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The Mighty Sparrow

 
analyst-kid 2020-09-14 12:41:10 

Hearing rumors about him....might not be true....checking with my Trini peeps and New York peeps here.

 
sudden 2020-09-14 12:46:36 

In reply to analyst-kid

what rumours? he has COVID, he is gay, he has an outside child?

 
analyst-kid 2020-09-14 12:47:36 

Rumors of his passing. Sudden he is 85 years old.

 
sudden 2020-09-14 12:48:24 

In reply to analyst-kid

why didnt you say so?

 
Cheeks 2020-09-14 13:25:06 

Sparrow has 'died' sooo many times before.phew.

 
Chrissy 2020-09-14 13:49:26 

In reply to Cheeks

Yep - I posted on of them but he is 85

 
Benjie 2020-09-14 15:30:53 

In reply to analyst-kid

Swallow died

 
Halliwell 2020-09-14 18:26:36 

Well?
Dead or fake news?
confused

 
VIX 2020-09-14 18:32:12 

In reply to Halliwell

King Swallow is dead.

 
analyst-kid 2020-09-14 21:18:47 

I know of Swallow’s passing.....maybe someone mixed up Swallow with Sparrow....has to be someone who doesnt know much of calypso/soca because King Swallow is a legend himself.

 
methodic 2020-09-14 22:25:41 

In reply to analyst-kid

Swallow was good. I enjoyed his songs and seeing him perform.

 
cherri 2020-09-14 23:10:18 

In reply to analyst-kid

Yuh get yuh birds mix up or wuh.....

 
camos 2020-09-14 23:31:11 

does/did Sparrow write for himself ?

 
methodic 2020-09-15 00:26:51 

In reply to camos

I know he wrote Jean and Dinah as a commercial before he made it into a calypso. So he wrote songs, great songs. I also heard that he sang some songs that other people wrote for him.
It was also said that he wrote "Die with my dignity" for Singing Sandra, a great calypso that won at the Carifesta celebrations. It was also said he wrote "One day" for Natasha Wilson, another great calypso.

 
tops 2020-09-15 00:42:29 

In reply to cherri
But how many times they kill the man, He had to be a profet big grin

 
camos 2020-09-15 12:53:21 

In reply to methodic
thanks! he is probably the best story teller in the Caribbean.

 
analyst-kid 2020-09-15 16:24:18 

In reply to methodic

Most of the songs Sparrow famous for over the last 50 years were written by Winsford (Joker) Devines.

One Day ( Sung by Natasha Wilson), Capitalism Gone Mad,Philip my Dear, Lying Excuses, In Time to Come (Sung by Crazy) all written by Trinidad's No.1 songwriter Winsford Devines

Sparrow, however wrote Jean and Dinah.


Die with my Dignity, sung by Singing Sandra was written by former monarch Tobago Crusoe.

He also wrote for Sandra the classic THE WAR WILL GO ON. Sandra won the Carifesta competition singing BOTH of Tobago Crusoe's songs.

 
analyst-kid 2020-09-15 16:34:18 

Winsford Devines

more about Winsford Devines

 
analyst-kid 2020-09-15 16:55:58 

The part I like about Devines is when he start a friendship with Bolong, a badjohn who told him ...We going get all your rights (copyrights)

"Bolong had three fellas in a car - Arnim Smith was there - and we gone by the tent first. He tell Blakie: 'I want you to sign here that al these is Devine calypsos.' It was a little piece of paper with a list. He sign or you wouldn't want to know."

Next they went to Sparrow, who claimed he couldn't remember what Devine had written. Bolong allowed him to refresh his memory, and the following day he too signed.

 
Maispwi 2020-09-15 17:41:57 

In reply to analyst-kid

Some ah dem ole time kaisonians were real reluctant to acknowledge dere writers. For years Short Shirt wudn give Shelly Tobitt credit

 
methodic 2020-09-15 18:35:16 

In reply to analyst-kid

thanks

 
VIX 2020-09-15 18:45:53 

In reply to analyst-kid

check this!

 
methodic 2020-09-15 18:47:56 

In reply to analyst-kid

can you provide any reference on Crusoe who is a great composer also writing "die with my dignity"?

 
methodic 2020-09-15 18:51:24 

In reply to VIX

way you find dat? lol

 
sudden 2020-09-15 19:36:38 

In reply to analyst-kid

nice bit of history Kid

 
FuzzyWuzzy 2020-09-15 20:35:18 

In reply to sudden

Kid knows his kaiso history....I wish he also knew cricket history. Lol

 
johndom90 2020-09-16 01:20:35 

King Swallow is a legend himself. In reply to analyst-kid

I knew swallow had medical issues, but sad to hear his passing.

Swallow's style was unique and infectious. He had his own niche in the 80's ,
though he released his music in NY labour day , his music would rally right until
ash Wednesday and beyond...hit after hit...

RIP to the big man........

 
analyst-kid 2020-09-16 08:17:14 

In reply to methodic

can you provide any reference on Crusoe who is a great composer also writing "die with my dignity"?


This was common knowledge to all of us calypsonians and calypso archivists.

but still I have found a reference from the defunct BWIA's magazine Caribbean Beat

Article on Singing Sandra

Somehow, whether her material came from Dr Zhivago, Tobago Crusoe, or Christophe Quasar-Grant (an attorney in the Ministry of the Attorney General, who’s been writing excellent calypsos for Sandra over the last few years), she made the songs her own


But not any prouder than Tobago Crusoe, who wrote for Sandra for 10 years before emigrating to England. “He called me the day after I won,” Sandra reported, “and he kept laughing, he kept shouting, ‘Sandra, yuh wash dey a***, gyul! Yuh beat dem, yuh wash dey a***!’ He beat them too, because when I won Carifesta it was with two of his songs.


“I was born to do this,” she insists. “I was blessed with a talent, and I dare anyone to stop it. God ordained prophets, priests, and kings. How many songs Christophe write in a year? Could you imagine Tobago Crusoe singing Die With My Dignity? These people write, and as long as God gave me a voice to go out there I’m going to go and sing my heart out. And let anyone who doesn’t like it eat their hearts out.”

 
methodic 2020-09-17 00:46:03 

In reply to analyst-kid

thanks, we go talk plenty more about calypso.