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SOUL OF CALYPSO

In reply to imusic

how this song beat Karene Asche, Kurt Allen and Senator Helon Francis is disgraceful. People cuss Gypsy but Gypsy's song was more powerful than machel's nursery rhyme

In reply to Jumpstart
I admit I haven’t been up to date over the past few years with this but he won because of weak competition and probably more important is the song itself:

The meaning: he attempted unity between calypso, soca and the so called chutney soca, saying it is one and the same that was created In Trinidad.

Soca Music, for the purists like me hasn’t been accepted as a legitimate art form and Montano being the biggest soca star probably felt he needed to address this, as it hasn’t been address before by any artiste.

Modern day Soca music, the Montano variation, is primarily responsible for the viruses that have infected carnival and our culture and I may still never accept it.

The original soca music created by Ras shorty I, was hijacked by the modern day Montanos of today.

Original Kaiso/Calypso has never recovered from the soca onslaught and Montano’s attempt to legitimate soca is a poor attempt as it did not address the social issues that soca music created.

But still, I gave him credit for tackling the subject and I hope it lead to more open discussion on how soca music, now that it is here to stay, can reform itself with lyrics that can inspire national development and moral values. The wine and jam, get something and wave, jump up jump up is not what a proud nation should accept.

In reply to Jumpstart

You should know better.

It not the song. It’s the performance on the night.

You sounding like a Guyanese or something. How you not familiar with the criteria for the competition?

In reply to iTito

Indeed Tito. No self respecting Guyanese would voluntarily listen to that shit.

*Thumbs up emoji*

In reply to imusic

I agree. but kurt's performance was not poorly presented. his vocals were on point and his song was better than Machel's. Maybe one of the judges was a single mom who didn't take kindly to Kurt bashing them and the behavior that leads up to those outcomes. if kers or bunji had entered the competition with soul of calypso, they'd never have gotten into the top 3. And that is what upsets me. machel's success is based on more than music. he's an exceptional performer but a mediocre artiste and his winning disincentives the other guys who are slaving every year, day after day

In reply to SnoopDog

All the good music out of TNT ceased after David Rudder!

In reply to SnoopDog

Dang! How old is Montano? Player been around with the late Panday, Itito the music man even in Kitch/Sparrow time.
Who said calypso is nursery rhymes ? Was you or some other Guynese?

In reply to Jumpstart

Mothers alone make children?

In reply to Barendra

not at all.....but as our PM said, the responsibility is on as to who you go to bed with. When i hear ppl openly saying they want a gangster man, well that just shows you where our society is and why we are witnessing the unprecedented violence we are seeing, and tbh, is not only a TT or regional thing. if there is an entire culture of single motherhood, not just isolated cases, then here's what, that means something is definitely wrong

In reply to StumpCam

Solid point Bro.

*Thumbs up emoji*

In reply to Jumpstart

Shouldn't men be punished for abandoning children? Does your PM know it is a worldwide issue?
single moms worldwide

In reply to Barendra

As i said. you are responsible for who you invite into your body. Unless its rape or molestation, then those are criminal acts and the law gets involved. If however, as many of the cases are in TT, you're just a poor chooser of you're partner then that is another story, and in plenty cases the men don't hide who they actually are. You as well as i know there is an ebtire cultural trope that encourages women top go after gangster men. And then, there are those who are chosing sungke motherhood by choice, which is absurd to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InhhM3E20LE
people seem to forget that a single parent household is a broken family

Let me tell you something patnas. i had quite a few single mothers as secondary and primary school teachers, and they were without a doubt the most insipid, dysfunctional creatures i have ever come across, blaming the world(taking out your life's frustrations on students) because you couldn't keep your knickers up or at least invest in some kind of contraceptive

I is de Guyanese that Imusic might be referring to.

This is exactly what I thought would happen, they give it to the icon without serious consideration to content.

In reply to Curtis

exactly what happened.

In reply to imusic
My pick wins - a fabulous piece of music

I Pick DNA fi road march. mek I see if I win di double

Dis is an instant classic - mi seh so fromI first heard it. Tenks IM

In reply to Chrissy

Carnival contract is a sleeper

In reply to imusic
Agree

A rhatid performance dat from Machel.

In reply to Chrissy

Give music win ...I eh vex

In reply to Chrissy

I choose Machel from I hear Soul of Calypso.

[b]machel's nursery rhyme
[/b]


Machel in good company...look the boss/ past winner and what he sing...

School Days

Mr Dan.

