Legend has it that when the young Sparrow's mother discovered that he was determined to pursue a calypso career, as an option, she became so despondent that she sat on a bench at a public park and simply wept. A passer-by, on inquiring what was wrong, consoled, "Don't take it so hard, ma'am, it might have been worse, but the boy ain't even kill nobody." However, when the Mighty Sparrow was a very little "bird" at Newtown Boys RC Primary School on Maraval Road, singing calypsoes in school was, reportedly, frowned upon if not unheard of.
So when that little upstart of a lad, named Slinger Francisco, approached his primary school headmaster with, "Sir, I could sing a calypso?" Carl Jadunath could easily have responded: "What! Calypso in my school? Boy, you mad or what?" But perhaps because of the characteristic earnestness of the youngster's plea or more likely because everyone had got a bit tired of hearing young Sparrow sing, ad nauseam, a ballad called Red River Valley at the weekly Friday school concert, Mr Jadunath gave the "OK." Little could anyone have suspected then that one of calypso's greatest careers was being launched and an undoubted giant in that field was taking his first tentative steps towards the calypso hall of fame, to join master craftsmen of the ilk of calypso grandmaster Lord Kitchener.
I seem to recall calypsonian Duke speaking with what I considered the greatest respect re: Kitchener's stature as a pre-eminent calypsonian. And coming from Duke, no mean talent himself, that was nothing to sneeze at. Now I've never quite understood why Kitchener affected to feel slighted at not being awarded the then Trinity Cross and bluntly refused the Chaconia. It appears that for some obscure reason, that now escapes me, Lord Kitchener had been made to seem to be playing second fiddle to Sparrow or to be walking in the Birdie's shadow. I very much doubt that this had anything to do with any lack of appreciation of Kitch's contribution to the art form. Sparrow cheerfully acknowledges Kitch's claim to be at the "commanding heights" of the profession.
Musical genius that he was, Kitch was basically a simple soul and he took umbrage at Sparrow's publicly upbraiding him for declining the Chaconia. In chiding Kitch, Sparrow also opened himself to the charge that he had not always been the paragon of protocol and official propriety. Nevertheless, none can doubt the mutual camaraderie if the spectacle of a sobbing Sparrow at Kitch's funeral is recalled.
I do not wish to fuel any unnecessary controversy, since both individuals have their indelible spots in calypso history. By virtue of being the charismatic go-getter of the two, Sparrow became the acknowledged "Calypso King of the World."
Kitchener has been the recipient of the unsolicited "Order of the Grand Master of Calypso Music" which was conferred by acclamation of his peers and an appreciative public. There can, in my view, be no more meaningful honour or higher accolade-and all the lobbying by well-intentioned but misguided ones for academic recognition and/or official patronage only served to demean and belittle the man's stature. Maybe I've missed the point altogether. To return specifically to the Mighty Sparrow. He carries the sobriquet "Calypso King of the World." He was awarded a Chaconia Medal and is recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of the West Indies, in recognition of his contribution to the calypso art form.
Sparrow's standing with the UWI community can be gauged by the fact that at the launching of a book on Sparrow's work, entitled Gimme Room to Sing by UWI librarian Linda Claudia De Four, his praises were being sung by Gordon Rohlehr of the Department of English, Rawle Gibbon of the Creative Arts Centre and Max Richards, then Pro-Vice-Chancellor and principal of the St Augustine Campus. Gordon Rohlehr noted that since Sparrow won the Calypso Monarch competition in 1956, he has remained prominent over several decades and his output, "the central concern of the book Gimme Room to Sing, has been phenomenal. Max Richards claimed that, in honouring Sparrow, UWI honoured all calypsonians of this genre: the poets and social analysts of the West Indies."
Few would care to dispute that the Mighty Sparrow is as versatile as he is prolific, and, in the area of social commentary and biting political satire, he can more than hold his own. That is not to suggest that Sparrow did not have contemporaries and predecessors who were themselves masters of the craft.
Sparrow's pre-eminence as a social and political commentator can be judged by the fact that even when he seemed to be veering away from the balisier (PNM) to the steel beam (ONR), Wily Willie (Dr Williams) sought to woo the Birdie back to the balisier branch by conveying, through an intermediary, that he (Dr Williams) had followed closely what Sparrow sang in calypso and had often taken his cue from the wisdom therein. Did Sparrow fall for Wiley Willie's attempt to pull the wool over the Birdie's eye? I wonder.