{"id":713,"date":"2012-05-02T21:04:05","date_gmt":"2012-05-02T21:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.quiliby.com\/all\/?p=713"},"modified":"2012-05-02T21:04:05","modified_gmt":"2012-05-02T21:04:05","slug":"sparromania-wit-wisdom-and-soul-from-the-king-of-calypso-1960-1976","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quiliby.com\/all\/sparromania-wit-wisdom-and-soul-from-the-king-of-calypso-1960-1976.html","title":{"rendered":"Sparromania!: Wit, Wisdom, and Soul from the King of Calypso, 1960-1976"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The following review of the 2012 compilation of the music of Slinger Francisco, the Mighty Sparrow, was written by David Lewis and appears in the May 2012 issue of <em>Black Grooves<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blackgrooves.org\/?p=7925\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.quiliby.com\/all\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/mighty-sparrow-200x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Artist: Mighty Sparrow<\/p>\n<p>Label: Strut \/ K7!<\/p>\n<p>Formats: 2-CD set, 2-LP set, MP3<\/p>\n<p>Catalog No.: Strut090CD<\/p>\n<p>Release date: January 24, 2012<\/p>\n<p>Any collection dedicated to the work of Slinger Fransisco, better known in the Caribbean by his calypso sobriquet Mighty Sparrow, is going to be woefully incomplete. So any review of such a collection could easily turn into bellyaching about material that is missing. I\u2019ll refrain from that, but will note that by focusing their collection Sparromania! on Sparrow\u2019s career from 1960-1972, listeners will miss some of Sparrow\u2019s memorable pieces such as the iconic \u201cJean and Dinah,\u201d the popular \u201cDrunk and Disorderly\u201d and the racy double-entendre song \u201cSaltfish.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those concerns aside, this compilation showcases Sparrow\u2019s penchant for biting social commentary that earned him the title \u201cCalypso King of the World.\u201d His insightful commentary on \u201cKennedy and Kruschev\u201d shows Sparrow at the top of his game, both lyrically and musically, with a driving rhythm section and quips on world affairs. His social commentary on \u201cAh Digging Horrors\u201d is still applicable to Trinidad\u2019s current struggles with high crime rates and the economic downturn, years after it was originally written:<\/p>\n<p>Ah digging horrors, ah digging the blues<br \/>\nAnytime I choose to peruse the daily news<br \/>\nAh digging horrors because<br \/>\nAll I read about is kidnappers, more laws, and wars. (see the following you tube video)<br \/>\n<div class='jwplayer' id='jwplayer-0'><\/div><script type='text\/javascript'>if(typeof(jQuery)==\"function\"){(function($){$.fn.fitVids=function(){}})(jQuery)};jwplayer('jwplayer-0').setup({\"image\":\"http:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/Bsov8hHHv-U\/0.jpg\",\"file\":\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Bsov8hHHv-U\"});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Sparrow\u2019s genius with the witty, oratorical calypso form can be heard in the track entitled \u201cPicong Duel (Sparrow and Melody).\u201d Picong is a West Indian speech form where speakers trade witty banter and comic insults in a spirit of good fun. Picong is deeply intertwined with the history of calypso and still appears today in \u201cextempo\u201d (improvised calypso) competitions. This exchange pairs the two giants of calypso, Sparrow and Lord Melody.<\/p>\n<p>The collection also delves into Sparrow\u2019s experiments with non-calypso genres during this period, such as the jangly \u201860s pop sounds of \u201cShe\u2019s Been Gone Too Long\u201d or the calypso-fied version of \u201cTry a Little Tenderness.\u201d Purists will lament the wasted space: why include songs like this when there are worthy, socially relevant calypsos that are left by the wayside? While some of these \u201cexcursions\u201d into other genres are not of the same musical or lyrical quality as Sparrow\u2019s true-true calypsos, they document the growth and change in the calypso form itself throughout the 1960s. The influence of U.S. based pop and the growing international success of reggae inspired calypsonians to experiment with pop and soul sounds which would eventually solidify into a new \u201cspinoff\u201d genre: soca.<\/p>\n<p>And while many of these experiments ultimately do not stand up to Sparrow\u2019s other output, one of my favorite tracks on the compilation is the raucous \u201cWhat\u2019s the Use of Getting Sober?\u201d A lazy shuffling guitar accompanies Sparrow and a few friends as they express their love of Trinidad rum:<\/p>\n<p>Here comes the bottle, I gotta get some<br \/>\nI want my mouth to smell stink with rum!<br \/>\nWhat\u2019s the use of getting sober<br \/>\nWhen you know you will be drunk again?<\/p>\n<p>Indeed.<\/p>\n<p>While calypso fans may have many of these recordings on albums from the 1960s and \u201870s, many of the originals\u2014and even Sparrow\u2019s CD releases of the material\u2014have been difficult to find in the United States. The extensive liner notes by David Katz on the history of calypso and Sparrow\u2019s career make this a great introduction to a small slice of his musical output.<\/p>\n<p>For original post:<a href=\"http:\/\/blackgrooves.org\/?p=7925\"> Sparromania!: Wit, Wisdom, and Soul from the King of Calypso, 1960-1976 | blackgrooves.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The following review of the 2012 compilation of the music of Slinger Francisco, the Mighty Sparrow, was written by David Lewis and appears in the May 2012 issue of Black Grooves. Artist: Mighty Sparrow Label: Strut \/ K7! Formats: 2-CD set, 2-LP set, MP3 Catalog No.: Strut090CD Release date: January 24, 2012 Any collection dedicated [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[263,264],"class_list":["post-713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-mighty-sparrow","tag-slinger-francisco"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4zx0X-bv","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quiliby.com\/all\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quiliby.com\/all\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quiliby.com\/all\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quiliby.com\/all\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quiliby.com\/all\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.quiliby.com\/all\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":725,"href":"https:\/\/www.quiliby.com\/all\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions\/725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quiliby.com\/all\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quiliby.com\/all\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quiliby.com\/all\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}