June 5, 2011

CALYPSO with The Mighty Sparrow

Wow, it's been WAY too long since the last LP resurrection. What can I say, I get lazy and tend to put things off unless someone says "hey man, why no blog posts lately?" So if you're an active follower of this blog who has been patiently waiting, and can't bear to go another three months until the next post after this, feel free to bug me about it and it might coax me to get off my arse.

Anyway, this post is for "Gale" and "FredrikO", two readers who have requested MORE CALYPSO after listening to some music from Trinidad and Tobago on the very first post on this blog. Request granted!

The Mighty Sparrow is sometimes referred to as the "Calypso King of the World", and considering he's won numerous important calypso competitions (quite often more than any other calypsonian), it's an appropriate title.

Always known for being outspoken, a notable track on this album is track number 9, "No Future", where Sparrow warns what might happen to you if you choose a life of drugs: "... brother, you ain't got no future, you ain't got no hope ... you might think you're dead, 'til somebody said, 'poor little bloke, he went off on dope." - kind of a "Just-Say-No calypso" (or "calyps-NO"?), if you will. Great summer music! Enjoy!

3 comments:

FredrikO said...

You're the man. I have this one already, but it's a great one. One of his better 70's outputs, actually. Keep it coming!

The Baker said...

Too bad -- the words & singing are great, but the band and generic pop arrangements don't go with Calypso. Whoever produced this had a tin ear for real Calypso sound.

canboulayriots said...

This selection is vintage Sparrow!!! Especially "Carnival Vendors" which could be considered as "Jean & Dinah" part 2. Actually, the Troubadours is a very good band....remember at the time Sparrow was trying to get more steelbands to play his music, hence the emphasis on percussion and "iron". Excellent post...bring more calypso!!!!