What’s wrong with us?

THE EDITOR: Congratulations and thanks to the initiators of Calypso History Month, October 2018. The country was able to enjoy the best of calypso music on air. Contemporary calypsoes aside, many of those played brought back fond memories of bygone eras in which calypso was really king.

It should not be surprising to learn that Calypso Music by Harry Belafonte was the first ever LP record to sell more than a million copies.

In October, too, the country mourned the loss of Shadow, Winston Mc Garland Bailey – calypsonian, composer, philosopher, spoken-word poet. His genius will live on through his music.

As an artiste he has been immortalised via presentations from his family members, the calypso fraternity (may The Original De Fosto Himself rest in peace), an academic, Bukka Rennie; a former president of the country, Anthony Carmona, and many others at his funeral service at the Queen’s Park Savannah.

The president of TUCO, Brother Resistance, used the occasion to call for the institutionalisation of a calypso museum.

Something else happened in October, while the country was mourning the passing of Shadow. On the Sunday before his funeral a Jamaican talk show host on a popular radio station in TT said on air, “Calypso is not my favourite music.” Was this personal sentiment appropriate, bearing in mind the circumstances under which it was made?

Had Shadow been alive and heard that comment he may have added another verse to his calypso that asks the question, “What’s wrong with us?”

JOHN HENRY, Petit Valley