This is the time of the year most people start to prepare
Unconsciously we sing the refrain, "Christmas is here once again."
Anxiously your pores start to raise, the radio say, "Ten more shopping days."
So is a hustle and a bustle in preparation for the Christmas celebration.
Christmas is yours, Christmas is mine
A feeling of joy, it's so divine
So let us all rejoice and let the voices sing,
"Glory to the newborn King!"
Is now Mummy worrying about getting some new curtains
And then of course, the usual quarrel when he forget to buy the sorrel
Mummy blood pressure cause a big headache
No currants and raisin to make fruit cake
Daddy money short, he in a real jam, we ent sure if we eating ham.
Christmas is yours, Christmas is mine
A feeling of joy, it's so divine
So let us all rejoice and let the voices sing,
"Glory to the newborn King!"
A different breeze start to blow, you get goose pimples from head to toe
And then the music begin to play leading up to Christmas Day
By now the spirit gripping you tight, is parang and carols filling the night
And before you could wink, you yourself can't believe you right into Christmas Eve.
Christmas is yours, Christmas is mine
A feeling of joy, it's so divine
So let us all rejoice and let the voices sing,
"Glory to the newborn King!"
Christmas, we must remember, means the birth of our Saviour
It ent too late then to make a start to keep Him in our heart
Because is He who recommend peace and goodwill to all men
So that we can share without any fear, greetings true and sincere.
Christmas is yours, Christmas is mine
A feeling of joy, it's so divine
So let us all rejoice and let the voices sing,
"Glory to the newborn King!"
Christmas is yours, Christmas is mine
A feeling of joy, it's so divine
So let us all rejoice and let the voices sing,
"Glory to the newborn King!"
Christmas is yours, Christmas is mine
Christmas is yours, Christmas is mine...
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
Thank you, Lord Relator!
"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.
Tell your Granny put the sorrel in the sun to dry
Make the pastelle, bake the ham and now do you know why?
Tell your Granny put the sorrel in the sun to dry
Make the pastelle, bake the ham and now do you know why?
Decoration, celebration, music everywhere
Sing it out loud, "Alleluia, Jesus will be here!"
And I know if He's your main man, then you have no fear
Send your neighbour best of wishes for the coming year.
Sha lah-lah lah-lah, just have a happy day
A happy Christmas day, lah dee-dee dee-dee
Sha lah-lah lah-lah, just have a happy day
A happy Christmas day, lah dee-dee dee-dee.
How glad I am just to know, my friend
That you are never far and I will never be sad
I'm so glad just to know, my friend
That you are never far and I will never be sad
I'm so glad just to know, my friend
That you are never far and I will never be sad.
Groovy lovers in the city walking hand in hand
Little children make the toyshop like a fairy land
If you were some kind of angel, you could spread your wings
Then you fly up into heaven and I hear you sing.
Tell your Granny put the sorrel in the sun to dry
Make the pastelle, bake the ham and now do you know why?
Tell your Granny put the sorrel in the sun to dry
Make the pastelle, bake the ham and now do you know why?
Tell your Granny put the sorrel in the sun to dry
Make the pastelle, bake the ham and now do you know why?
Tell your Granny put the sorrel in the sun to dry
Make the pastelle, bake the ham and now do you know why?
Sha lah-lah lah-lah, just have a happy day
A happy Christmas day, lah dee-dee dee-dee
Sha lah-lah lah-lah, just have a happy day
A happy Christmas day, lah dee-dee dee-dee.
Sha lah-lah lah-lah, just have a happy day
A happy Christmas day, lah dee-dee dee-dee
How glad I am just to know, my friend
That you are never far and I will never be sad
I'm so glad just to know, my friend
That you are never far and I will never be sad
I'm so glad just to know, my friend
That you are never far and I will never be sad.
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
Thank you, Lennox Gray for this treasure from the past. We tend to associate Lennox Gray with "Around My Christmas Tree" and I had never heard this breezy, happy Christmas song until I found it recently on YouTube.
"Sha lah-lah lah-lah, just have a happy day
A happy Christmas day, lah dee-dee dee-dee"
"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.
[You gotta sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat
You gotta sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat
Sip, sip, sip, sip it, sip, sip, sip, sip it.]
The latest advisory, we must drink responsibly
The entire nation must drink in moderation
For this Christmas season, I beg you have reason
Be moderate and take it cool
Don't let alcohol make you a fool.
Sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat, if you can't do that
Don't bother to come and drink out my rum
My friends, I want you to know, this year the money low, drink slow!
Sipping and chatting is the way that you have to go in Trinbago
For economical reasons I change up the rules this season
And because of that I giving you sound advice
I saying it once, I not saying it twice
This year the lime go be nice
If you visiting a friend, pick up a bag of ice
If you going by Lenny, carry a bag of ice and the lime go be nice.
[You gotta sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat]
Wey this big crowd going? It only have three more pastelles remaining, you know!
[You gotta sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat]
[Sip, sip, sip, sip it, sip, sip, sip, sip it.]
Some people so greedy, they drinking fast and speedy
They mixing the liquor and like the pace getting quicker
They wouldn't pick and choose, they don't mind getting booze
Drinking like they in a race, next thing they puking inside your place.
What a disgrace!
Sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat, if you can't do that
Don't bother to come and drink out my rum
My friends, I want you to know, this year the money low
Sipping and chatting is the way that you have to go, drink slow!
For economical reasons I change up the rules this season
And because of that I giving you sound advice
I saying it once, I not saying it twice
This year the lime go be nice
If you visiting a friend, carry a bag of ice
If you going by Placid, pick up a bag of ice and the lime go be nice
[You gotta sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat]
Ey, boy, how you drinking so fast? Take your time boy.
You want to finish the bottle? Wey yuh...is a dog show? Cool it nah!
[You gotta sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat
Sip, sip, sip, sip it, sip, sip, sip, sip it.]
Must respect your neighbour, I beg you, watch your behaviour
Especially for Christmas, make sure that you put down some -------
Some people just don't think, all they want to do is drink
That kind of business cyah work
Please don't drink on an empty stomach.
What you have to do?
Sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat, if you can't do that
Don't bother to come and drink out my rum
My friends, I want you to know, this year the money low, drink slow!
Sipping and chatting is the way that you have to go
For economical reasons I change up the rules this season
And because of that I giving you sound advice
I saying it once, I not saying it twice
This year the lime go be nice
If you visiting a friend, pick up a bag of ice
If you going by David --------, carry a bag of ice and the lime go be nice.
[You gotta sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat]
Allyuh lucky allyuh being ice, you know, otherwise I'd ah put allyuh out already
You drinking too fast!
Is only a flask of whiskey I have, you know.
[You gotta sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat]
And when you see that petit quart of the rum done you know what happening? Ice or no ice, allyuh have to hit the door! I saying no more.
[Sip, sip, sip, sip it, sip, sip, sip, sip it.]
As we getting older, responsibility we must shoulder
We have to be wiser now that they bringing the breathalyzer
If you travelling home late, please be considerate
The onus is now on you, for Christmas time please don't overdo.
You hear what I say?
Sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat, if you can't do that
Don't bother to come and drink out my rum
My friends, I want you to know, this year the money low, drink slow!
Sipping and chatting is the way that we have to go in Trinbago
For economical reasons, I change up the rules this season
And because of that I giving you sound advice
I saying it once, I not saying it twice
This year the lime go be nice
If you visiting a friend, pick up a bag of ice
If you going by Barkie, carry a bag of ice and the lime go be nice.
[You gotta sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat]
Leave my whiskey alone! But how you drinking so fast? Is a race or what?
Take your time and swallow!
[You gotta sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat, sip and chat]
But what happening boy? Allyuh want to buss my bar?
[Sip, sip, sip, sip it, sip, sip, sip, sip it.]
Allyuh don't come by me next year with this kind of habit nah, with this kind of attitude. My drinks ent go last. Haul allyuh...!
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
Thank you, Lord Relator, for what could be a fitting reply to Sprangalang's "Bring Drinks".
"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.
HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
By Sheldon Blackman, Isaac Blackman and REMbunction
Spoken:Dem want me to stay in this cold place with snow. Dey mad or what?
Oh no, I have to be home for Christmas
Oh no, I have to be home for Christmas
Oh no, I have to be home for Christmas
Oh no, I have to be home for Christmas
You know I spend a lot of my time in England
So my friends ask me to spend Christmas in London
But I tell them as soon as you see November coming
I packing my bags, saying goodbye, 'cause is home I going.
