It started out as a link I saw on Tobias Buckell’s twitter feed, where he referred to an “Ol’ time Calypso”, called the same thing as one of his novels, “Sly Mongoose”:- https://twitter.com/tobiasbuckell/status/383725918868758528
I started going down memory lane, looking at an episode of “Calypso Showcase” on YouTube showcasing Shadow’s career…
Then I saw it. Apparently, since I’ve come to Canada, Shadow’s put out a calypso called Soucouyant”.
It’s not the only soucouyant calypso out there, either. Links on the side of the calypso showcase utoob vid showed two, three, four, five more…
And I REMEMBER at least two of them. I’d finish rythms to Crazy’s same-titled Roadmarch hit that I *must* have jumped up to in the 80’s, and I didn’t remember anything else about Lord Blakie’s.
Except the LAUGH.
What a way to remember a calypso, about a creature of horror, that came out when you were a “little chile’ “.
I’m liking Shadow’s lyrics best.
Plus, he tends to wear black. Gotta wear black when singing about something sucking the lifeblood outta you. No?
And the oral tradition still runs strong down there; no one’s seemed to have put up the lyrics to any of them. Gotta do like Guanaguanare, the laughing gull, and yank them from a live performance… (http://guanaguanaresingsat.blogspot.ca/2008/06/index.html)
All this when trying to find the calypso featured in a horror-themed life insurance commercial from the same period from Trinidad. I believe Sparrow was featured in one commercial as well. Anyone? “…come leh we play a game o’ card” is a lyric; he fell over a tree branch running from creatures of the night… I think it’s maybe Kitchener waking up from a bad dream featuring a calypso of his, then recommending an insurance company.
Harumph.
I’m a insert these calypsos into my WiP somehow; the main character’s a soucouyant, after all…
EDIT: AHA! Found it! Love In The Cemetery- and it was Kitchi! Memory served me right… http://andynarell.net/calypso/lyrics/2lov.html
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