King Radio, The Lion & The Tiger - War

King Radio, The Lion & The Tiger - War

Trio:
No, no, no, no. tell them I say no
My answer is no
No no no no tell them I say no
My answer is no

They may come with their grand preparation
No, no, no, no. No consolation. Grief and pain and sad meditation
Tell them I say no.

Radio:
From the first very day I sat on the throne
I heard pretenders grumble and moan
oh when they heard my voice through the atmosphere
they thought was an angel from heaven appear
Songsters try for to hamper me, but I still get the opportunity
I didn't mean to call it but I got the privilege
[patois ending?]

Tiger:
This is my second anniversary
but I were fortunately sent to New York City
I must thank the people of Port of Spain
they have assist me in climbing the ladder of fame
I am popularly known as a pugilist
but today I'm recognized a radio artist
and without no exaggeration I achieve my ambition
as a calypsonian

Lion:
Well I pity men's conditions when they have no ammunition
as to fight with The Lion in the open competition
I am sitting a-waiting for the coming celebration
as to fight - monarchs in war and rebellion
And for me - I mean they would be blessed with benedictions
And against me - they shall suffer persecution
For I'm Lord Eloquent in the House of Parliament.

Radio:
This is the Radio, Lion also Tiger
We known to be popular in America
Tiger:
This is the war and rebellion, I mean
No, no, no, no. No consolation
Lion:
I keep them from corruption and bad association
The atmosphere flies with the bal contamination
Radio:
War and rebellion in this open competition
Trio:
Tell them I say no.


Key: Dm
Chords:
Dm A7 Dm
Dm A7 Dm

D7 Gm C F
D7 Gm A7 Dm

Lord Executor - Seven Skeletons Found in the Yard

Lord Executor - Seven Skeletons Found in the Yard

Hideous discoveries and monstrous crime

Always happen at the Christmas time

Hideous discoveries and monstrous crime

Always happen at the Christmas time

For the old year murders and the tragedy

For the new year serious calamity

What shocked Trinidad

Those seven skeletons that the workmen found in that yard

What marred the Christmas festivity

Was a new year double catastrophe

When a man and a woman on the ground was found

With bloodstains upon the ground

The husband was arrested but they were too late

For the poison he drunk sent him to the gate

That shocked Trinidad

Those seven skeletons that the workmen found in that yard

In Saint James the population went wild

When in the savanna they found a child

The hair was auburn and complexion pink

Which placed the watchman in a mood to think

“How can a mother despise and scorn

A little angel that she has born?”

That was more sad

Than the seven skeletons that the workmen found in that yard

A lorry was speeding to Port of Spain

When it knocked down the cyclist into the drain

It was going as fast as the lightning flash

When the cyclist received the lash

The mother cried out in sorrows and pain

I am not going to see my boy-child again

That is more sad

Than the seven skeletons that the workmen found in that yard

While the workmen they were digging the ground

They bring in skulls all human beings they found

Feet together and head east and west

Number five was a watchman among the rest

Number six had the hands and the feet on the chest

And number seven the mysterious guest

That shocked Trinidad

Those seven skeletons that the workmen found in that yard



Chords:
Cm G Cm
Cm G Cm

C7 Fm Bb Eb
C7 Fm G7 Cm



Credit: thanks to Pete for this one.

Lionel Belasco - Carmencita

Here's our first instrumental watlz, Lionel Belasco's May 1933 recording of Carmencita:



Key: C/Fm

Chords:
C--- C A7 Dm- G- C- B- E-
C--- C A7 Dm- G- C- B- E-

F- C- G C G C F- C G# C G C-
F- C- G C G C F- C G# C G C-

Fm- C7--- Fm-- F7 Bbm- Fm C7 Fm-
Fm- C7--- Fm-- F7 Bbm- Fm C7 Fm-

Banning of Records - Attila the Hun

Attila really gives the colonial government what for in this classic from 1938.





Banning of Records - Attila

Imagine our records being banned from entering in our native land.
Imagine our records being banned from entering in our native land.
That they are obscene I must deny, but all things look yellow to the jaundiced eye.
I think they’re ungenerous to attempt to take our music from us.

Our local talent, is my contention, should be given help and recognition.
For all their faults I don’t care a rap - we have put this island on the map.
For from New York, Haiti and Curacao, on stage, gramophone and radio,
Every chance that these boys have had they have glorified and advertised Trinidad.

For the benefit of those who don't know, calypso is a heritage from long ago
Many of the Puritans in this land want to muzzle the Calypsonians
They hate to have their dirty linen washed in public and so they have devised this curvy trick
To apply pressure strong and vigorous and try and take our music from us

Whom I offend I do not care, but many things I see as unfair
If John steel car - go to jail or pay, and you see headlines in the papers next day
But when mistress so-and-so is guilt of unchastity you mustn't give it no publicity
It's not our fault if she's not virtuous so why try to take our music from us?

Honi soit qui mal y pense! Is my cry - evil to him who thinketh evil says I.
It’s known a man with a perverted mind with the most moral work, some fault he will find.
If Netty Netty* is indecent then I must insist that so is Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis.
But over these writers they make no fuss but poor we they want to take our music from us.


Key: Aish (poss. Bb?)

