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