Oh no, I have to be home for Christmas
Oh no, I have to be home for Christmas
Oh no, I have to be home for Christmas
Oh no, I have to be home for Christmas
Wild meat roasting on a beachwood fire, sunburn on my nose
And I don't have to wear no winter clothes
'Cause there is nothing like a Trini Christmas
Some does talk about a white Christmas but they dashing through the snow
But a blazing hot sunshine in the kind of Christmas that Remy know
Put Santa Claus and he sleigh on a pause, we going home, well yes, of course
For soca-parang and pastelle we eating and turkey covered in sorrel sauce.
Oh no, I have to be home for Christmas
Oh no, I have to be home for Christmas
Oh no, I have to be home for Christmas
Oh no, I have to be home for Christmas
Sereno sereno, sereno sera
----------------------------------
Happy Birthday to the Saviour
Sereno sereno, sereno sera
----------------------------------
Happy Birthday to the Saviour.
Oh no, I have to be home for Christmas
Oh no, I have to be home for Christmas
Oh no, I have to be home for Christmas
Oh no, I have to be home for Christmas...
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!
"Based on my latest book, Slouching Towards Sirte: NATO’s War On Libya and Africa (Baraka Books, Montreal, 2012), and nearly two years of extensive documentary research, this film places the 2011 US/NATO war in Libya in a more meaningful context than that of a war to “protect civilians” driven by the urgent need to “save Benghazi”. Instead it counters such notions with the actual destruction of Sirte, and the consistent and determined persecution of black Libyans and African migrant workers by the armed opposition, supported by NATO, as it sought to violently overthrow Muammar Gaddafi and the Jamahariyah. This film takes us through some of the stock justifications for the war, focusing on protecting civilians, the responsibility to protect (R2P), and “genocide prevention,” and examines the racial biases and political prejudice that underpinned them. The role of Western human rights organizations, as well as misinformation spread through “social media” with the intent of fostering fear of rampaging black people, are especially scrutinized.
My recommendation is to watch this video on Vimeo itself, and it is of a quality sufficient for it to be view properly on the full screen setting. Many thanks for viewing." SOURCE
Thank you, Maximilian Forte, for this sobering account of Libya's "liberation". The conviction that I take away from this is that citizens of a country must always strive for unity against those times when inevitably the wolves circling the borders will be admitted by the wolves within. This united front would be like some of those ancient ruins which continue to amaze us to this day, where the stone blocks even without mortar were set together so perfectly that not even a blade can penetrate the joints.
..............................................................................................................................
"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.
Say my name, say my name, say my name. I'm an African
Say your name, say your name, say your name. We are Africans
Do you have the information or a simple explanation
Tell me who gave who the authority
So to change my name, my identity
To replace the fame of great queens of life
To the lies of misery and strife?
You with your pale mind [so ashamed],
You with your weak heart [still in chains]
No respect for human blood sacrifice
Our ancestors fed to the plantation.
Say my name. [Say it, say it!] I'm an African
Say your name. [Say it, say it!] We are Africans
For survival we need a revival
For survival we need a revival.
Do you know what strength and courage
Brought me through the Middle Passage?
Still I strive with pride and dignity
As I fight to cling to my ancestry
With these hands of steel forged in Africa
And the blood of all the Yoruba
You, who came dancing from my womb,
Now you lay silent as a tomb
It is time to wake from your life of death
And to regain all your lost respect.
Say my name. [Say it, say it!] I'm an African
Say your name. [Say it, say it!] We are Africans
For survival we need a revival
For survival we need a revival.
Say my name, say my name, say my name
I'm an African
Say your name, say your name, say your name
We are Africans
As I walk this global domain
With Nzinga blood in my vein
I shall call the children of Mahalia
To protect the name of our forefathers
We must never bow our proud heads again
But must stand firm in the face of pain
I am the mother and the flame,
I am keeper of your claim
To a place of greatness in history,
It is I who named you after me.
Say my name. [Say it, say it!] I'm an African
Say your name. [Say it, say it!] We are Africans
For survival we need a revival [Say it like you mean it]
For survival we need a revival.
In the land of all the Pharaohs,
Lies the secret of our heroes
If you search you'll find your true history
And the names of all those who fathered me
Writings on the walls cannot be denied,
Cries for freedom spreading far and wide
Out of this land came Gods and Kings
Spreading their power on the wings
Of the might and glory of Africa,
Now I hear them calling from afar.
Say my name. [Say it, say it!] I'm an African
Say your name. [Say it, say it!] We are Africans
For survival we need a revival [Say it, say it, say it!]
