"Wha We go do?" meets "It's Not Love" in Baltimore.

  Uploaded by OZYMAJIQ WHA WE GO DO?
By Ozy Majiq
  
Spoken: Wha' is my name? Dey call me Ozy Magiq. Now leh mih tell yuh de real story.

Was a Friday, eating doubles by Saucey
Me and mih baby belly empty and we hungry
Two blaze, two slight, two to carry,
Sit down on de bonnet 'cause we wasn't in no hurry.
Two fellahs step up, dey say, "Wham, dready?"
Ah say, "I just cool, everyting just irie."
Next ting yuh know, one pull out a speshy
He say, "Pass yuh keys, pass yuh doubles, pass yuh money!"
Well, ah start to laugh, ah find it was funny
Dey push me in de back seat of mih brand new Sunny
They say, "Don't be a hero 'cause we trigger finger itchy."
Tune in next verse fuh de res ah de story.

Wha' we go do 'bout de kidnappers, car jackers,
Coke crackers and arbitrary slackers?
Wha' we need is some old time Mamas and Papas
Who know how to be slappers and tappers
Wha' we go do 'bout de kidnappers, car jackers,
Coke crackers and parliamentary slackers?
Wha' we need is some old time Mamas and Papas
Who know how to be slappers and tappers.

Well, we started in the East, the girl start to cry
I and all quaking fuh true, dat eh no lie
Ah turn and ask one ah dem, ah say, "Why? Why?"
Bop! Ah get a gun butt, it swell up all mih eye
So ah dress back, I didn't want to die
Dey roll a spliff 'cause dey wanted to get high
Dey say, "Take a smoke. Ent you is Rastafari?"
I say, "I cannot bun wid de enemies of the one Selassie I"...Why?

Wha' we go do 'bout de kidnappers, car jackers,
Coke crackers and arbitrary slackers?
Wha' we need is some old time Mamas and Papas
Who know how to be slappers and tappers
Wha' we go do 'bout de kidnappers, car jackers,
Coke crackers and parliamentary slackers?
Wha' we need is some old time Mamas and Papas
Who know how to be slappers and tappers.

Well, dey throw we in de trunk, dey didn't like we tone
Tie we up with rope and dey take away we phone
Carry in a track and dey leave we all alone
We manage to get away by rubbing on a stone
Ah feel like ah come up out ah de twilight zone
End up in a police station, me and Simone
Dey say, "Wha's yuh name, wha happen, did de girl get bone?
Ah say, "Mih name is Ozy Magiq but dat girl is not mih own."...Why?

Wha' we go do 'bout de kidnappers, car jackers,
Coke crackers and arbitrary slackers?
Wha' we need is some old time Mamas and Papas
Who know how to be slappers and tappers
Wha' we go do 'bout de kidnappers, car jackers,
Coke crackers and parliamentary slackers?
Wha' we need is some old time Mamas and Papas
Who know how to be slappers and tappers.

Wha' we go do 'bout de kidnappers, car jackers,
Coke crackers and arbitrary slackers?
Wha' we need is some old time Mamas and Papas
Who know how to be slappers and tappers
Wha' we go do 'bout de kidnappers, car jackers,
Coke crackers and parliamentary slackers?
Wha' we need is some old time Mamas and Papas
Who know how to be slappers and tappers.    

Spoken: Wha we go do? Who me? I doh know dem fellahs. Yuh understand mih? Is OzyMajiq, OzyMajiq O-Z-Y M-A-J-I-Q Yuh cyah spell it? Look, me ent ha no set ah money, pappy. I's just ah struggling entertainer. Yuh understand me? Who is she? Huh! Boy, yuh eh wanna know nah. So it go. Ah could leave now? I gone!

Wha' we go do 'bout de kidnappers, car jackers,
Coke crackers and arbitrary slackers?
Wha' we need is some old time Mamas and Papas
Who know how to be slappers and tappers
Wha' we go do 'bout de kidnappers, car jackers,
Coke crackers and parliamentary slackers?
Wha' we need is some old time Mamas and Papas
Who know how to be slappers and tappers.  

Source: The lyrics posted on this blog are 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! .............................................................................................   


