The Stick Man: How Can We Keep From Singing?

Uploaded by IsDePanInMe

DE STICKMAN
By Mighty Zandolee

Well a female stick-player named Winnie living Sangre Grande
She put an ad on the Guardian, she say “Open competition”
She is the best stick-player in Grande and she playing anybody
And so I walk on she Carnival day to see if she could really play
Well we carré down in the back of the alley, only me and she
I fall on mih knees and I charge she the first bois under she belly
She breaks the bois and she back back, watch me fix in mih eye and laugh
I get delirious and I charge she three in succession…
Mih wood break in half.

You could imagine how I feeling shame to see Zando loss he flame
Now mih wood break in the centre and she laughing “Kyah, kyah, kyah!”
Now if you see how Zandolee crawling on mih knees and perspiring
But I pick up a piece a string in a drain so I tie up mih wood and carré again
Now I jam she on a bois cano fencing, she started to bawl
But in the excitement she raise the bois so I back ’til I stumble and fall
Then she stand up over me and she charging, this time, poor Zando in the drain
So I charge she a bois to dig out she liver…
Mih wood break again!

It was getting late in the evening and people start gathering
So an old stick man name Joe Pringay lend me a stick to play
Now I charging like if I crazy and she only backing from me
She say, “I didn’t know you coulda play stick so?
Oh mih lord oh, beg pardon, Zando!”
Now she scramble onto the bois with she two hand, playing tug of war
I say, “Leggo, leggo, leggo woman, what you doing that for?”
Well it slip out she hand and she fall in agony, begging me to stop
I say, “Wood make you bawl, wood make you fall, is wood to make you get up!”

Now that was the end of the competition and people voicing their opinion
Now they declare me the winner of the stick fight games
So Winnie bow down she head in shame
They say the only solution is to tender your resignation
She say she know she get bois but she ent mind
She break mih wood twice so she could resign
Now a Chinee doctor from Barbados named Doctor Kimlan
Was the chairman of the competition so he genuflect and shake mih hand
And when I think is a trophy I go get fuh mih prize, you will be surprised to hear
Is a ring he put put on mih wood with a medal mark “Wood Man of the Year.”

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!
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A Note From The Gull

The subtitle for this post "How Can We Keep From Singing" was inspired by the hymn "How Can I Keep From Singing?" which was composed by American Baptist minister, Robert Wadsworth Lowry, in 1860.

"My life goes on in endless song
Above earth's lamentations
I hear the real, though far-off hymn
That hails a new creation
Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear the truth, it liveth
It sounds an echo in my soul
How can I keep from singing?"

Music and singing come so easily to us and despite everything, in the absence of even a reason for doing so, a song is given, a song is received, something is communicated, spirits are lifted. I love this music that springs eternal. I love the songs about our lives and experiences, especially the songs that sweep aside the gloom more effectively than any medication or words of wisdom and consolation.

The original intention of this blog was to include only songs which have as their subject "Trinidad and Tobago" but I want now to include the Trinbagonian songs that, for whatever reason, make me grin, chuckle, laugh out loud. These are the songs that make me feel that it is good to be alive, that leave me in awe over the true calypsonian's genius in being able to spin gold from the straw of our everyday lives.

Thanks to many persons including IsDePanInMe, who share our music with the world via YouTube, I have been enjoying the videos of live performances. I cannot understand why it is that before I met them on the Internet, I did not know anything about calypsonians like Black Prince and Zandolee. How many other Trinbagonians are like me and how many other calypsonians still await discovery by me.

How can they keep from singing? How can I keep from listening and singing their praises?

Thank you to all true calypsonians in the here and now and in the hereafter.

"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

The Whip [Song]

  Uploaded by IsDePanInMe THE WHIP
By Zandolee

Well they bring a racehorse from England, Mooma, last February
So I send in my application as a professional jockey
But the stable master Ignatius Galt, watch me and finding fault
He say, “Son, I betting you ten to one, you too light to make this horse run.”
I say, “I light but I strong, Mister don't judge me wrong,  
Don't bet me at all, I playing jockey from since I small  
Because I used to ride goat, [goat] dog, [dog] mule, [mule] hog, dem fat police horse  
And with the length and size of mih whip, you lost."