For survival we need a revival....
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
Thank you, Ella Andall. I AM an African! We are ALL Africans whether we choose to acknowledge it or not.
Spoken: Merry New Year, ladies and gentlemen. Once again this is straight, diehard, genuine, authentic calypso and this is how the story goes:-
I went to Public Utilities and tell them,
"Disconnect them facilities 'cause me ent want them."
I try to contact the Ombudsman but never in office
I going to file me an injunction on the Public Service
'Cause every time a heavy rain fall, by me doh have no current at all
They spoil mih TV, they spoil mih fridge, they nearly kill me with low voltage
Now, before they make me a lunatic [I going back to basic]
I going and get a flambeau and lamp with wick. [I going back to basic]
I call my fans and I call my friends to let them know
That if they have a message to send, tell Tempo
And if they come home and they ent see me, tell my neighbour
Or get a pen and a writing pad and write a letter
'Cause TSTT does make me weep, gone are the days when ole talk was cheap
I make a phone call to Talparo and I get a phone bill to Mexico
Oh mih lord, before they kill me and kill me quick [I going back to basic]
A piece ah maling and two KLIM pan wouldn't do the trick. [I going back to basic]
I went and buy me a motor car for my own comfort
Because I can't take no more torture waiting on transport
But all them potholes and all them bump, mih car ent able
Until they invent a car to jump, well I go travel
I beg the Lord to please put a hand, touch the heart of the spare parts man
I used to have a raise in the bank, now every cent gone in my gas tank
Now, I prefer roll a roller with piece ah stick [I going back to basic]
Or buy a three-speed bike going jic-jic-jic. [I going back to basic]
Now the only competent source that really working
Is when you can't pay your bills on time, they come cutting
Incompetence and disregard ent no humour
'Cause the situation is sad for the poor consumer
The word WASA does give me gripe, I ask for water, them give me pipe
I can't even get mih clothes to wash, my toilet full and can't even flush
Now they make me condemn mih toilet bowl [I going back to basic]
And now I digging a latrine hole. [I going back to basic]
Yesterday, I went to the store to buy a cooler
Then get my Indian partner next door to make a chulha
I buy a donkey cart from Ramdeen to make a stagecoach
Then put some Severin in mih latrine to kill the cockroach
I buy a posey made in Hong Kong, the only silver posey in town
Well, if you see the latrine I build, girl, is the cleanest one on the hill
All down inside the hole and around the walls, I always Flitting... You know why?
To make sure cockroach ent bite my -----.
Long time, me, Gypsy and Cro Cro, back in the earlies
We used to go down town after show, pick up the ladies
Window shop, take them along, buy them a roti
Then find the cheapest hotel in town and make a pacoti
But time changes and so do we, so put that down in kaiso history
'Cause if you should do the same today, is like a game of Russian Roulette
So now, before one of them get me sick [I going back to basic]
I prefer sit down in a corner and ----------- [I going back to basic]
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
Thank you, Trinidad Rio! Not to make light of budget related woes and other hardships, but if we really think about it, we do need to go back to basics, not just to save money but to improve the quality of our lives. Funny eh? To live better we have to step back and slow down.
As always, my mind goes immediately to agriculture and food production. I don't know about you but in hard times, I could do without shelter, clothes, etc. If I were given the choice of one necessity of life, I'd choose food. We all really need food and water to survive. I read the section in the budget that applies to agriculture and food security and I crossed my fingers and hoped that this time we are being serious. For a society that is constantly referring to the importance of food and the pervasiveness of the soul selling "eat ah food" mentality, I would have expected agriculture to to be listed first among the initiatives outlined for diversifying the economy. Instead, six others:- financial services, tourism, information and communication technology, downstream energy industries are discussed before eventually turning to agriculture.
"AGRICULTURE
Mr Speaker, the seventh area of focus is agriculture. We propose to reduce our food import bill by 50.0 per cent or just over $2.0 billion per year by 2015. Achieving food security is our top priority. We all recall the global food price shocks in the period 2006–2010 when domestic inflation reached an annual average level of 9.1 per cent compared with an annual average of 4.8 per cent in the period 2001–2005. The increased levels of inflation stemming from our increasingly imported food requirements have had a harmful impact on our citizens, particularly our most vulnerable, as they sought to manage the business of their everyday lives. Consequently it is proposed on a temporary basis that Value Added Tax would be removed from all food items except luxury items and alcoholic beverages.
