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Red lavender rises By Keith Smith, Trinidad Express, Friday, December 14th, 2007 |
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Too much obeah in the tent,'' I once heard Sparrow say in the Original Young Brigade and with good reason, the upstairs dressing room of the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union headquarters that had served as the OYB's tent for all those years pungent with all manner of odours, the air stinky-sweet as calypsonians sought to invoke their own deities either to sweeten their own performances or, yes, to stink up the performances of those of their fellows whom they considered a threat or with whom they might have had an altercation of one kind or the other. And Sparrow should know obeah when he saw it or when, as in the instant case, he smelled it. Wasn't he the one, after all, who had claimed grandsonship of the late great Papa Neeza, that calypso relationship enabling him thus to taunt Melda: "Yuh making yuhself a pappyshow, Melda Yuh making yuhself a bloody clown Up and down the country looking for obeah And yuh perspiration smell so strong Girl you only wasting time Obeah wedding bells don't chime And yuh can't trap me with necro-mancy.... The amount of incense that you burn at night Lard and garlic stinking up mih place So much colour candles that you light Rubbing red lavender in yuh face.....'' Well, now, if we are to believe De Fosto, Sparrow might well have taught Kitchener, his late great rival (Sparrow's, of course), a thing or two because in a calypso as new as the latest bacchanal, "Fosto'' has Kitchener speaking out from the grave (that cliche of a calypso device) and blaming his late paramour, "Betsy,'' for working obeah on him to such good effect that he ended up signing over his "Rainorama Palace'' house to her, leaving his children and their mother, Valerie Green, almost literally, as I have written, in the rain: "What wrong yuh did in life does haunt yuh till death. Some way down de road, yuh sure to regret De circumstances sometimes don't be easy. Especially when it involve yuh family. Now I am appealing, because Valerie hurting still. For mih family sake Ah want yuh help me reverse the will Gih de damn gyul de house, quickly on de double. Gih de damn gyul de house, some-times a will is reversible. Gih de damn gyul de house, now I'm reaching out to everybody. Gih de damn gyul de house, I was under duress when ah sign yuh see. Gih de damn gyul de house Tell Sugar Bum-Bum Ah sorry Ah put all mih children in jeopardy Betsy tie mih up till ah couldn't see Stupid me, sign over the will to she...'' I don't know who de Fosto has Kitchener telling to give Valerie the "Rainorama Palace'' that he so cavalierly gave away. Cyar be Betsy because Betsy dead (surprisingly before Kitch, in fact). And it cyar be the sister to whom Betsy willed the house before she died because far from deciding that Kitch's children had a moral right to the house she pushed her legal rights and won - Kernel and the rest of the kids almost certain to be sent packing in two weeks time whatever de Fosto's Kitchenerian lament: "Cannot rest easy, till I am sure Dat de Rainorama continues forever more. Yes I must admit oh yeah, something was wrong. So ah decided to put it in song. She had meh basodee, mentally Ah lost meh way. All Kitchener ask is for your for-giveness I say. Gih de damn gyul de house, Betsy why yuh tie meh up so Gih de damn gyul de house, now ah want de whole damn world to know. Gih de damn gyul de house, de Fernandes Black Label yuh make meh drink. Gih de damn gyul de house, well!! It sweeten meh up ah couldn't even think. Then she bathe me down with milk and honey Light all kinda black candle around me By then Ah couldn't see mih children again Just so Ah put the will in she name...'' But, again, I ask - who is to give the damn gyul the house? The government? But how? I heard the Culture Minister, Ms MacDonald, say on the radio that, attorney-at-law that she is, she was going to make an intervention. But now I hear that, wiser counsel having been brought to bear, she is backing away from what is not only a legal dispute - but one that has been decided in Betsy's sister's favour, the old Kitch alone to blame for the loss of what should have been his children's legacy: "Some people go talk ill things about me. But I was in love with Sugar Bum-Bum yuh see. De time of the signing Ah wasn't thinking straight. When ah ketch mehself, by then it was too late. Ah grieve to de end, didn't know what to do. So now de case in the court Ah hope justice prevail fuh true. Gih de damn gyul de house, yeh for meh children sake. Gih de damn gyul de house, Kernel and Quewina I won't forsake. Gih de damn gyul de house, Christian and Kernister dat is they home. Gih de damn gyul de house, on de streets ah doh want meh children roam. Gih de damn gyul the house Is red lavender all over mih head An axe and a Bible under mih bed Ah buck in a corner staring at me That is why ah sign over the will to she.'' This is the best new kaiso I have heard for the coming season, not that I have heard more than two or three. And it is not just the tale that de Fosto tells but how he tells it. The melody and phrasings are Kitchener's or at least, Kitchener-like and as he comes down to the song's end, de Fosto becomes a faux Kitch, the old man seeming to wail over the mistake he made in the manner of those dead-beat fathers some of whom are in jail - to end with a rhyme for which the Grandmaster, hopefully, wouldn't have given me a fail (triple rhyme, Kitch, triple rhyme!) |