Eat Someting Before Yuh Go!

Consuming Christmas
I am going through my collection of Trini Christmas music and listening with wonder to the prominence which is given to eating and drinking in many of these songs. I’d be really interested to hear similar songs from any other culture in the world. Thinking about it, the only other group that I have ever known to broadcast with such vocal gusto their unbridled excitement about feasts are the birds. You would have had to stand under a tree laden with ripe fruit, like series or pommerac to appreciate the similarity. Bacchanal! Yes, I have heard some non-native songs about Christmas food like the one that begins with "Chestnuts roasting" but somehow the lines “Everybody knows a turkey and some mistletoe/ Help to make the season bright” seem to be discussing fingerfood when compared with the feast described in Baron’s "It's Christmas":

De parang does start on Christmas day
And we doh stop until Ash Wednesday
So bring out de souse, bring out de pelau
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
Bring out de dasheen and de bacalau
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
We drinking sorrel, gingerbeer, whiskey
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
Anyting yuh bring is all right with we,
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
We eating black cake, apple, grapes or prune
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
Bring out something salt before de next tune
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
We drinkin puncheon, home made wine and Vat
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
But if yuh bring babash, we drinking dat
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
Is Christmas! [Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
Merry Christmas! [Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]

Many Trinbagonian Christmas songs are literally odes to food and drink. Some preferring to focus on a single delicacy, for example, Camacho’s “Garlic Pork”:

Gimme some garlic pork. All ah want is garlic pork

or, Sugar Aloes with his “Black Cake Lover” and Merc’s “Puncheon:”

She does treat me good [puncheon]
Way a woman should [puncheon]
Ah want to fall down [puncheon]
Rolling on de ground [puncheon]
She does treat me good [puncheon]
Way a woman should [puncheon]
Leon Coldero joins the currying of Christmas trend with his “Curry Christmas”

Ah curry Christmas, ah curry Christmas,
Ah curry Christmas with Indrani family
Ah curry Christmas, ah curry Christmas,
Ah curry Christmas down dey in Caroni

Curry ham, curry pork, curry pastelle,
even had curry duck
Curry black cake and manicou
Dey even put curry in de callaloo

Was curry chicken, curry souse,
curry turkey, dey curry everything
So much food I eh leaving now
Dey even had curry chow chow

Some of these songs sound like menus gone mad. I’m thinking especially about Scrunter’s “Eat Something Before Yuh Go.” Obviously at Christmas time in Trinbago, when it comes to eating, if yuh eating, you are expected to eat like a Viking.

Yuh know today is Christmas Day
Anyting yuh want to eat, jus say
Yuh could eat it right down to be bone
Boy, make yuhself at home
Ah ha black cake, turkey, wild meat,
lappe an 'gouti, grapes, apple
Boy, come an sit round de table

Eat someting before yuh go
Eat someting before yuh go
Eat someting before yuh go
Eat someting before yuh go

Maicoo’s Trini Christmas Is De Best” is more of the same:

Ah give him bread and ham together with a pastelle
Ginger beer, punch a crème and sorrel
A glass of local wine went to his head
He turn to me and said "Oh yes, Trini Christmas is de best!"
Even Santa falls in line in Scrunter’s “Backyard Jam” as he anticipates the eating and drinking to be enjoyed when he arrives in Trinidad to spend the Christmas:

Get all de bush rum ready and de wild meat too
And a room somewhere in Santa Cruz
To relax when a take mih booze

Ah pack mih suitcase already, ah just waitin on a flight
So tell everybody, ah coming in Christmas Eve night
I eh comin on no reindeer, dat take too much time
Ah cyah wait to reach here, to hold somebody and wine
Woy yo wo yo yo yoy, Ah want a pelau,
Woy yo woy yo yoy, With dasheen and bacalau
Woy yo woy yo yoy, Santa want to jam
Woy yoy woy yo yoy, Woy yo woy yo yoy…Baila!