Mr Speaker, another global price shock is on the horizon as drought conditions are devastating commodity crops, in particular corn and maize, in the United States. These higher global prices are already generating price increases in Trinidad and Tobago in particular in the poultry industry. We shall be proactive. The Ministry of Food Production will take the following steps to address the situation:
1. the National Agriculture and Marketing Development Corporation (NAMDEVCO) is establishing a Commodity Stabilisation Fund which will initiate measures to stabilise both the supply and the price of identified produce on the market while at the same time strengthening the agro-processing sector;
2. the Ministry of Food Production through a competitive process, is now actively distributing to the national farming community, standard leases for small and large farms. These farms will occupy 4,111 acres on Caroni lands and 100 acres each on state lands at Tucker Valley. A condition of the leases will be agreed cultivation as quickly as possible;
3. the Ministry of Food Production is continuing to distribute standard agricultural leases for two acre-sized plots to the former employees of Caroni. We have decided to expedite the lease issuance exercise by utilising private attorneys to assist in the preparation of the leases. We expect that within the next two years more than 5,000 such leases will be distributed; and
4. the Ministry of Food Production, with agricultural land becoming less and less available in Trinidad and Tobago, is moving to establish a Food Security Facility with the Government of Guyana. The Facility would commit both Governments to expanding agricultural production in Guyana through the establishment of commercial relationships for funding the establishment of several large agricultural estates in Guyana. Mr Speaker, I wish to emphasise that the agricultural sector enjoys a range of incentives under the existing legislation. I would urge all farmers and other stakeholders to take advantage of these incentives.."
SOURCE:Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. BUDGET STATEMENT 2013. Stimulating Growth, Generating Prosperity, OCTOBER 1 2012, pg. 18.
Although Trinidad Rio does not address FOOD in his back to basics move, I believe it to be one of the foundation blocks of a society. The quality of food that we consume has far reaching impacts on every other sector and because everything is interrelated, sometimes the quality of food is affected by what is happening in other sectors. By the way why doesn't the government just bite the bullet and state that we are going organic? If the government would actually consider "legislation to make radio and TV stations introduce more locally produced programmes" why not consider legislation to introduce organic, earth/human friendly food production? Why can't the agriculture and food production industries be put on notice that there will be a move away from the importing and production of tainted plant and animal products? There is an organic agriculture movement already growing in this country and more and more enlightened people will be asking the right questions about the health problems being experienced by the population and the likely correlation between water and environment and food quality degradation and quality of life.
People all over the world are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of natural foods and there are increasing numbers who do not want to consume genetically modified agricultural inputs or products laced with agricultural chemicals/antibiotics/harmful preservatives. It is not pie in the sky to suggest to a forward thinking nation that the production and export of organically produced raw and processed materials would be very profitable.
Although I fully support cooperation between the Caribbean nations and I'd prefer to import from the Caribbean than outside, I do not think that we should rely too heavily on other countries before we have really given our agricultural sector a chance. We are not yet scorched, barren land, although some would like to be given free rein to make it so, and I will not be convinced that we are running out of land before I can examine how the land that we do have is being utilised - what is being hogged, used inappropriately or just lying idle. Perhaps we need also to be looking at land reform.
I will say it again and again - Trinbagonians who have access to land, even a small lot of land are in a good position. Those who live in concrete apartment blocks surrounded by concrete pavements have to lobby to get their representatives to secure community gardens. I have witnessed these thriving in two countries. Trinbagonian gardens can grow all year 'round and their owners have access to government farms, government support and advice and information leaflets from government agricultural extension services. Start small. Grow herbs, then go for spinach, beans, peas, corn, root crops. Plant a lime tree, a passion fruit vine, a breadfruit tree, a soursop tree.... plant something! You might have limes, your neighbour might have plantain. You could trade. VAT or no VAT, try as often as you can to leave the imported processed goods on the shelves, and go local. Start creating a demand for local organically produced meat and vegetables. Encourage the organic farmers to produce even more when they see that there is a growing market.
Take the short courses that are provided by the government. Take the courses provided by organisations like Wa Samaki Ecosystems. This year their annual Permaculture Design course will be conducted from November 9th -18th, 2012. So if you can afford the fees [people continue to find the money to pay for Carnival costumes] and if you can get the time off from work, take the plunge. As you get your garden growing, be a change agent and teach your neighbours about Permaculture.
