Tony Deyal | Blue blue, boo boo or who?

Have you seen Lord Melody?

The police are making inquiries

Please if you see the Boo Boo man

Get in touch with the nearest police station

Ah hear he have a big maintenance case

Causing a sensation in the place

Ah cow in the country

Make a baby just like Melody

Ah didn’t believe so Ah start to laugh

Ah say you lie Mr. Gittens

But Ah couldn’t deny when Ah see the calf

It was Melo in print

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxnjI8ivCRU)

The person singing a calypso, Cowboy Melo (1960), about the police looking for Lord Melody (or ‘Melo’ who was also known as the Boo Boo Man), was the Mighty Sparrow who rightfully was regarded as the ‘Calypso King of the World’. For most of us, no war was more prolonged than those two.

I had first heard and saw each of them, Sparrow and Melody, from the early days. Melody was born in 1926, about 20 years before I was born, and the Grenada-born Sparrow was born in 1935 and ended in Trinidad soon after. While throughout my life I was and still am a Sparrow fan, I got to like Melo with a song he composed, but it was the great Harry Belafonte who took this and made a lot of money out of it, Mama Look a Boo Boo and, while Melo was touring with Belafonte for a very long time, I sang their songs starting with “Mama” and got my mother angry: “I wonder why nobody don’t like me/ Or is it the fact that I’m ugly?/ I wonder why nobody don’t like me/ Or is it the fact that I’m ugly?/ I leave my whole house and go/ My children don’t want me no more/ Bad talk inside de house dey bring/ And when I talk they start to sing/ Mama, look a boo boo they shout/ Their mother tell them shut up your mout’/ That is your daddy, oh, no/ My daddy can’t be ugly so/ Shut your mout’, go away/ Mama, look a boo boo dey/ Shut your mout’, go away/ Mama, look a boo boo dey.” ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5R_L3kWAY4)

Despite his being with Belafonte, Melo still had to deal with his friend Sparrow, who made him what Trinis and Caribbean people knew as a “pappyshow” with, or without, Daddy. For example, first Sparrow had what Melody called a “tramp” and his “Belmont Jackass” included, “Sparrow when your wife walking,/ People say she shaking/ She should wear a corset for the goods she carrying/ She should wear a harness, she face like a mask/ That is why meh boys does call she ‘Belmont Jackass’. When I went to school in Port-of-Spain, we had seen some in Belmont, so we applauded Melo and said, “You win! You win!” But Sparrow showed why he was the best, “You went to St Thomas, Melody you pick up your bride/ You went in the chapel, she was by your side/ After you done married, you feeling Ok/ Tell your wife to listen carefully what people say/ When they see your madam walking middle of the street/ People does stand up and watch down at she crooked feet/ People say she husband knows so spectacular/ So everybody does call she ‘Madam Dracula’.” Immediately, all of us jumped up shouting, “Take win Sparrow. Take win!” But Sparrow loved and cared for his friend Melo and, when it was time for Mel to depart, Sparrow sang, “our favourite calypsonian,/ Lord Melody decide he couldn’t wait no longer, / So suddenly/ Decide to succumb to cancer/ All who wish him well/ All who sent him to hell/ Put your hearts together/ let’s remember Mel/ On the radio - play one for Melo/ On your TV show - play one for Melo/ Doh forget he name - play one for Melo/ Melody of Boo Boo Man fame - play one for Melo/ Lord Melody gone - play one for Melo/ But his name must live on - play one for Melo/ Ah Just love to hear ‘Jonah, you take a bake here’.”

Then came Bunji Garlin (Ian Antonio Alvarez) known as the “Viking of Soca”. From the first time I heard his Lyrics (with Stemz, a producer and DJ) it was clear he was ready to rumble with, “Yes I can hear them saying, boy stop living in the past,/ Where can I find that energy, the raw raw magic that comes from the grass-roots/ Yes ah from a place where soca the resounding power/ Yuh could feel anytime any hour, sunshine or shower/Yuh will feel it any way you look…” Bunji first rose to the top as the T&T Raga Soca Monarch but with one of his best “Differentology” he was a Caribbean man known for his fiery lyrics and fearless freestyles. But that was not all. Bunji Garlin heard Sparrow and did his own “Whip Whap (Rodeo Riddum”- “Ah want them to understand/ In the west this is how it run/ Nobody nah fighting in the West/ Till the get my permission…If you want me to feel you is real badness/ I’ll show you who is the bad man/ Is whip whap whip whap/ Ah resting down all me guns/ Ah resting down all me guns ...” Sparrow, however, never rested his in an form, fashion or “whip whap” especially when the ‘Bullpistle Gang’ come out to play, “Well ah hear the talk again/ Carnival they say war in Port-of-Spain/ All them badjohns team up together/ And decide the eh fighting one another/ They armed with they bull pistle/ Only stopping and beating decent people.” Sparrow added, “Let them run in to me and play stupid/ When Ah finish with them/ Who eh dead badly wounded …”

For most of us, Sparrow was the best of all time. After all, he won an Order of the British Empire, another Order in Trinidad and Tobago, an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of the West Indies and, from his early hometown, Cultural Ambassador of Grenada. However, in the King titles, Sparrow lost to Hollis Urban Lester Liverpool or the “immitable” Chalkdust who won 9 to Sparrow’s 8. But, despite their rivalry, Sparrow showed immense respect for Chalkdust’s accomplishment by making these statements: “One day they will have to name a King after him (Chalkdust)” and added, “Chalkdust was going to have to be king for the rest of his days.”

Tony Deyal was asked by a friend, “What did Chalkdust say to Sparrow when they were both on the same number 8?” When I told him I didn’t know, he laughed loudly and said, “I’m going to cut your A’s!” Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com