A Note From The Gull

Thanks, Ozy Majiq. Your song came to mind as backdrop for the Baltimore "Slapper and Tapper of the Year" featured below:

Uploaded by CNN

I was prepared to make an exception and concede that the desperate female, thinking that her only son's life was in danger, had used her hands - the only prods available to her at that moment, to smack her child away from self -destruction. Back at the ranch, I am certain that the female a.k.a "strong black woman", is accustomed to using non-physical means of persuasion to guide her children, but this was an extraordinary situation, a life or death situation, and the two did not have the luxury of time.

In my opinion, her agreeing to appear on interviews and be used by the reactionary mainstream and vapid social media does adds insult to injury. In her own words, she did not want her son to become another Freddie Gray?  Is that Baltimorese for "Let the Devil take the hindmost"? Yes, I understand that she believes that her first priority is her son's life but if the sister had to mention Freddie Gray, now that her collusion has earned her the mike and Twitter hash tags, why use his death as just a cautionary tale without publicly questioning the society in which violence is dispensed so freely at home and abroad. Freddie Gray was not some young wildebeest who strayed away from the munching herd to be dragged off to his death by marauding jackals.

So now that they've given her carte blanche to beat her children away from the "revolting" hordes to the fragile safety of acquiescence, she seems contented to go along, to chat with these people, most of whom did not and still do not care about her or her life and wouldn't have even known about Freddie Gray's story if protesters had not taken it to the streets. In any other situation where rocking the system had not been involved, this woman would have been censured for child abuse. But in this society, violence of any sort that reflects and supports the status quo is lauded. No surprises there. Trinbagonians know the score.

I pass the debate about the efficacy of corporal punishment to those who have proof that it is the one thing that stands between us and Armageddon. I won't even attempt to soothe you with stories about how I was beaten and turned out just fine. With the benefit of hindsight, I can assure you that none of my problems were ever addressed or solved by beatings. Beatings were just meant to make me toe whatever line I had crossed. Corporal punishment was just one quick-fix, crowd control technique to be utilised by the distracted, stressed, harassed, impatient parent/teacher. So I won't try to dress it up as love although some of you will argue that corporal punishment is done out of love, that it hurts the one dispensing it more than the one receiving but you should have asked yourselves why.

It is because those of you who are really honest, know that your actions are a signal of your own unresolved childhood traumas and your failure as adults, at consistent, thoughtful, vigilant parenting. On some level you must be aware that your child's pummelled hide is standing in for your own impotence before a system that has and continues to abuse you.

Thank you, Brendon O'Brien, for the following thoughts:


Uploaded by TTRN -Trinidad and Tobago Radio Network Limited
IT'S NOT LOVE
By Brendon O'Brien

My mother is no stranger to the idea that love makes calloused hands, that love lingers on the body, the kind of stinging sensation where my skin reminds my spirit that I will be loved as long as I act like I deserve it, and think that I don't.

A cut tail is not a conversation. There is no imparting of wisdom in whippings and wounds inflicting. There are inquiries about my age like she didn't birth me. There are statements of status like I'm her pride personified. There are reminders. This is her house. I don't belong beyond supplying some significant satisfaction when other mothers are asking how the son's acting. This is her house. I don't belong unless I've earned enough scars.

I still see the hugs and kisses her father left on her skin to cover the hurt of a generation. That's where she learned it - watching her own mother get loved to bloody near death and knowing that sometimes she was next for blows.

This is how you raised a child back in 1969. There is a manual with a prologue written by Willie Lynch. Punishment is about power. Discipline is about demonstrating control. You can only really love someone when they follow your every word quickly and soundlessly.

Love is a verb in my mother's house, a contact sport. Her will and strength come in contact with my youthful frailty and curiousity, uses one as a weapon to destroy the other.

Love is loud - screams and cries echoing through the house:

If you loved me, you wouldn't do things that I don't want you to do just because I told you not to. If you loved me, you wouldn't ask a question I don't want to answer. If you loved me, you would bend to my will. Now I have to write love on your skin with whatever blunt instrument I can find!.

My mother put a generation of her pain on my back and called it love. It's not.

My mother's hands are the reason I am afraid of the cops and I don't trust myself and I don't believe in God. My mother's hands are the reason I am Marxist and independent and don't trust anyone's love, including my own.