Spoken:This is vintage. This is beautiful. This is how it was in the sixties.
If you can't take butt whilst you butting
Good Lord, stop the lashing
If you can't take butt whilst you butting
Good Lord, stop the lashing
You guffing up yuh chest, you playing strong
Butting all the boys that we got in town
You running down Jean, you running down Joan
And can't even comfort your wife at home.
She talk to James, you want to kill
She talk to Shorty, you grinding still
She walk out, you want to kill she with blow
Tell dem, "Do so doh like so."
Either you take your butt with a smile
Or make up your mind to stop running wild
On your wife, you can't make no style
Remember she's your woman, she ent your child
The both of you got the same privilege
Why try living as a savage?
Every morning you chipping in at half past four
She touch you, you gone and sleep on the floor.
She talk to James, you want to kill
She talk to Shorty, you grinding still
She walk out, you want to kill she with blow
Tell dem, "Do so doh like so."
It got some men playing a hawk in the land
They hate to see a nice man woman
From the time they see a woman
They doh care to know if she have husband
Every different night they going out and roam
Leaving their poor wife at home
Next day, if she tell a man she feeling hungry
They ready to extract two teeth for she.
She talk to James, they want to kill
She talk to Macky, they grinding still
She walk out, they want to kill she with blow
Tell dem, "Do so doh like so."
This is the end of my calypso
Remember, "Do so ent like so."
Spread the talk wherever you go
New York or Tokyo
Remember, you is the woman husband
You got to give she plenty satisfaction
Instead of that, you running down all the girls in town
And forget your wife home, big, fat and strong.
She talk to James, you want to kill
She talk to Shorty, you grinding still
She walk out, you want to kill she with blow
Tell dem, "Do so doh like so."
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
Thank you, Lord Brigo.
"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.
GOOD NAME
By Conqueror[1963]
with Berti Inniss and His National Recording Band.
Good name is to men and to women
A very precious gem, so they say
And if you kind-hearted, friendly and gentle
Never despair, you must see your way
But I feel that they lying 'cause I tired trying
So correct me, I may be wrong
Charitable Rouse dead in the poor house
Honest John living Shanty Town.
Good name ain't for people who poor like me
That is for men who living in luxury
Wey the sense you have good name
Ah big set ah false fame
And still you catching your donkey
Better they call you bad, say you lousy and hard
And you living grand like a king
Than they pat you on your back, call you kind-hearted Jack
And you ain't got a blooming thing!
It is the best policy to be honest
I sure you hear this from since you small
But I want you to stop and take notice
Honest people don't prosper at all
If you get two out of twenty, well, say you get plenty
The balance, don't care how they try
Is a grin or a smile from the fellow with the pile
Who accustom living in style.
Good name is for men of society
They could afford to give because they have plenty
But a fella like me, well, I cyah spare a penny
'Cause I always broken, believe me
Better they say you bad, call you lousy and hard
And you living grand like a king
Than they fool you with deceit,
Say you friendly, kind and sweet
And you ent have a thing to eat!
What a very confusing quotation
To my opinion, take it from me
Well it doh worth the paper it write on
You don't believe it, you look and see
Alright, you kind and you friendly, you love everybody
But you poor like a blooming dormouse
And your neighbour Mr. Gruff who always rough and tough
Have he TV, he cars and he house.
Good name is for folks of the higher class
No sense having a good name and catching yuh ----
You will find out before long, good name is a keep down
A title for a perfect clown
Better they call you bad, say you lousy and hard
And you living grand like a king
Than they fool you with good name,
Keep you down with false fame
And you ent have a blooming thing!
Well, you make many friends when you friendly
But when you cashy, you making more
So wey the sense you have a good name and you broken
To buy a pants, you have to band your jaw
I learn from experience, good name is a hindrance
Keep this in the back of your head
To be poor and have good name
Nothing but is false fame
Believe me, better you dead.
Good name is a gem, well that may be true
But I think is a jinx and a keep down too
Every charitable guy, somehow, I don't know why
Always end up with their pockets dry
Better they call you bad, say you lousy and hard
And you living grand like a king
Than you have a good name and a set of false fame
And beside that not a blooming thing!
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
Thank you, Conqueror.