Sing anything , bring it come and make it wok on the night in question ...that is the recipe

In reply to Jumpstart
Not one song was better than Machel’s. Mi seh so.
Dis ting is also about historical context. Dat song is an instant classic. They will be playing it 40 years from now.

In reply to granite
Same here - fabulous- cyan stop playing it. Chipping round di room

In reply to Chrissy

Which ironic from the dude who did the most damage to soca artistically.

In reply to Castled

homie machel has been around since the NAR days....and he still writes like he's in primary school. don't get me wrong. Machel is the best businessman and showman in carnival. but he's a mediocre artist. bunji and kes top him musically by miles, because they have evolved as musicians. machel still stuck in the too young to soca days

In reply to Chrissy

FINALLY SOMEONE THAT UNDERSTOOD MY VIEW


AND TO JUMPSTART:

THERE IS NO WAY THAT I A FELLOW CALYPSONIAN AND FORMER CALYPSO KING AND SONGWRITER COULD AGREE THAT MACHEL IS A MEDIOCRE ARTIST

I put this on a local calysonians whatsapp chat:

I scored Machel

Lyrics 28
Melody 26
Rendition 18
Presentation 10
Originality 8
......90
The topic Calypso is Soca was open for the melodic (AND RYTHMIC) variations that Machel bought so the changes and nostalgic melodic references benefitted him in respect of the topic/theme
Machel's lyrics were good...his historical references and little humor were on point
His Rendition was good.
His presentation was awesome
And the overall treatment and presentation represented a highly original approach to the topic

In reply to analyst-kid

It was freaking fabulous. Last week I sent it to my best friend in T&T and seh I een need to hear another song dis year - dis is my champ.
Dat simple and you know of what you speak.

In reply to analyst-kid

In the pantheon of Trinidad musicians, machel cannot even tie the shoe lacings of
merchant, sparrow, kitch, Andre Tanker, Brother Resistance, Nappy Mayers, Shadow, David rudder etc. As i said, kes and Bunji produce much better music than him. Up to now Machel has not had a song reach the levels that Differentology reached,. and he was trying to find a song that whole 2012/2013 which could equalize it. He settled on the fog, which was a great tune but was inferior to differentology. Btw, i don't consider collaborations with dancehall artistes and out of favor rappers any sort of musical achievement

In reply to Jumpstart

he better than Iwer though

I wrote this before Machel did his - and I am no musician


In Trinidad's breeze, a story's told,
Of music's journey, vibrant and bold.
From Calypso's heart, where rhythms sway,
To Soca's birth, in a new light's ray.

(Chorus)
Oh, let me sing you the tale so true,
Of Calypso's child, Soca, so new.
With roots that stretch, so far and wide,
In Trinidad's soul, forever abide.

(Verse 2)
Calypso, the elder, with tales to tell,
Of island life, where spirits dwell.
From African chants, to European sway,
It echoed through nights, and into the day.

(Chorus)
Oh, let me sing you the tale so true,
Of Calypso's child, Soca, so new.
With roots that stretch, so far and wide,
In Trinidad's soul, forever abide.

(Bridge)
But change was stirring, a new sound to find,
In Soca's heart, a rhythm combined.
With Calypso's essence, and beats so sweet,
A fusion of cultures, in the island heat.

(Verse 3)
Steel drums ringing, and basslines thump,
In Soca's arms, the dancers jump.
From Carnival's streets, to global stage,
Its energy spreads, like wildfire's rage.

(Chorus)
Oh, let me sing you the tale so true,
Of Calypso's child, Soca, so new.
With roots that stretch, so far and wide,
In Trinidad's soul, forever abide.

(Outro)
So, raise your voices, and dance along,
To the rhythms of Trinidad's song.
For in Calypso's embrace, and Soca's glow,
The spirit of music will forever flow.

In reply to DirtyDan

Definitely.....iwer is a comedian

In reply to DirtyDan

chatgpt dirty

In reply to doosra

exactly - 5 secs

In reply to Chrissy

i genuinely don't mean to be rude, but i hope it isn't someone from UWI's social sciences depo in TT because that department is a joke. You have people coming out with MPhils in International relations and don't know who Dr Ralph Gonsalves is, people who never heard about China's cultural Revolution and how it affects China today, dudes who don't know that Panama was once part of Colombia.

I have a serious, serious issue with West Indian institutions being overtaken by papered idiots because I believe they took way too long build up. Man i know a lecturer who doesn't penalize his students for using poor grammar....and its not a math or science course

In reply to Jumpstart

I understand where you coming from and this on a cricket board where T20 cricket is the dominant forum nowadays .

