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Part 2 of 4
Nasser Khan
In Part 1 of this First Citizens-sponsored series last Sunday, Lord Relator was inadvertently omitted as one of the calypsonians who received a national award at the recent Republic Day ceremony. Part 2 this week is entitled 'By Calypso, our Cricket Stories are Told'.
The month of October was officially declared "Calypso History Month" in 2002. We have heard the often-used statement 'By calypso our stories are told'. Calypsoes, through their unique blend of poetic and sometimes even prophetic lyrics, melody and rhythms, capture a lot of our history by telling our stories in song, as no history book can. Many timeless calypso classics have been written and sung, songs that preach, lecture and educate…and get us dancing!
According to The Mighty Duke, calypso is an 'editorial in song' while The Lord Beginner said 'when I sing about a cricket match, you didn't have to read the newspapers again'.
Cricket and calypso unify us like nothing else can, although some may say also divide us at times. The book, "History of West Indies Cricket through Calypsoes", a youth literacy initiative aimed at providing interesting, attractive, non-curriculum reading and reference material in our schools and libraries, Nagico Insurances-sponsored, documents the lyrics of some 215 recorded cricket-themed calypsoes from1926 onwards. Never mind the unrecorded ones! It divides these calypsoes into a number of chapters including Players; Team/Games/Series; World Cups Celebrations; Anthems/Rally Calls/Praise/Party; Politics/Social Commentary/Satire; Humour/Double Entendre/Innuendo, and Incidents…calypsoes that tell our cricketing history as nothing else can.
Here is a sampling of the 215 cricket-themed calypsoes:
PLAYERS:
Sparrow’s 1966, "Sir Garfield Sobers": Who’s the greatest cricketer on Earth or Mars? Anyone can tell you, it's the great Sir Garfield Sobers.
Among other players’ calypsoes: Constantine, Ramadhin, Worrell, Lloyd, Roberts, Richards, Marshall, Walsh. Ambrose, Chanderpaul and of course Lara/on whom there are at least 22 recorded!
TEAM/GAME/SERIES:
Kitchener’s 1967 "Cricket Champions": England must understand, We are the champions.
Relator's 1972 "Indian Cricketers/Gavaskar": A lovely day for cricket, Blue skies, and a gentle breeze.
Lord Beginner's 1950, "Victory Test Match": Cricket Lovely Cricket, At Lord's where I saw it…With those two little pals of mine, Ramadhin, and Valentine.
WORLD CUPS/CELEBRATIONS/TRIUMPHS:
Among them, Cypher's 1976 "World Cup", Maestro's 1976 "World Cup", Heather Mac Intosh's 2005 "We are Back" and DJ Bravo's 2016 "Champion".
ANTHEM/PARTY:
David Rudder's 1988 "Rally round the West Indies". The official anthem for the West Indies at their games: Let every voice be raised, Everybody gives praise, Rally, rally 'round the West Indies, Now and forever.
Fay-Ann Lyons, Rupee, Shaggy, 2007, "The Game of Love and Unity", the official theme song for the 2007 Cricket ODI World Cup in the West Indies: Play, in this beautiful game, Where the rules and aim, Remain the same, It's the game of love and unity.
Superblue's 1995 "Signal to Lara" won the Road March.
HUMOUR/DOUBLE ENTENDRE/INNUENDO:
Among them Viking's 1947 "Chinese Cricket Match", Bomber's 1972 "The Cricket Series", Crazy's 1978 "Cricket Commentary".
POLITICS/SOCIAL COMMENTARY/SATIRE:
M'BA's 1993, "Beyond a Boundary" about the South Africa/West Indies series of 1992:
Especially when he sees you booing Richie on the big TV, And those who support Apartheid,
Must have felt so grand, To see what you did we heroes.
INCIDENTS:
Bryner's 1960 "Riot in the Oval", the crowd’s reaction to their perceived incorrect runout decision given against local hero Charran Singh.
This series is courtesy First Citizens.
Nasser Khan has also authored "Heroes, Pioneers & Role Models of Trinidad & Tobago", available as a free download at http://www.safaripublications.com/firstcitizenstt/heroesprofilestt/and has written and continues to write newspaper and magazine articles on calypso, mas, steelpan, and cricket. Email nkhantt@gmail.com