Chords:
A D E A
A D E A
F#7 Bm E A
A D E A

*Netty Netty was a 1937 record from the Roaring Lion, supposedly upon arrival in Trinidad 4,000 copies of the record were dumped into the harbor by customs officials.

The Coldness of the Water - the Growler

Here's a great one from the Growler released in 1939.





Coldness of the Water - The Growler

It seems as though me wife going mad
Because I left the shouters she talk me bad
It seems as though me wife going mad
Because I left the shouters she talk me bad

The coldness of the water nearly kill The Growler dead
The coldness of the water nearly kill The Growler dead

She said to me, "Ozzie you must be bold"
Because the dipping in the river bound to save your soul
If that is the way to find the lord
Not me she wouldn't send me in [B.H.? P.H.? ward??]

The coldness of the water nearly kill The Growler dead
The coldness of the water nearly kill The Growler dead

To save me soul I was more than glad
But when she dipped me in the river I felt so bad
Water in me nose and inside me mouth
To hear the congregation how they start to shout

The coldness of the water nearly kill The Growler dead
The coldness of the water nearly kill The Growler dead

They took me up to the mourning ground
And all I saw was lighted candles all around
Candles start the road back to number 3
And said I'm on my way to Galilee

The coldness of the water nearly kill The Growler dead
The coldness of the water nearly kill The Growler dead

The preacher tell me when I reach the Galilee
All me sins would be washed away entirely
But I got too much tied and burdened down
Because I never meet no food at any mourning ground

The coldness of the water nearly kill The Growler dead
The coldness of the water nearly kill The Growler dead

It is a thing for the foolish, but not the wise
To be tying up your head and banding down your eyes
For when the power comes it got no sympathy
You got to be beating up your body so brutally

The coldness of the water nearly kill The Growler dead
The coldness of the water nearly kill The Growler dead


Key: Bb/Gm

Chords:

Gm Cm Gm D7
Gm Cm Gm F

Bb F Bb F
Bb F Bb F

Graf Zeppelin - Attila the Hun

This 1934 recordings by Attila (Raymond Quevado) celebrates the October 1933 visit of Germany's Graf Zeppelin to Trinidad on its way to the Chicago World's Fair. Seriously juicy chords on this one.




Graf Zeppelin - Attila the Hun 

One Sunday morning I chanced to hear a rumbling and a tumbling in the atmosphere
One Sunday morning I chanced to hear a rumbling and a tumbling in the atmosphere

I ran to stare - people were flocking everywhere
Gesticulating and gazing and pointing in the air
It was the Graf Zeppelin which-a-had come to pay a visit to Trinidad.

I gazed at the Zeppelin contemplatively and marveled at man’s ingenuity
The whirring of the engines were all I heard as it floated in the air like some giant bird

And in between - as the mighty airship gleamed
The pilot and the sailors and the passengers were seen
They were waving little flags which they had heralding their visit to Trinidad.

I gazed and the knowledge came back to me how wonderful the work of man can be
To see that huge object in the air, maintaining perfect equilibrium in the atmosphere

Wonderfully - beautifully, gloriously
Decidedly defying all the laws of gravity
Was the Graf Zeppelin which-a-had come to pay a visit to Trinidad.

As I gazed at the zeppelin something touched my hand, I turned and saw an old, decrepit coolie man
He said to me pointing at the Zeppelin “Masta, can you tell am what is that thing?"

"Me feel so bawl - for me to understand at all
He have nothing hold him up de' and still he never fall.”
He was speaking of the Zeppelin that had come to pay a visit to Trinidad.

Key: F

Chords: 

F  C  F  Bb  C F

F  C  F  Bb  C F

Bb   Gm  C F

Gm  D7  Gm  C F

Iron Duke in the Land - Henry Julian

Iron Duke in the Land - Henry Julian

Iron Duke in the land, Fire Brigade
Iron Duke in the land, Fire Brigade
Bring the locomotive just because it's a fire federation
Bring the locomotive just because it's a fire federation
Sans humanité

From the brave days of ninety five when I was a teacher and lord adulator
They caused me to two years later second lord and then advocator
Advocator then called me advisor for the advisor now supervise me
Named supervisor of the cause and lord emphasizer
Sans humanité

Iron Duke in the land, Fire Brigade
Iron Duke in the land, Fire Brigade
Bring the locomotive just because it's a fire federation
Bring the locomotive just because it's a fire federation
Sans humanité

At my appearance upon the scene Julian come down with blazing sword
And see him shouting an order - calling, screaming to all the agony
And see his magnetizing mantle - see it glinting, gleaming and swaying
Jumping this way bawling clear the way, White Rose, jolie diable ré-ré-o

Iron Duke in the land, Fire Brigade
Iron Duke in the land, Fire Brigade
Bring the locomotive just because it's a fire federation
Bring the locomotive just because it's a fire federation
Sans humanité

It was a modern manifestation of that elderly civilization
That in the Carnival celebration of the social organization
Which causes the minds and extension of all the population
I Julian singing a Social recording with White Rose union
Sans humanité

Iron Duke in the land, Fire Brigade
Iron Duke in the land, Fire Brigade
Bring the locomotive just because it's a fire federation
Bring the locomotive just because it's a fire federation
Sans humanité

Key: G / E minor

Chords:
Em B7 Em
Em B7 Em

Em E7 Am D
G E7 Am B7