The Calypso thread

Even though Calypso can not be called "Tiki music" like Exotica, Hapa Haole and Surf, it had a distinctly tropical vibe, and did fit in well with many pre-Tiki tropical hideaways in the 30s, 40s, and 50s.

The sly folk wisdom of the lyrics, and especially the sexual double entendre humor of some of the songs (like "Don't Touch Me Tomato") made them preferred material for the mid-century rumpus room.

I used the example of the Calypso classic "The Big Bamboo" in Tiki Modern:

...showing the interior of the Big Bamboo club in Nassau, Bahamas, and the suggestive record cover from the club's album.

http://www.hipwax.com/music/calyp_ba.html
Originally written by the Duke of iron, the song was brought to further prominence by the Mighty Sparrow, the "King of Calypso":

Here he is wearing his crown, in the mid-50s

The Big Bamboo's influence reached into Tiki culture, by becoming a cocktail on the Mai Kai menu...

...and a legendary dive bar in Orlando, Florida, which I had the pleasure to visit before it burned down:

Here is a clean-sounding rendition of the original lyrics, perhaps not authentically Calypso in its sound,
but affording the listener a clear understanding of the words!:
http://bizarrerecords.com/blog/calypso/LCbamboo.mp3

..and here the wonderful cover of the performer, Lord Creator :) :

And now, the China man version modernized by the Mighty Sparrow (as mentioned in the link above),
performed by Lord Antics:
http://bizarrerecords.com/blog/calypso/LAnticBamboo.mp3

Ahem. Well, why am I telling you all this? Look at the B&W photo above, and imagine my surprise when an old friend of mine who organizes the yearly "Wassermusik" festival at the Berlin "House of World Cultures" told me that he had booked the Mighty Sparrow for a concert. THE Mighty Sparrow? Alive AND still performing!!?

Yes he was, and did!:

Excuse me please...this man is 74 years old! Amazing is an understatement here. Give me some of HIS Voodoo!

Now, the old Calypso style has evolved to the more "danceable" Soca style, so it did not sound like 40s Calypso
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7HO1hHRiEc&feature=related ), but Sparrow gave a great rendition of his cannibal song "Congo Man", during which he interviewed his band and audience if they ever had tasted any "white meat". He also performed his hit "Jean & Dinah", which was covered some 50 years ago by Robert Mitchum on his cult Calypso album:

"Well the girls in town feeling bad
No more Yankees in Trinidad
They going to close down the base for good...
...Things bad is to hear them cry
Not a sailor in town, the night clubs dry....
Don't make no row,
the yankees gone, Sparrow take over now..."

Here is a modern ode to Calypso by our favorite, Shag, depicting Calypso popularizers Bob Mitchum and Harry Belafonte:

This one is entitled "Mighty Sparrow -Old, Rich and Decadent":

I would be!

My Mighty Sparrow concert took place in the amazing 1958 Berlin Congress Hall, now the House of World Cultures:

(Now these are not stock photos, I snapped them :) )

I also got to see two movies: The documentary "At Dirty Jim's Swizzle Club" that is sort of the "Buena Vista Social Club" of Calypso:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YacCu7F5c4s

The place had gotten its name from its house cocktail, of course, the Dirty Jim's Swizzle. Who knows the recipe?

And I also saw for the first time the 1943 classic "I walked with Zombie", which features a scene where a Calypso singer expounds on the "Shame and Scandal in the family" of the protagonists. The film also has this dialog that reminds us of yet another Carribean connection to Tiki:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_RomNq3ZCA&feature=PlayList&p=707B07D7381B7F83&index=2

DR. MAXWELL
(explains)
I knew Jessica. We were friends.
Sometimes it's better for a doctor to
laugh than pull a long face when things
are hopeless.

BETSY
Yes, I know. But I don't know about
zombies, Doctor. Just what is a zombie?

DR. MAXWELL
A ghost, the living dead. It's also a drink.

BETSY
Yes, I tried one once. But there wasn't
anything dead about it.

Sir Lancelot performs his song around 2 min. 40 secs into the clip.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-07-26 12:08 ]

Great thread Sven and it’s very cool to see that the Mighty Sparrow is still going strong.

Here’s a Big Bamboo swizzle -

Even though it’s not as cool as the figural version featured in Tiki Quest and it’s pretty beat up I had to have it. :D

Agreed! Someone please post that swizzle stick from Tiki Quest, too. Wish I was home where all my Calypso records are...

Here you go.

Does that girl have hairy armpits? Now that's Bizzare!

Cool song, slightly risque for it's time. I love calypso music for it's "happy" sound.

