
others trailing in the distance. This is big.

Sparrow the Scold - I

Sparrow the Scold - I

By the seventies, Caribbean tourism became dangerous.
Several well-publicized murders and increasing violence
between rival troupes of calypsonians was keeping away
tourists and the Yankee dollar.

In Woom Poom, Sparrow personally guarantees the safety
of a visiting lady.

He exhorts her to "shake up ye woom poom, breakaway!
We can rest Ash Wednesday". The melody is so enchanting,
I had to listen to it many times before I caught on
to the undertone of reassurance in the face of legitimate fears.
Around the same time, the Jamaican Tourist Board ran the
"Come Back to Jamaica" campaign. It took me a long time to
recognize the tune as John Lennon's "War is Over (Happy Xmas)",
but later found they were both based in an old folk melody "Skewball".

In Rope, Sparrow directly takes on the gang rivalries, urging them
to "behave yourselves in public".

"While everyone was jumping up and having a good time
They were pelting and fighting, trying to spoil a songline."
"Boasting how they afraid no one, not even police
But this year is for love and peace so this nonsense must cease".

This song features a driving bassline and chordal rhythm guitar
throughout, with a horn section over it all.

If only rappers devoted as much effort in controlling their fans worst excesses.

Sparrow the Fantasist

Sparrow the Fantasist

A mad scientist, experimenting with "musical radiation" is caught in a
lab explosion. Music & Rhythm infect every part of his body.
The beat and the sheer inventiveness of the lyrics carry the day
through this unexpectedly melodic song, similar to a Gilbert & Sullivan
patter song, in the number of items listed and the depth of description,
as the twitchy music radiation affects each part of his body. [This was
the first Sparrow song I heard, on the Peter Gabriel WOMAD collection.
Many years later, while fishing on Napster, I rediscovered it and
continued searching out Sparrow. In 2008, I traveled to New Jersey
to catch Sparrow's 70th birthday tour.]

There is a Statue of Captain Cipriani overlooking the square in
Port of Spain, Trinidad, where the dance troupes assemble for carnaval.
One year, the music is too much for him. He comes alive, ripping himself
from the pedestal, clanking his metal feet down the street, joining the
dancing throng.

(This song won the annual Road March award when it was
premiered in 1974. Twenty-five years later, a statue of Sparrow
was erected as well).

Sparrow recorded many animal folktale calypsos. Lion and Donkey
(Rematch) shows the two fighting again. In the first version, the
Monkey Judge awards the prize to Donkey as the greatest of beasts,
based not on power or strength or cunning, but on the indisputable
size of his member.

Sparrow - Melodist

Sparrow the Melodist

Obeah Wedding - Sparrow's most beautiful melody - so
uncharacteristically beautiful that there are persistent
rumours that it wasn't his.

==

The singer watches Melda's attempts to snare him into marriage.
He slags her persistence, her hygiene and now her attempt to
enlist the aid of the local Obeah Man, to provide spells and charms
to induce the lazy, complacent singer to marry her.

The story literally unfolds, as the initial impression of silly
Melda surrounding his bed with lavender candles and gris-gris
gives way to the realization that she is his mistress and
bed-partner who wants a promotion to bride and wife.
It takes on a more universal character then. You could imagine
a twentyish girl at the new-age candle shop, planning
just the right spell to get her "roommate" to be her "husband".

There is a Runyonesque twist at the end. I used to think
calypso was just Harry Belafonte and cruise-ship acts.
Sparrow takes it much further, and deeper and closer to its origins,
while bringing it to the modern age.

He is a rough contemporary of Little Richard and still plays live
now and then.

The Mighty Sparrow - Calypso Folk-Poet

Bongo!

Before Maynard G. Krebs grew his beard,

before Dr. Feynmann played after physics conferences,

before the neo-hippies joined the drum circles,

there was the calypso bongo jam.

Sparrow recounts the story of a life-and-death

bongo dance competition, Matilda vs. the newcomer,

big fat Priscilla.