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Sunday, January 01, 2006
Our new year's mix, continued.... scroll below for tracks 1-8!
8) CARNIVAL CELEBRATION
Small Island Pride
Dance Calypso!
Cook : 1956
Available on: Calypso Awakening: From the Emory Cook Collection
[Buy It]
9) IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME!
The Qualities
Saturn Records : 1956
Available on: Sun Ra: The Singles
[Buy It]
10) LONESOME TRAIN (ON A LONESOME TRACK)
Johnny Burnette Trio
Coral : 1956
Available on: Rockabilly Boogie: The Classic 1956-1957 Recordings
[Buy It]
11) STORMY WEATHER
The Reigning Sound
Time Bomb High School
In The Red : 2002
[Buy It]
12) IT'S GREAT TO BE YOUNG AND IN LOVE
Doc Pomus & Mort Shuman
Demo recording, available on It's Great To Be Young And In Love
[Buy It]
13) CANCELING STAMPS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GHANA POST OFFICE
[Read about & Buy]
14) TEENAGER IN LOVE
The Wailers, c. 1964
Available on: One Love: Bob Marley & The Wailers, Live at Studio One
[Buy It]
Folks, I had a hell of a time getting back from Brooklyn this morning - apologies for the late post. And right down to business:
"Carnival Celebration" is an encore performance by the afore[read: below]mentioned Small Island Pride. How much do I love this guy? So very, very much. And how striking is this song? The most obvious thing to point out, I'd guess, is the parallel to rap: The fact that Calypso was a battle medium (once the musical accomp. to stick-fights), that it served as a wire-service, that it was revolutionary, and violent, that it valued wit and verbal dexterity - the vocabulary:
"nayga," "old style" - and the ready-to-die finale. It took me a while to work out the lyrics here, so I'll transcribe:
Mastife, Mastife, meet me down by the Croisee
And Cutouter, Cutouter, meet me down by Green Corner
[M&C were notable "badjohns" - and Mastife, in particular, hated this song so much he banned it from his home)
While I waiting for this carnival,
Is to jump up w/these criminal-
I'm going to arm myself w/a big stick
Any man in town I meet, that is real licks
'Cause I done tell Mammy already
Mommy, do do tie up your belly
'Cause is murder, federation, with war and rebellion
When they find me by the junction
I'm going down....
Chorus
Monday morning I waking early
To drink a vat to steam up my body
And I jumping up like a crazy
[Check out the neat Samson Agonistes of this next line!]
I alone gone collapse the city!
With my razor tied on to me poui [a stickfighting stick]
I like a badjohn in the 18th century
And w/my stick in my waist
I chipping in space
Is to spit in ole nayga face
Chorus
Well to show you I aim for trouble
On my right hand is my steel knuckle
My chooker [ie, dagger] in my left pocket
Boys, my pooya [ie, machete] under me jacket
And I jumping up like if I wild
I know they bound to say that is old-style
But if you beat me like a child
I take my licks with a smile
And I pelting war like I wild
Chorus
Well, as man I consult my doctor
To check my lungs and me liver
I done pay off me lawyer
To pay off me undertaker
And as I have no mother no father
They could post me back to Grenada
'Cause I tell Mr Chance, I done paid in advance
To bury me down in Grand'Anse
Man. The way he sings "mother and father" - that, too, kills me.
Track 9: More Sun-Ra produced doo-wop, though calling this stuff doo-wop is doing it a serious disservice. Track 10: The first of a mini-Memphis-two-fer, the rippingest rockabilly track around, and a somewhat appropriate one for this time of year. (NB, John Barr: Johnny Burnette Trio produced by the one & only Bob Thiele! But not this track.) Track 11: Memphis music is alive and well. Track 12: How different this demo of "Teenager in Love" is from the finished song! I'm glad Doc & Mort revised this draft - 'cause how great is it to be young and in love? I could try to answer that, but I just turned 33, so technically, I'm no longer qualified. NB:Special thanks to David "I Reserve The Right To Eat Pussy" Brendel for digging this up! Track 13: I'll leave this to the imagination (it was recorded thirty years ago, but might as well have been thirty years earlier, or thirty years from now), but this is the one song I heard this year that actually brought tears to my eyes. For, like, twelve different reasons. And Track 14: is another, excellent take on "Teenager." More tomorrow, thanks for tuning in, and a very happy new year to you & yours!
love, from
Moistworks' Astoria BureauLabels: alex, holidays
posted by Alex
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