I imagine some folks become just as good at making love and share of their hands as often, to their children, to their friends, to their enemies, [because God said to love them too] to their girlfriends and wives and lovers lost because they said the love marks hurt their skin. I am sure they continue loving them until their dying day.

But I don't trust anyone's love, including my own.

We are putting a generation of pain on our children's backs and calling it love. It's NOT.

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

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

Old Time Cat o' Nine [Song]

Lord Invader's snapshot from the past, tells of a time when "Robust" men and maybe women were also wreaking havoc in their communities [T&T and Britain].  In his calypso, he proposed the liberal and energetic use of the cat o' nine whip as a punishment and deterrent just as some today are again falling back on the death penalty. I do not agree with the death penalty or the cat o' nine being used as a deterrent against crime but I am all for swift and decisive interdiction as the obvious and completely defensible action at this point.

It was with relief then, that I read about the raids in Port of Spain this morning here, here and here.  Well done! to all the peace keepers involved in this authorisation and execution of this exercise. It sends the message to the miscreants that lawlessness will not be tolerated and to the victims, that their lives and property are not garbage.

I say this bearing in mind that we still have to get to the root problems and ask questions about why direct violence and structural violence continue to plague our society but I understand that these problems are generational and systemic and will not be solved in the short-term. In the short-term however, fiddling can mean the difference between life and death, between peace and war for victims and criminals alike. This situation is also an indictment against the law keepers that such criminal activity should have been allowed to escalate to the point where raids are required. 

A while back I had posted some information about the Brazilian Pacifying Police Units (UPP) which move into troubled communities and stay there to establish a relationship with their members and to ensure peace for the beleaguered residents.

Good also to see the government and the opposition coming together to work towards solutions.

 Uploaded by etheangel2220
OLD TIME CAT O' NINE
By Lord Invader

The only thing to stop these hooligans from causing panic in the island
The only thing to stop these hooligans from causing panic in the island
Well, I know that the government see they need another kind of punishment
I say one thing to cool down this crime is to bring back the old time cat o' nine.

So the old time cat o' nine, bring it back, and they bound to change their mind
Is to send them Carrera with licks like fire and they bound to surrender.

And in the days of Judge Gilchrist, as you know, nothing never happen so
Any man pass under his hand can tell you of the rod of correction
He use to treat them meek and mild, well, he never spare the rod to spoil the child
I say one thing to cool down this crime is to lash them with the old time cat o' nine.

So the old time cat o' nine, beat them bad, and they bound to change their mind
Is to send them Carrera with licks like fire and they bound to surrender.

The police is working harder and harder to see this thing go no further
Every night they on duty to safeguard us from violence and robbery
But they wouldn't stop at all, Peter is going to pay for Paul.
I say one thing to cool down this crime is to bring back the old time cat o' nine.

So the old time cat o' nine, lash them hard, and they bound to change their mind
Is to send them Carrera with licks like fire and they bound to surrender.

And every night they walking about in a band singing the song called, "Robust Man"
Have you heard it? - "I'm a robust man. Don't ask how ah ----- danger.*
The judge and jury can settle this thing easily
So the cat is the only time bomb to drop and this robustness will stop.

So the old time cat o' nine, beat them bad, and they bound to change their mind
Is to send them Carrera with licks like fire and they bound to surrender.

* "In the middle of 1943 an anonymously penned letter to the Trinidad Guardian reported on the conduct of a male defendant. This young man, according to the correspondence, broke out into song in the course of being sentenced. The lyrics were nothing short of the celebration of the "saga life."

 

Number one, ah en' working no way

Number two, ah en' drawing no pay  

Number three, ah en' got no wife  

Number four, is a saga life

So I'm a robust man
Don't talk 'bout no brave dange. [83]  

True or false, this allegation trenchantly testifies to the subversive significance of saga. Both lyrics and setting confirm saga as a subculture of deliberate and dangerous indifference, indeed, of boastful challenges to decent manhood. The demands of neither work, woman nor law could compromise the saga boy's worldview that life was a game meant to be played fully, richly and fearlessly. The saga boy styled himself irremediably and unrepentantly against the conventional wisdom  (otherwise) of colonial society. In the end, no image better conveys the arrogance, insouciance and defiance of the saga life than that of a convicted man lyrically paying tribute to his deviance in the face of judicial power." Source: Caliban and the Yankees: Trinidad and the United States Occupation. By Harvey R. Neptune. ReadHowYouWant.com, 2009, pp. 98-100  

"Just before Invader left Trinidad for New York to challenge Morey Amsterdam and his coterie, there was a heading in the Sunday Guardian letters page: "The 'Cat' Urged As Remedy To Stamp Out Hooliganism" (11 February 1945: 4) The "cat" in question was the slave whip or "cat o' nine tails", and the "hooliganism," territorial activity associated with different steel bands.

