CARNIVAL STORY
THE NEGATIVE LIST
By Terry Joseph
Episode 11
Express
March 2, 2000
Page 27
The
1955 calypso season was perhaps the darkest in the history of
the art. After being an integral part
of the festival soundtrack for more than 100 years, calypso was that year
relegated to an "also ran" position, able to do no better than sixth
place in the road march stakes.
One
view is that the influence of radio, which had enjoyed a surge in popularity at
that time, may have contributed to the problem. With cheaper sets coming onto the market and the Rediffusion
company, the only station operating at the time, suddenly offering news as it
happened (and through a much expanded reach), calypso ran the risk of becoming
irrelevant to the entertainment needs of the common man.
Neither
of the two frequencies operated by the Rediffusion Company set itself any goals
in the promotion of indigenous music.
In addition, there was not a lot of recorded calypso available for
airplay at that time and in any event the station was committed to purchasing
much of its content from its parent BBC.
As is still the case, there is no clear idea as to whether radio reacts
to the public's will by playing the most popular songs or making songs popular by
frequent rotation.
Given
all of the foregoing, the most popular songs on the road in 1955 were all
foreign. "The Happy Wanderer"
a German folk song won the road march title, followed by the African number
"Skokiaan". Third was
"Mexicalita" and in fourth and fifth places two other alien pieces.
The
best remembered calypso was probably "29 Port of Spain" by Spitfire,
but the Mighty Spoiler won the $50 prize available to the calypso king for his
rendition of "Picking Sense out of Nonsense". As we shall later see, his $50 prize would
become the source of another controversy, a natural progression, when one
considers that the Carnival queen that year, Angela Graham (Miss Super Kem Tone
Paints) had received $7,500 for winning her category in the same Dimanche Gras
show.
At
least in administrative terms, the immediate road march problem corrected
itself by the following year, when it was decided by the authorities that only
calypsoes could qualify for the title.
The new regulation may have thought that it covered all bases, but
certainly did not cater for the rise in popularity of calypsoes sung by
non-Trinidadians.
The
creation of soca in the mid-1970s attracted a number of non-Trinidadians to
jump into the calypso arena. Coupled
with the arrival of powerful music systems in the Carnival parade, both
traditional calypso and pan were facing a level of competition they could not
possibly have contemplated.
In
1977, another kind of Carnival music problem erupted when Lord Shortshirt, an
Antiguan calypsonian, captured the imagination of revelers and music bands
alike with his catchy "Tourist Leggo", even in the face of a slew of
calypsoes celebrating Hasely Crawford's win of Olympic Gold in the previous
year. Patriotism, which had helped in
closing social ranks earlier in the century, had now given way to other
considerations.
Shortshirt
ruled the fetes and "Tourist Leggo" hit the road on Carnival Monday
with unrelenting frequency. By nightfall,
officials of the Carnival Development Committee (CDC) were forced to meet in
hurried session, to eventually declare that only a local calypso could be
eligible for the road march title.
Pan
had developed and maintained similar rules for the conduct of Panorama, keeping
out foreign arrangers from the competition.
Indeed, it was not until 1999 that the rule was relaxed, to allow
American Andy Narell to arrange music for the Hydro Agri Skiffle Bunch from San
Fernando.
But
neither traditional calypso nor pan could regain their positions as the 20th
century closed. The music had changed
in all its aspects and appreciation was no longer limited to local products.