On Reaching Fifty [Song]

Uploaded by Trinnilicious4life
ON REACHING FIFTY
By Singing Sandra (2012)
Written by Christophe Grant

When a grown man turning fifty, he should be fully independent
With his own money, moving thrifty, lord, and king of his tenement
So Trinidad and Tobago, you set sail in '62
But when I check out your ship and cargo, I feeling like deja vu
We boast we have we own anthem, we even boast we have we own flag
Some say money is not the problem but something making mih country drag.

Answer mih question, please [Why you still in your Mammy house?]
Oy, you don't have your own damn keys! [You still in your mother house]
You ent have no blinking shame! [You still in your Mammy house]
Mampoule man must be your name! [You still in your mother house]

'Cause your police chief is Canadian, your national dish is KFC
And look how dem judge in London making final decisions for we
The youth taste of art and culture shaped by hip hop and BET
But you boasting to all and sundry, this year you turn fifty.

No! I can't respect that no how! [You still in your Mammy house]
Oh, to foreign masters you bow [You still in your mother house]
You down on your hands and knees [You still in your Mammy house]
To hang a man, you begging, "Permission, please." [You still in your mother house]

Shame! Shame, shame!
Shame, shame! Shame, shame!

Like some love the breeze up in London while they scorn we own CCJ
And when you ask them what's their position, "That's not a priority," they say
We who gave the world Sir Hugh Wooding, Telford Georges, De la Bastide
To their judgement we must keep bowing, most insulting indeed!
They don't believe in the death penalty, Constitution, ent give a fig
So why to their counsel we must be privy,
Just to breathe their cold air and wear a wig?

Answer mih question, please [Why you still in your Mammy house?]
Oy, your death penalty, they freeze [You still in your mother house]
You ent have no blooming shame! [You still in your Mammy house]
Manicou man must be your name! [You still in your mother house]

'Cause your youths love all things Jamaican, the road march king is Movado
Ask ------------ distribution who making all the dough?
The youth's sense of high adventure is Flugtag by Red Bull
And they turn their back on their culture and no kaiso tent can't full.

I can't respect that no how [You still in your Mammy house]
Fifty years old, yet to others you bow [You still in your mother house]
You down on your hands and knees [You still in your Mammy house]
To pull a cow, look you begging Red Bull, "Please, please." [You still in you mother house]

Shame! Shame, shame!
Shame! Shame, shame!

Don't tell me 'bout golden anniversary 'cause this looking more like brass
The liberty is a forgery, somebody change the anthem fast
And our twin nation supposed to stand side by side
But the THA jurisdiction, up to now they cannot decide
According to Orville London, somebody yanking the chain
Granted power by the legislation, must still answer to Port of Spain.

Answer the question, please! [Why you still in your Mammy house?]
You don't have your own damn keys! [You still in your mother house]
You ent have no blinking shame! [You still in your Mammy house]
Mampoule man really your name! [You still in your mother house]

'Cause we chase 'way the Scarlet Ibis, when last you see a cocrico?
The manatee, that hardly exist, Chaconia also
We plunder the environment in our greedy haste for money
But we boasting to all and sundry, this year we turn fifty.

I can't respect that no how! [You still in your Mammy house]
Your natural beauty you rape and plough! [You still in your mother house]
Keep cutting the mangrove down! [You still in your Mammy house]
To build your Hyatt and your MovieTowne. [You still in your mother house]

'Cause the pirates out of control [Shame!]
The murders out of control [Shame!]
The children out of control [Shame!]
The drug trade out of control [Shame!]
Corruption out of control [Shame!]
------- out of control [Shame!]
The economy out of control [Shame!]
The country out of control [Shame]
Don't colour me orange, color me GOLD!

Trinidad, I shame! Shame, shame!
Lord, I shame!

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

Kaiso, Kaiso, Kaiso! Thank you, Singing Sandra and Christophe Grant. Although I do not support capital punishment, I get the broader point that is being made and I will be thinking about this song for weeks...the music, the lyrics, the delivery, the ideas. Well crafted songs like these that make you think, that make you bow down before calypso, are too few these days.

Singing Sandra, I will never stop singing your praises. Stay true to this sacred vocation because whenever you sing, even if as a voice in the wilderness, I feel all that is strong and righteous in our nation encircling you to dance.

"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