These groups defended their patch against rival units and, as shown by numerous contemporary court reports, acted in bravado as "Robust Men," terrorizing innocent bystanders as well as those they saw as direct opponents. Such anti-social behaviour increased as the Second World War progressed, the root cause of which was not addressed by the proposal of corporal punishment as sole deterrent. Invader looked to these issues in his ironic "Old Time Cat-O'-Nine" recorded for Decca in 1945 (34009). Soon after his arrival in Britain, in 1956, he told the Melody Maker that this was one of his favourite compositions. (5 May: 8) 

On returning to England from continental Europe in 1958, Invader encountered a similar phenomenon, gangs of "Teddy Boys," white youths who fought one another and carried out random acts of violence against passers by. Sometimes these assaults were racially motivated. Invader immediately revised his Old Time Cat-O'-Nine, altering locations and personalities to suit the new environment and recorded it as Teddy Boy Calypso (Bring Back The Old Cat-O'-Nine) (Nixa 15162). Residing in New York City in 1959, he recycled this version with minor variations for Moses Asch.

The only thing to stop those Teddy Boys,
From causing panic in Great Britain,
The only thing to stop those hooligans,
From causing panic in England,
Well I hope that the Government,
See they need another kind of punishment,
I say one thing to cool down this crime,
Is to bring back the old time cat-o-nine.

CHORUS:
So the old time cat-o-nine beat them bad,
And they bound to change their mind,
Is to send them to Dartmoor with licks like fire,
And they bound to surrender.

In the days of Judge Hitchins, as you know,
Nothing never happen so,
Any man pass under his hand,
Can tell you of the rod of correction,
He used to treat them meek and mild,
He never spare the rod to spoil the child,
I say one thing to cool down this crime,
Is to bring back the old time cat-o-nine.

CHORUS:
So the old time cat-o-nine, bring it back,
And they bound to change their mind,
is to send them Dartmoor with licks like fire,
And they bound to surrender.

The police is working harder and harder,
To see this thing go no further,
Every night they on duty,
To safeguard us from violence and robbery,
But they would not stop at all,
Peter is going to pay for Paul,
I say the cat is the only time bomb to drop,
And this "Robustness" must stop

CHORUS:
So the old time cat-o-nine, lash them hard,
And they bound change their mind,
send them Dartmoor with licks like fire,
And they bound to surrender.

You see that 'though these Teddy Boys haven't got no reason,
Attacking innocent people,
Every night they walking about in a band,
With a razor in their hand,
But the judge and the juries, can settle this thing easily,
I say one thing to cool down this crime,
Just beat them with the old time cat-o-nine.

CHORUS:
So the old time cat-o-nine, beat them bad,
And they bound change their mind,
is to send them to Dartmoor with licks like fire,
And they bound to surrender.

SOURCE: Calypso in New York - Lord Invader: The Asch Recordings 1946 - 1961. Smithsonian Folkways Liner Notes, pp. 22-23.

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!
..............................................................................................................................     

"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
 

Borderline [Song]

BORDERLINE
By 3CANAL

I don't give ah...I don't give ah...
I don't give ah... I don't give ah dam
I don't give ah... I don't give ah...
I don't give ah dam. I don't give ah dam
What dey go do, what dey go say?
What dey go do, what dey go say?
What dey go, what dey go, what dey go, what dey go?

What dey go do, what dey go say
When dey realise that dey can’t push you across the line?
Don’t you go over! Don’t you go over!

I don't really give ah dam what people say
'Cause you know they going to say it anyway
Oye, just between me and you
I’m more concerned with what they do.
And when I say I don't care what people say
I talking about de ole talk and lacouray
Oye, bangarang and ratiray
Every day is another taylaylay.

What dey go do, what dey go say
When dey realise that dey can’t push you across the line?
Don’t you go over! Don’t you go over!
What dey go say when dey realise
That dey can’t push you across the line?
Man Don’t you go over! Don’t you go over!

