Pe­ter Ray Blood

Our 50-year his­to­ry as a na­tion is re­plete with out­stand­ing ca­lyp­so com­po­si­tions, many of them of a pa­tri­ot­ic na­ture, ex­pound­ing the pos­i­tive virtues of Trinidad and To­ba­go. From as ear­ly as four years be­fore In­de­pen­dence, ca­lyp­so­ni­ans were singing prais­es to T&T. In the 1958 Ca­lyp­so King fi­nal, in his first fi­nal at this lev­el, first run­ner-up Mighty Skip­per sang Trinidad a Par­adise, beat­en by Mighty Strik­er. That year, the win­ner's to­tal prize was $600. One of the most pa­tri­ot­ic ca­lyp­soes ever sung is Por­trait of Trinidad, which up to to­day is re­gard­ed as a na­tion­al song. This song won Sniper, singing for the third year of his ca­reer, the 1965 Ca­lyp­so King ti­tle. Un­for­tu­nate­ly it was a bit­ter­sweet vic­to­ry, as he was sen­tenced to two year's im­pris­on­ment ten days af­ter the crown was placed on his head at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain, on the night of Sun­day, Feb­ru­ary 28. The 1965 king had been found guilty of fraud, a crime he com­mit­ted in 1963, and was in­car­cer­at­ed, but his song lived on.

In 1966, one of the best pa­tri­ot­ic ca­lyp­soes was sung by Mighty Fun­ny (Don­ric Williamson)-Sweet Sweet Trinidad. Lyrics from that dit­ty are still quot­ed by many: "When ah dead please bury me, in the cen­tre of the city." When the In­de­pen­dence Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tion was held for the na­tion's 25th an­niver­sary in 1987, Fun­ny again came up with a song which asked poignant ques­tions about T&T and na­tion­hood. Ask­ing?"25 years have gone, how yuh feel?" Fun­ny was ad­judged sec­ond in this fi­nal, won by Cro Cro. An­oth­er out­stand­ing pa­tri­ot­ic ca­lyp­so is Sail­ing, sung by De Mighty Tri­ni (Robert Elias). In this song the artiste tells of his un­re­lent­ing love for T&T, stat­ing that re­gard­less of what hap­pens to the good ship Trinidad and To­ba­go, he is sail­ing with the boat, "sink or float." God Bless Our Na­tion by Lord Bak­er is an­oth­er pa­tri­ot­ic ca­lyp­so which al­so shares the pres­tige of be­ing a na­tion­al song. Es­pous­ing the coun­try's na­tion­al uni­ty, Bak­er sings, "It's fan­tas­tic, yes it is, the way how we live as one. In in­te­gra­tion, our na­tion is sec­ond to none." High up amongst the best-ever pa­tri­ot­ic ca­lyp­soes is Denyse Plum­mer's Nah Leav­ing, the song which won her the 2001 Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch con­test, ahead of Shad­ow and Sug­ar Aloes. Every stan­za of Plum­mer's Nah Leav­ing gives one a sense of pro­found pa­tri­o­tism. This is a song that is des­tined to live on for­ev­er.

When it comes to com­pos­ing pa­tri­ot­ic ca­lyp­soes, David Rud­der can rank amongst the best, if not be­ing the most pro­lif­ic. This 1986 Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch, Young Kings monarch and Road March cham­pi­on has pro­duced a repos­i­to­ry of ex­cel­lent pa­tri­ot­ic ca­lyp­soes, in­clud­ing Ten Thou­sand Flow­ers Bloom; Ganges & The Nile; Back to My Is­land; and Tri­ni to the Bone, the lat­ter a col­lab­o­ra­tion with his child­hood friend Carl Ja­cob. In the pre­ced­ing decade, one of the biggest pa­tri­ot­ic songs to emerge was ap­pro­pri­ate­ly ti­tled Trinidad and was sung by young south­ern bard Naya George, younger sib­ling of so­ca icon Neil Iw­er George. Naya's in­fec­tious sin­gle swept the na­tion like a dry-sea­son bush fire, so much so that it went on to win the 2002 Road March ti­tle. Last year, it was Ben­jai, an­oth­er young­ster, to cre­ate a sim­i­lar re­ac­tion with his much loved Tri­ni. De­spite Machel Mon­tano cop­ping the 2011 Road March ti­tle, none can de­ny that Ben­jai was the "peo­ple's cham­pi­on" with Tri­ni. As the no­tion of na­tion­hood con­tin­ues to cap­ture the imag­i­na­tion of the pop­u­lace, and cit­i­zens gain in­ter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion in all spheres of en­deav­our, com­posers are still cre­at­ing pa­tri­ot­ic ca­lyp­soes. The next 50 years ought to be ex­cit­ing ones as mu­sic and ca­lyp­so evolves to high­er plateaux of achieve­ment.

25 Top pa­tri­ot­ic ca­lyp­soes – 1962-2012

Tri­ni – Ben­jai

Nah Leav­in' – Denyse Plum­mer

Trinidad – Naya George

Trinidad and To­ba­go – Lord Bryn­ner

We Can Make It – Black Stal­in

I Thank Thee – Ca­lyp­so Rose

Still de Best – Cro Cro

Rhythm of a Peo­ple – Gyp­sy

Sweet T&T – Natasha Wil­son

I Love My Coun­try – Machel Mon­tano

God Bless Our Na­tion – Lord Bak­er

Por­trait of Trinidad – Mighty Sniper

Mod­el Na­tion – Mighty Spar­row

Sail­ing – De Mighty Tri­ni

Ten Thou­sand Flow­ers Bloom – David Rud­der

Ganges & The Nile – David Rud­der

Back to My Is­land – David Rud­der

Tri­ni to the Bone – David Rud­der, feat Carl Ja­cob

Sug­ar Is­land – Carl Ja­cob, feat David Rud­der

Sweet Sweet Trinidad – Lord Fun­ny

Let Us Build a Na­tion To­geth­er – Mer­chant

Ja­ha­ji Bhai – Broth­er Mar­vin

Bear with me – Chucky

Our Na­tion­al Watch­word – Michelle Hen­ry

Give. I?Will Rec­i­p­ro­cate – Karen Ec­cles