Wicked Rhythms

A colorful Barbados memory that will always stick with me is winding down craggy country roads with the lovely resort town of Bathsheba as a backdrop. Only my attention wasn't on Bathsheba and its milky waters splashing the shores. I was singing a clever calypso led by art historian and musician Trevor Marshall and trying to figure out the punch line. A good calypso tune bursts with double entendres but it's not always immediately apparent. Trevor introduced me to this famous hit by Dave Martins and The Tradewinds and I'll always associate it with Barbados, even though the group members also represent Guyana, Trinidad, Grenada and the Cayman Islands. It's quite wicked, which is how I like my calypso!


HONEYMOONING COUPLE


A honeymooning couple was in a bedroom/ packing up to go away/in the middle of June/

Well all of a sudden/ a big argument break out/listen to the bridegroom/ listen what he shout/

You get on top/ that's the way it must go/I am your husband you know/ you get on top/

don't make any noise/ shut your mouth/ that's the only way/ it will work out/


Chorus: Bettah get on top/ ting a ling /a ling/ Bettah get on top/ting a ling/ a ling


Next ya hear a commotion/ behind the door/ somebody fall down/ boop on the floor/

and somebody shout out/ hey ya squeezing me hard/ now this time it's the lady/ she telling the
man/you get on top/ that's the way it must go/ I am your wife now you know/ and it's 50/50/
you get on top/ don't make any noise/ shut your mouth/ that's the only way it will work out/


(Chorus)


Don't talk about how they grunting/ and they breathing hard/ imagine me outside/ man I going
mad/ quiet as a church mouse/ listening to this thing/ now this time the lady/ she start to sing/

and if you hear she says/both of we on top/ that is the way it must be/ and the husband says
yes I agree/ definitely/both of we on top/ don't make any noise/ shut your mouth/ that is the
only way/ it will work out.


(Chorus)

Now I am no peep man/ ask anybody/ but two of them on top/this I got to see/ so down by the
keyhole/ I put me eye/ and what I saw man/made me laugh til I cry/it was a man and his wife/
and the two of them on top/ if you see them in this funny pose/well the two of them sitting
down/on top a suitcase/it's a suitcase they trying to close/

Both of we on top/ ting a ling/ a ling/ both of we on top/ ting a ling /a ling/ both of we on
top/close the blasted thing.



If you want to hear Dave and the Tradewinds sing the bouncy melody, check it out here:



Comments

Anonymous said…
Oh, how I loved this post! Calypso reminds me of my childhood when certain songs used to be broadcast on Cuba's state-run television. Thanks for this memento.

Greetings from London.
January 12, 2009 at 3:56 AM
Anonymous said…
Ay Cubano, de nada! And thanks for dropping by. I'll be doing more global music that you might also recognize soon.
January 12, 2009 at 7:44 AM
Anonymous said…
Ha! I loved it. That beach is beautiful.
January 12, 2009 at 11:16 AM
Anonymous said…
ha! Love it.

Yeah - that beach is stunning!!
January 12, 2009 at 12:18 PM
Anonymous said…
Gem and Kristine, I'm glad you like wicked calypsos! It had to be good to tear my attention from the view. That's a shot of Bathsheba's shoreline.
January 12, 2009 at 12:54 PM
Anonymous said…
The shoreline is amazing, Barbados is truly beautiful. Hopefully i'll be visiting again this year.
January 12, 2009 at 7:59 PM
Anonymous said…
You're lucky Ebony. All I can do is dream as I'm surrounded by snow and frost. I won't be seeing Barbados this year, I don't think.
January 15, 2009 at 10:46 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Traveling Through A Liberian Childhood

Image
I like to explore the world with books as much as I like to actually travel. A well-written narrative can transport you to places that you'd never experience with just superficial details like photos and descriptions. I've been interviewing writers about the criteria they use to select books for Summer reading and it made me think about my own general reading criteria. As a journalist, I'm really drawn to biographies, autobiographies and memoirs more than fiction. There's something about using the facts to entice readers into your world that gets me. It's no coincidence that some of my favorite writers--Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Zora Neale Hurston, Hemingway, started out as journalists. So when I glimpsed The House at Sugar Beach , at my local bookstore and saw it was a memoir written by a journalist, it was pretty much a done deal that I would buy it. Now it wasn't only that the author Helene Cooper was a journalist, it was that she was a Liberian journalist chro
Read more

Puerto Rico's Taino Culture

Image
The original inhabitants of the Caribbean region of North America were the Arawak, Taino and Carib  native peoples.  The Tainos are a subgroup of the Arawaks and are recognized as the founders of the island of Boriken or Puerto Rico.  These were the people who offered a peaceful welcome to Columbus in 1493.  They didn't know the cruelty and violence that would follow his so-called "discovery" of the land that they had cultivated for centuries. Despite official government pronouncements that the Taino have been killed off by the massacres and slavery that followed in Columbus' wake, they live on.  As demonstrated in the photo above by  members of  the Puerto Rico Folklorico Dance & Culture Cultural Cente r, Taino traditions, food and names remain strong. Throughout Puerto Rico, town names like Mayaquez, Utuado and Caquas echo the Taino language as do the musical instrument maracas and hamaca or hammock. Legends of Taino warriors, like Hatuey, who organized the ba
Read more

Switzerland's Fete Des Vignerons

Image
                                               Once every generation, the centuries-old viticultural festival, Fete des Vignerons, unfolds in Vevey, Switzerland. Watching this spectacle of music, dancing, wine and fanciful costumes, felt like I had been transported to something out of a Dr. Seuss story. With a law that prohibits the fest from taking place more than five times in a century, I felt incredibly lucky to witness this celebration of Swiss wine traditions dating back to the 17th century.  Some of the fetes 5,500 performers in costumes strolled the narrow streets of Vevey after a show that featured fairies, bees, royal courts, playing cards and 17th-century wine growers. The performance was in French but the drama transcended language barriers. It's a difficult experience to describe but if I had to sum it up, I would explain it as the magic of Cirque Du Soleil combined with the pageantry of the Olympics, topped with the history of folk celebrations.  Take a peek at my v
Read more