Machel ís the man for the times, an entertainer of the highest order with the consistency to produce a soca song every year to keep the Carnival and the soca world of the 2020s alive.

His ability to maintain relevance in these times is remarkable....every one of the artistes u name as superior ( and I could agree cuz I love Shadow and David Rudder) wish they could have stood on top the soca mountain as King as long as he continues to do.

He is a boss of bringing what the soca world dominated by the youth likes to hear and is excited by so as an artiste myself and a songwriter I give him his respect due as the Soca King of the World now also Calypso Monarch of Trinidad and Tobago.

All favorites like Sparrow and Machel had to do was to charm and drive their audiences wild.

In reply to analyst-kid

and that is what I am getting at. The times, at least on the western side of the world are solely concerned with show rather than substance. We as west indians have to decide whether we want our culture and traditions to last or whether we want them to be as transitory as a generation passing(case in point, the virtual death of jazz as popular music in the 1970s and 80s). Now some traditions can go. Some people have a tradition of racism and self loathing, some people have a tradition of entitlement and laziness. But a big part of the West India culture, for example is contentment. You do what you have to do but you won't do anything or everything to be fabulously wealthy. And honestly Machel to me exemplifies perfectly the plasticity that has overtaken the country.

In reply to analyst-kid
I agree. But Sparrow knew that he was living in a certain time and place, and responded accordingly to the responsibilities placed on him as a musician. Plenty ppl doh know that Sparrow reworked Memories for CLR James' funeral in 1989.

In reply to Jumpstart
Sadly I believe you - there are dumb uninformed folks everywhere. I watched one faking knowledge about Bob recently and did laugh.

That said dis is a classic

In reply to Chrissy

the half of it you don't know, I;m not sure the idiocy is as acute on other campuses, but i heard a law graduate from St Augustine say that africans and indians migrated here because of agriculture. The other time i heard a doctor on a budget debate say that she found the budget wasn't easy to understand.....and a budget is a simple document: revenues, expenditures, government's plans for the financial year....it aint calculus

In reply to Jumpstart

Interesting assessment of our condition.
Watching pan this year reminded me there's no shortcut to excellence. Bob is back in the news and his body of work, work ethic from what I hear, and his creations, live on and stand the test of time.

Our cricketers that put the work in, have risen to world standard levels. Same with our musicians, artists and writers. Other professionals too.

As a society, across the region, we need to make, and embrace, that commitment to excellence. How do we instill that early in kids?

Maybe, life is too easy these days for many. (See kids of working parents)

In reply to Jumpstart
So why have social studies been weakened in schools and on our campuses
The business schools have taken over and the entire focus is making money for the super wealthy

In reply to Chrissy

as you always say....we've been structurally adjusted and nationalism and civics depends on how much money you have. Social Studies doesn't offer the best remunerations(unfairly so) so nobody takes it seriously, much to the detriment of our societies.

In reply to Curtis

totally agree. I actually have a documentary, produced by a Trinidadian production company, Banyan Productions and narrated by the immortal Michael Gilkes, on CRIFESTA 1981. And there you saw a commitment to hard work, to excellence, to finding more about ourselves as people. We seemed to have lost that as the 90s wore on. Maybe its because cable television became prevalent, but cable television also exposed you to other cultures, not only british and American.

Machel is the Taylor Swift of Soca, and of Trinidad

Plenty revenue Popular music

In reply to DirtyDan

he not so bad

In reply to Jumpstart

Carifesta 81 had such a profound effect on Barbados cultural expression that I don't think Bajans actually understood to this day.

Riddim poetry, dub chanting, African influenced dance, folk music, story telling and so much....I myself am a spawn of that era having started in 1983.

In reply to analyst-kid
Interesting observation re Bajans and Carifesta

In reply to analyst-kid

tellin yuh. I think it was the first time they saw how dynamic Caribbean culture was. Sparrow, Edna Manley, Nicolas Guilen, Frank Collymore and Beryl were given special lifetime awards. There was a jazz pianist from Martinique who had a very similar style of playing to George Benson on guitar. His name is Chyco Jehelman. Fantastic musician. The docu only had a short clip of him playing, couldn't be more than 30 or 40 seconds. but i was blown away. his music is almost impossible to find though. Irakere made an appearance as well. Can't be exposed to that level of brilliance from your own people and not be affected or influenced

Read Jaymor's link on this thread