Die With My Dignity [Song]

Uploaded by marledebakkerunicorn
DIE WITH MY DIGNITY
By Singing Sandra

You want to help to mind your family,
You want to help your man financially
But nowadays it really very hard
To get a job as a girl in Trinidad
You looking now to find something to do,
You meet a boss man who promise to help you
But when the man lay down the condition,
Nothing else but humiliation.
They want to see your whole anatomy
They want to see wey your doctor never see
They want to do wey your husband never do
Still you ent know if the scamps will hire you
Well, if is all this humiliation
To get a job these days as a woman
Brother, they go keep dey money, I go keep my honey
And die with my dignity!

Some of them done park up already
Yet they sit down waiting like mapepire
Using the power of their cash and position
Waiting to abuse and exploit any woman
To get the work you have to go to bed with he
Become he slave, second wife and deputy
And as a next woman come on the line
He start to tell you, "You ent good, you can't wine."
They want to see you with some fancy, fancy pose
They want to see how you look without your clothes
They want you cock up like a bloody acrobat
Their wife at home, they can't ask she to do that
So before I have to lick down somebody
Or cuss and let the police come for me
Tell them they could keep dey money, I go keep my honey
And die with my dignity!

Looking for work, you might bounce up a fellow
Who might be looking quite handsome and macho
You tell yourself you want to work with he
So you decide to try a ratchifee
But when you done is then you get to know
He wife leave he and gone long time ago
With all the cash he have, he is a failure
The man is nothing but a blinking soucouyant
They want to feel up your navel and your breast
They want to see if you have lota on your chest
The things they want to do you with dey hand
Like if they searching to find the promised land
I am a woman who don't make any skylark
Before I slap them and they die of heart attack
Tell them they could keep dey money, I go keep my honey
And die with my dignity!

It have a lot of women just like me
Who might be not too well off financially
You need a job and you really need it bad
A man decide to help, you must be glad
But if you value yourself as a woman
You will demand respect from the vagabonds
Stand up to them and let them know the truth
Is work you want, you ent no blinking prostitute
You have a mole on your back, they want to see
They want to see if you have marks on your belly
They want to know how much man you had before
And if you strong enough to take any more
I have my pride and I have my ambition
I want to hold my head up high as a woman
So brother, they go keep dey money, I go keep my honey
And die with my dignity!

Source: The lyrics posted on this blog are often transcribed directly from performances. Although it is my intention to faithfully transcribe I do not get all the words and I have a knack for hearing the wrong thing. Please feel free to correct me or to fill in the words that I miss by dropping me a message via e-mail. I'd be forever grateful. Thanks in advance!
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A Note From The Gull

For some reason, the site is being queried for this song so I am happy to present it and the transcribed lyrics. Powerful, powerful stuff!

Thank you, Singing Sandra. This, together with Singing Francine's "Run Away" were among my mother's favourite calypsos. Her dignity was a major, major part of who she was in her life as a woman and she always warned her sons about taking advantage of women, even when the women appear to be willing.

"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