Damn! Does he look good for 74! It's great that he's still around and performing. I've always liked the early calypso. Got into after a couple trips down to Tobago. The Smithsonian Folkways site has some really good cd's available.

http://www.folkways.si.edu/index.aspx

I picked these up, and highly recommend:

Calypso Awakening

Has a good bit of Mighty Sparrow and Lord Melody

and this awesome Lord Invader Calypso in New York

Still need to get this one:

Honestly there's probably a couple hundred cds I would take from Folkways!

Trailer for the movie "Bop Girl (Goes Calypso)"

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=377486575012458253

On 2009-07-27 06:41, bongofury wrote:
Trailer for the movie "Bop Girl (Goes Calypso)"

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=377486575012458253

I believe the background music for this film was done by Les Baxter. Anyone know where I can get a copy?

Nice thread Bigbro. I love Calypso records but there are so many of them its mind boggling.

Just how many versions of "Yellow Bird" are there?!!!!

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

Yes, calypso seems ubiquitous, even here in Vancouver: it's hard not to hit a thrift without seeing 2-3 calypso albums, so many that I pass over a lot of them...

Then again, that's what I thought about Hawaiian LP's many years ago and now I really wish I grabbed all of them that I could've...

Most recent finds -

and I landed this early Sparrow a long time back for a dollar -

Nice stuff on this one!

On 2009-07-27 06:41, bongofury wrote:
Trailer for the movie "Bop Girl (Goes Calypso)"

Boy Ron, is there a cool piece of exotic celluloid you don't know about!? I've been looking for evidence of this masterpiece ever since I came upon its genius title! (almost as good as : "I Sailed to Tahiti With An All Girl Crew" :D ) And what talent line up!: Bobby Troup, Mary Kaye, Lord Flea....

But hey, where did SHE disappear to so fast !?:

OK, how 'bout this.... Brazilian Beatnik Calypso!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOf8Z8w5DJQ&feature=related

...and this minimalist numba with Nat King Cole sporting the "Calypso Look":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf5ivCfZ_cw&feature=related

Thanks Sven. Jeff....send me a pm if you need Bop Girl...

a band called the " beatroots" does an updated cover of the big bamboo song.....if i knew how to post the song here i would, otherwise maybe someone else can do it.....i think i pulled it off of itunes on a compilation but not sure....anyway, it's a good listen....

The Beatroots version of "Big Bamboo" is great, and a perfect fit in any modern tiki jukebox. You can find it on iTunes & Amazon.

Well, I did not wanna do it...but the devil made me! :D
So that everyone understands how far double-entendre Calypso really did go, here are two more Mento examples that really stick out. In fact, it is so impossible to not get their drift, I must really warn the faint-hearted and the sexually tasteful among the members to refrain from clicking on these links!:

http://bizarrerecords.com/blog/calypso/LAfork.mp3

http://bizarrerecords.com/blog/calypso/LApussy.mp3

(Though technically Mento music, I am going with the popular notion of the day:
"During this time, Trinidadian calypso was the Caribbean’s top musical export, and the term "Calypso" was generically applied to Jamaican mento as well. Far more often than it was called by its proper name, mento was called "calypso","kalypso" or "mento calypso".")

hey anyone heard of the Jolly Boys? A friend of mine who was a dj befriended them and they came to Salt Lake a couple times for international fests when I lived there..their mix of mento, calypso, etc. all on acoustic instruments and played LIVe is truly wonderful and DOEs makes terrific tiki music...some of their tunes can get pretty dirty too and they recorded in the 90s..probably not around anymore those guys were OLD THEN

Since you asked: Everything you ever wanted to know about the Jolly Boys and then some:

http://www.mentomusic.com/TheJollyBoys.htm

Love this ad:

Just listening to one of my favorite albums, Calypso Is Like So by Robert Mitchum. Thought I'd check the forums to see if any other Tiki Ohana had it on their playlist.
How happy I was to find Sven's post with so much great info! Thank you - now to find some of those rarities!!!

In a recent thread, the question came up if this

is a good example of "Tiki". Well it is not, if at all, it would be "Pre-Tiki". But it really is Calypso pop culture. Tiki should not be used for just "Any depiction of the Tropics in mid-century America".

And the drink itself is the antithesis of the complexity that is the hallmark of Polynesian rum cocktail culture.
This said, it is a great song that certainly can be played in any Tiki bar. For more on the fascinating history of this song, click here :)

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=34157&forum=10&start=15

Thought I would add to this thread one more Tiki connection with Calypso

Preston Epps

who had a 1959 hit with Bongo Rock and the flipside of the lp was a 17 minute opus titled "Call of the Jungle"
I had Preston headline Bongos By the Bay in 1999 and Tiki Oasis in 2014

And another super cool cover and decent commercial tunes too
not Tiki but pretty good straight up Calypso

http://www.tikiaosis.com

The Jolly Boys do a good version of this Stones song.
I don't know if I would call this Calypso.

The Jolly Boys - You can't always get, what you want!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBxkRtJa-dM