He say the length of the whip is not all Son, you must ride the horse and doh fall
You whip could be fat like a macajuel and you can’t use it well, you in hell
But anyway if you want this ---------- gimme a demonstration
So he bring a Ginny donkey for me and he tell me to work it out, let he see
But I tell him, “Look here Ignatius, you too blasted advantageous  
Them animal I call, I didn’t mention donkey at all.  
What I tell you was goat, [goat] dog, [dog] mule, [mule], hog  
Don't do me that, no, boss. Lord, if I tackle donkey I lost!"

He say, “Look how you back out from donkey and Iron Man is your name?  
You call yourself a jockey but you make everybody shame.”
So then I unpile the whip from ’round mih waist and I shake it in front he face
He fell in love with it then and there, so he kiss the whip and declare
Then he say, “Listen Zandolee, demonstrate on me  
I am the boss and if you satisfy me I give you the horse.”
So I mount up mih saddle like if I evil
If you see people how they assemble
All round the track to see me climb on Ignatius back.

Now me and Ignatius was on the track and mih whip ‘noint with Chinee oil
Instead he run forward, he backing back when he see mih long whip uncoil
So I drive the first lash underneath the tail
He started groaning with pain
He tried to get away but he jam the rail
So I whet him with the whip again
And then he started to beg me, “Have mercy! Mister Zandolee, you go kill me.”
I say, “Shut yuh mouth, is you whey beg me to work you out.  
Because I used to ride goat, [goat] dog, [dog] mule, [mule] hog, anything you call  
And whey I vex now, I tackling donkey and all.”

Well me and Ignatius was on the track and mih whip ‘noint with Chinee oil
Instead he run forward, he backing back when he see mih long whip uncoil
I drive the first lash underneath the tail,
He started groaning with pain
He tried to get away but he jam the rail
So I whet him with the whip again
And then he started to beg me, “Have mercy! Mister Zandolee, you go kill me.”
I say, “Shut yuh mouth! Is you whey beg me to work you out.  
Because I used to ride goat, [goat] dog, [dog] mule, [mule] hog, anything you call  
And whey I vex now, I even tackling Gypsy and all.”  

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

What strikes me while listening to this song is the innocence of it. My choice of the word "innocence" might raise some eyebrows because according to your point of view you might have come to the conclusion that the "undertone" is a bit much for the delicate or tightly wound moral palate. 

Well, thankfully, the scandalized can rest easy. This song was not intended for you, nor does it include you or even dare to assume that you could relate to it. This song is for hearts that are open: 

to surprise, to tall tales told brilliantly, to songs crafted and sung expertly, 

to the devilry of a wicked analogy or double entendre, 

to delighting in the teller's daring, 

to the luxury of enjoying a communal joke with your own community, 

to allowing our insecurities about having less to be wiped away by impossible fantasies of ridiculous excess, 

to releasing ourselves in a safe zone, with the permission of the singer, and if only for the length of the performance, from the weight of societal taboos, 

to laughing till we cry over ourselves, over the performer's devilish je ne sais quois, over the fact that we are blessed to be in an environment where we are totally free to laugh till we cry. 

 I say that this is all innocent in the sense of it being a sort of absolution. Although some of its tickle effect depends to a great extent on the existing social mores and their contravention, for me the song functions as a broom that sweeps the internal overseer unto the sidelines where it stays until we have been allowed to celebrate ourselves without self-reproach. 

In the biography supplied by John Bush at All Music, he states that "the Mighty Zandolie, born Sylvester Anthony, was one of the dominant "rude bwoys" of calypso during the 1960s and '70s, and the prime innovator of what were later called "smuts," the sly double entendre songs which crop up in early American blues as well. Zandolie recorded many classic songs, including "Man Family" and "Stickman," and spent much time in the States as well. Though Trinidad's calypso market had in large part moved on by the late '90s, Rounder released a live album featuring Mighty Zandolie plus two old partners in crime, Lord Blakie and Black Prince." 

"Smuts" may well be a convenient categorization but as with everything else that we categorise, there is so much more to an entity that upon closer examination betrays the shallowness of the label. I really love Zandolie's work and I wish that I could shake his hand and thank him over and over again for the sheer brilliance of his wickedness. Ironman, stay strong! 

"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