And when it come to drinking….
Sundar Popo's Nani and Nana were among some of the earliest Trinbagionians to have their thirst for alcohol exposed in song and in more recent years there have been a spate of rum ditties hitting the airwaves. Some of these Christmas drinking songs are not on the same level as "Rum Till I Die," but they do come quite close.

They cover the spectrum from the “Drink Ah Rum” and Lara Brothers' "Vamos A Tomar Un Trago" which are innocent enough, to Scrunter’s rabid “Drinking Anything:”

Ah drinking white, ah drinkin black,
Ah drinking puncheon, drinking Vat,
Ah drinking Bacardi and cherry

and Gypsy’s “Sereno Say”:

Man, I know you have your mistletoe
And I know you have your snowman
And I know you have chandeliers hanging high
But dat just doh make me feel blue
Because I have mih own share too
Ah have mih belly full of rum
And a big sky full ah sun
And a West Indian Christmas, a West Indian Christmas
Drink yuh rum until yuh belly buss, buss, buss
Den yuh go cross by yuh neighbour
Say, Nabe come cross by me later
With a old cuatro and ah old guitar singing sereno, sera

Sereno, sereno, sereno, sera ha
Sereno, sereno, sereno, say rum
Sereno, sereno, sereno, sereno, say rum
Sereno, sereno, gih yuh neighbour some, ay yay.

Scrunter wakes Madame Jeffrey from her bed to start the drinking:

Ma Jeffrey oye, get up! Is Christmas morning
Like yuh eh hear de cock crowing, oh gyul,
Is Christmas morning
Madam Jeffrey oye, get up! Is Christmas morning
Time to put some smoke in yuh kitchen, oh gyul.
Is Christmas morning
Madam Jeffrey oy, wake up Is Christmas morning
Ah hope yuh know is White Oak ah drinking, oh gyul.
Is Christmas morning
Madame Jeffrey oye, get up! Is Christmas morning…

Even in "El Caiman", a song originally from Colombia about a man who changed into a caiman and who was fed bread and cheese by his mother, the Trinidadian version has him drinking rum instead of the lemon refreshments that the original caiman drank. In "Caminante", Baron states that one of the qualities which his good parang men must have is the ability to hold liquor.

Sprangalang in “Bring Drinks” is gathered with his friends “in a thirsty way” and calls for the booze:

Bring me rum for my Christmas
We could drink a flask, we could drink a nip
If you have a bottle hiding, bring it out today

Or listen to Scrunter's “Homemade Wine” where he visits Miss Gloria, who spreads her vast selection of homemade wines before him and invites him to taste:

Ah eat black cake from Joan already [Aye Miss Gloria]
So right now ah doh want no more [Aye Miss Gloria]
But all dem local wine you present me [Aye Miss Gloria]
Ah got to taste some ah dem for sure [Aye Miss Gloria]
Oh Madam, which one is yuh favourite? [Aye Miss Gloria]
Bring it out quick, leh me taste it [Aye Miss Gloria]
Is you who make it and yuh mus know [Aye Miss Gloria]
Ah want a good head before ah go [Aye Miss Gloria]
She say, hog plum, [pa pa pa]
Pommerac, [pa pa pa]
Cashew [pa pa pa]
Guava [pa pa pa]
Balata, [pa pa pa]
Bandanya, [pa pa pa]
Aloes, [pa pa pa] and cane.

I want some homemade wine, Madam Gloria
Gih me de home de wine. It nice!
Ah want some homemade wine, Madam Gloria
Gih me de home made wine. It sweet!

and perhaps the most graphic scene of dissipation is captured in“Ah Want Ah Piece Ah Pork” where Scrunter describes his Christmas wish:

”When ah drinking mih babash, ah wah pork grease round mih mouth”

The hoarders and their marauders

In “Is Christmas Again” and “Something for Christmas” the singers, according to your point of view, seem to threaten or cajole the host into making his food and drink available to them:

Is Christmas again, is Christmas again
Bring out all de scotch, bring all de gin, yuh better bring everything
Feliz Navidad, dis is Trinindad
Spread de word around all over de town. Is soca parang
Vamos amigos, take one fuh de road…
And…