Say, Mister Short Fuse and ready to trip
Take a deep breath, relax it
You got to centre yuhself boy, focus yuhself boy
Organize yuhself to redeem yuhself
Talk to yuhself then talk to the Lord
Talk to yuhself again trust in the Lord
With Jah as yuh counsel, who could provoke yuh?
Jah as yuh guider, who could frustrate yuh?

What dey go do, what dey go say
When dey realise that dey can’t push you across the line?
Boy, don’t you go over! Don’t you go over!
What dey say when dey realise
That dey can’t push you across the line?
Boy, don’t you go over! Don’t you go over!

I don't give ah... I don't give ah...
I don't give ah….
What dey go do, what dey go say?
What dey go do, what dey go say?
What dey go, what dey go, what dey go, what dey go?

Although some times there are some people in this life
Who want to fill your heart with strife
But don’t you go over!… Hmm
And yes, I know the situation in this world
Could make you want to lose control
But don’t you go over! Don’t you go over!

What you go do, what you go say
When you realise that dey done push you across the line?
Boy, don’t you go over! Don’t you go over!
What you go say when you realise
That dey done push you across the line?
Boy, don’t you go over! Don’t you go over!

I don't really give ah dam what people say
Cause you know they going to say it anyway
Oye, just between me and you
I’m more concerned with what they do.
And when I say I don't care what people say
I talking ‘bout de ole talk and lacouray
Oye, bangarang and ratiray
Every day is another taylaylay.

What dey go do, what dey go say
When dey realise that dey can’t push you across the line?
Man, don’t you go over! Don’t you go over!
What dey say when dey realise that dey can’t push you across the line?
Man, don’t you go over! No, don’t you go over!

I don't give ah... I don't give ah...
I don't give ah... I don't give ah dam…
What dey go do, what dey go say?
What dey go do, what dey go say?
What dey go, what dey go, what dey go, what dey go?
I don't give ah…

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!
..............................................................................................................................




A Note From The Gull

Feeling stressed by society’s demands, expectations, provocations, whether real or imagined? This song is about the traps into which we allow ourselves to walk. Perhaps influenced heavily by the backdrop of violent crime among other things, the scene that immediately came to mind when I first listened to the lyrics was one where one party was provoking another to physical violence. The song’s repeated message (and you can almost hear the incoming flurry of Guardian Angel’s wings) “Boy/Man, don’t you go over! No, don’t you go over!” is not just a call to avert disaster but also a challenge to reclaim control over one’s destiny.

This song leads me to think about so much more.

Most of us have never crossed that line to physically hurt another human being but we might have hurt each other in other ways. Even more inexplicable when you consider a human being’s natural instinct for self preservation, is the frequency with which we cross the line to harm ourselves because we feel that we are being pressured by others into conforming. We think we have no choice, or we know that there is a choice but the path of least resistance is so much easier.

It is easier to suppress by whatever means, or to ignore the nagging unease that tells us that someone or something else is living our lives. We are not our own men and women. All around us our peers are being refashioned in the image of whatever god is in season and some of us fall in line so that we will fit in.

And so, how do we go about arriving at the point where we can, like the singer, also not give a dam about things that in the end are really not worth a damn? And even more importantly, how do we arrive at this state on our own two legs and without the assistance of alcohol, drugs, hidebound institutions and other stupefying excesses?

Well I think we should meditate upon a dizzying conundrum which we know to be the reality:

The same society that impacts on us, is the one that we create by our actions (or inaction).

Or you could say it this way:

There is an inverse proportion between the positive activism that you undertake in your own life and the negative pressure that society can impose on your real self.

Borderline is telling us that there is a point at which we all arrive in our lives where we are challenged to take a stand. The consequences of going along to get along are often not as obvious as in the case of Mister Short Fuse with the smoking gun running away from the scene of a murder. It is something that can come to you at any minute of the day, the realization that you have betrayed yourself. The song asks:

What you go do, what you go say
When you realise that dey done push you across the line?

Be honest with yourself, and if you can accept the responsibility for whatever you did or didn't do, you will more readily admit that in the end “dey” were just the ones who dangled the hook. You, however, took the bite.

Thank you, 3CANAL!

"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