This is an interesting point of view but I suspect it is one that many would prefer to keep to themselves. Most people want to be thought of as having a good name and most people want others to believe that they are actively engaged in maintaining that status. This means that many people would like others to believe that they subscribe to the values upheld by their society. The thing is when you accept that your name is associated with your family's good name, you are reluctant to shame them by disgracing that name. I don't know the identity of the poet or the original title of the poem included below but it is well used poem and I found it here. It made me think.
"You got it from your father
It was all he had to give
So it's yours to use and cherish
For as long as you may live.
If you lost the watch he gave you
It can always be replaced;
But a black mark on your name
Can never be erased.
It was clean the day you took it
And a worthy name to bear
When he got it from his father
There was no dishonor there. So make sure you guard it wisely
After all is said and done
You'll be glad the name is spotless
When you give it to your son."
"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.
In a recent post, I commented that I know that we are fully capable of producing local content which is of similar and superior quality to what is being imported. When I view Roger Alexis' productions on YouTube, I am convinced that my trust is not misplaced.
I am featuring "Leroy" which I saw recently and which left me limp with the laughter that had poured continuously out of me while viewing. I love Roger's work and I visit his channel frequently to see what his muppets are up to. Sometimes it's just an inflection in the voice, the inspired positioning of a limb, a facial expression, a way of expressing something, a view of the landscape, and Trinbago floods over me. This is the work of an artist who is hyper-observant, who has soaked in and processed what many of us take for granted in our local environment. There is an inaudible gasp behind the laughter when it is presented back to us, the lure of the mirror that does not lie although some of us prefer only its flattering reflections.
In "Leroy", Roger uses laughter as the hook and for some that would have been enough but the artist has also presented a moral to this piece and it is wrapped in stinging irony.
Six-year old Leroy has plainly and simply succumbed to some bad influences in his environment with the result that he is certainly not a child that you would want your children to emulate or even associate with. Yet, as I watched and listened to all the characters and even the producer's choice of title - "Leroy" with the '666' - mark of Satan tucked cleverly into the top left interior of the letter 'O' of the child's name, something else occurred to me. This is a story about how a child is marked by society. It is convenient for some to use Satan to explain the stain, or to refer to Leroy as a little demon [with the unspoken but perhaps self-fulfilling expectation that with time he will grow into a big demon] but every adult around Leroy is enabling his malformation.
I have no doubt that his mother, congenital and perhaps lifelong shaper of his character, really loves her child but she can teach him only what had been taught to her and not all of it will be good. From what I am seeing, she has already taught him to cuss like a rattlesnake, even though she seems oblivious to having transferred this skill to her child. She has taught him that he can continue to try to manipulate women/mothers/female partners or the gullible. She is teaching him that he will not need to face the consequences of his actions as long as he has a doting mother or a big pappy to shield and defend him. She will guarantee him that in the unlikely event that he should ever be called to account, at least one woman will stand before the press, stolidly maintaining that her son is a good boy. Or maybe not. Maybe the irascible Leroy will outgrow this phase, will switch gears and as an adult reminisce with amused disbelief about his colourful boy days. Maybe Leroy's mother will actually experience the wake up call of witnessing her son in action and will decide to face the facts and to change her ways along with his.
There is so much more that I can say about this episode. Every scene, every character provides a piece of the puzzle that when put together can explain what adds up to dysfunction. For me one of the most telling quotes was provided by Leroy's mother as she berated Mister Maxwell [another cussbud] with an expletive peppered defence of her child's innocence. Where would her darling, little boy have learned to curse???
"Look, old man, this is a six-year old child and he doh know nuttin' 'bout cussin' people... Look, just move yuh modda ar-- outta mih yard before I cut yuh ar-- here today! Like yuh hard of hearing or what? Just get yuh ar-- outta here! My child doh cuss! Where the f--- he go learn to cuss?!!"
Where indeed!
Keep up the good work, Roger Alexis!
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"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.
Lord, Please walk beside me through this day. Clear the heavy air with the lightness of Your Presence. Guide my hands and steady my heart that I may give comfort when I cannot give hope, that I may give relief when I do not have a cure, and that I may radiate Your healing peace when the limits of science, time, and the human body overwhelm us all. Amen
Source
Sáncte Míchael Archángele, defénde nos in proélio, cóntra nequítiam et insídias diáboli ésto præsídium. Ímperet ílli Déus, súpplices deprecámur: tuque, prínceps milítiæ cæléstis, Sátanam aliósque spíritus malígnos, qui ad perditiónem animárum pervagántur in múndo, divína virtúte, in inférnum detrúde. Ámen
