U.S.: Back to calypso

Whatever happened to Gabby from Barbados? Anybody out there know? Send a link or something?

Apart from Gabby, the first time I heard Bajan calypso I damned near died laughing. I was in Barbados that year, serving as an examiner for CXC. There was this delightful song whose stanza lyrics I never understood -- a matter of accent -- but whose chorus I got for the most part. It went

bow wow wow
bow wow wow
I want my dog chow

And what about Arrow? Maybe I'm just out of the loop, but I don't recall hearing anything about him when I was in Trinidad in early January, 2004.

Every now and then, I go to Apple's iTunes store -- if you don't have iTunes, you really should get it; follow the link lower down on the page -- hunting for calypsoes. I do a search for Rudder, Sparrow, Kitchener, and others. The other day, I downloaded Lord Christo's Dumb Boy and the Parrot; Kitchener's Love in the Cemetery; and, Sparrow's Village Ram. Other than that, there's not much there for calypso aficionados, and it has to do with the artistes themselves contracting with the hottest music download company going. A search for Machel Montano, Iwer George, Sugar Aloes, Cro-Cro, all of these draw a blank. Zippo, zilch, nada. Rudder has one song there Bacchanal Lady. This doesn't make sense. It costs $.99 U.S. to download a song; you can mix and burn and get the CD you want. Rip, mix, and burn your downloads in various combos as long as it's not the same one all the time. So, why are calypsonians missing this wagon train? What does the calypsonian or the steelband lose if the music is sold via iTunes? Each song goes for $.99. That translates to about $6 TT. An CD of 15 songs comes to $90. I imagine that would be cheaper than a CD in T&T. The point is that the artiste gets his royalties; that's the object of the exercise, isn't it? Do a search for reggae and you can rip, mix, and burn to your heart's content. As for pan, there are just a handful of cuts. One by Amoco Renegades, a couple by Catelli. One by Samaroo Kids. A few others. Nothing much to write home about. I'm looking forward to the day when I can go to the iTunes store, download the calypsoes and pan I want to hear, rip, mix, and burn.