Ah say, yuh must give me something for Christmas
Yuh must gih mih something for Christmas
Yuh better run something fast
Cause ah walk with mih glass
Ah say yuh must gih mih something for Christmas.
Baron’s “It’s Christmas” unashamedly details the revellers’ strategy for denuding their hosts supplies:

Neighbour, neighbour, open de door, neighbour
Is Chistmas morning, you should be waking
Put de drinks on de table
Ah hope yuh bar able
Me and de boys come to give you a parang
We eh leaving till de liquor done
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
Come on fellahs leh we take a next one
[Oy yo yoy, ay yay yay]
We have about ten more house to clean
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
We drinking from paint to kerosene
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
Is Christmas, Merry Christmas!
Is Christmas, Merry Christmas!

Last year we went by Balliram
He play smart and hide de ham
Bring one bottle ah babash
De ting finish wit one lash
Had to leave de man house quick
He say he wife was feeling sick
Dat same night she was liming in de Croisee
Well if he tink dat he get away
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
We going by he and spend de whole day
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
We eating and drink everything he bring
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
When we leave dey, he musn’t have a ting
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
It’s Christmas, Merry Christmas.
It’s Christmas, Merry Christmas.

Big mouth Charlie invite we home by he
Boy he must be a madman,
to entertain dis parang band
When de music in we vein
And de liquor hit we brain
Dis band could drink down Carib and Fernandes
When you see we land in yuh house
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
De only ting remaining is yuh spouse
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay ]
People does lock dey door, run and hide
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
When dey see de size ah dis parang side
[Oy yoy yoy, ay yay yay]
It’s Christmas, Merry Christmas!
It’s Christmas, Merry Christmas!
Marcia Miranda voraciously demands that the ham be brought out to her in “Bring Out De Ham”

Neighbour, oye, yo, yoy, Bring out de ham
Neighbour, aye, yay yay, yay, Bring out de ham
Neighbour oye, yoy, yoy, Bring out de ham
Neighbour aye, yay, yay, yay, Bring out de ham
All ah want to do is eat, Bring out de ham
Ah doh want no other meat, Bring out de ham
When ah taste good salt Rufus, Bring out de ham
Oh yes, ah feel like is Christmas! Bring out de ham

But Melan Garcia in his “Pitbull” strikes back at these guests who under the pretense of being parranderos are in fact barely disguised locusts:

Ah want two pitbills for Christmas
For all who cyah leave mih Rufus
When ah had one pothound alone
By Christmas ah down to ham bone
But dis year ah have a plan
For all wayward parang band
Two pitbulls ah want
One in de back and one in de front
[No more hooray, hoorah]
Let dem sing dey parang from far
[No more hooray, hoorah]
Ah could hardly hear dey guitar
If was long time, dey have me peeping
See me creeping through mih kitchen
Now is pitbull in de puef’n
Dey eh comin here fuh nuttin
[No more hooray, hoorah]
Oh let dem sing dey parang from far
[No more hooray, horrah]
Ah could hardly hear dey guitar...

I know that there is connection between the big appetities and the parang tradition, especially the house to house kind, something also to do with heavy drinking and needing something salt, but the most important influence has I think more to do with the generosity shown and expected in the Christmas season, and what says that better than abundant supplies of good food to offer to and share with guests. Then there is the host's pride in knowing that the guests were well fed and on the flip side the fear, as expressed by the hostess in Scrunter's "Eat Something Before Yuh Go", that people will say that she did not feed him if he leaves her home with an empty stomach and is later seen throwing up.

If you haven't yet added Scrunter's CD, "De Parang Now Start" to your collection, you are missing a big slice of RUMbunctious Trini Christmas Music. Alcoholics Anonymous should be advised to put these songs on their members’ "SONGS TO AVOID" list. Coming to think of it, Scrunter’s voice should also be on that list and maybe Ripley’s Believe It Or Not should consider noting it for its fascinating ability to make stereo speakers exhale alcohol while pumping his songs into a room. This makes Scrunter, in my opinion, the chanticleer of carousing.

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare