Nass­er Khan

With the threat of the Ebo­la virus, the ques­tion has been posed as to whether Car­ni­val 2015 should be post­poned or even can­celled. Many have point­ed to a sim­i­lar sce­nario in 1972 when Car­ni­val was post­poned from Feb­ru­ary to May be­cause of the threat of the po­lio virus.

When Car­ni­val was even­tu­al­ly staged in May 1973, the rains came and ru­ined the pa­rade. This was vivid­ly cap­tured the next Car­ni­val by Ald­wyn Roberts, the Lord Kitch­en­er in his 1973 Road March, Rain­o­ra­ma.

Here are the lyrics, crank up the vol­ume and sing along.

Rain-O-Ra­ma

–Lord Kitch­en­er

Well they moan and dey fuss and dey say we want we fete

And dey 'buse and they cuss and they say this is a threat

Yes, they damn and they blast, and they say we hope it ain't true

They won't dare to can­cel we jump up 1972.

Cho­rus:

Ma­ma, when they hear they go get the car­ni­val

All mas­quer­aders on heat

When they didn't hear if it was of­fi­cial, but they start­ed turn­ing beast on the street

And they start to jump around, yaay, and they start to tum­ble down, yaay

And they fall down on the ground, yaay, if you see how they gay, yes

But what was so com­i­cal, in the midst of bac­cha­nal

Rain come and wash out mas in May.

Some ah them even say is 'cause they from Morne Co­co so they wouldn't let we play

And dey blam­ing po­lio, who they think they could fool

All we know they bet­ter do fast, po­lio or no po­lio, man we want we mas.

Cho­rus ....

When the news hit the town, the band lead­ers rail up then

Well they can't slow we down, 'cause a lot of mon­ey spent

And they know very well every­body have their minds bent

So they have to try and save us this em­bar­rass­ment.

Cho­rus ....

One or two big shots say that it is im­per­ti­nent to sug­gest they should play car­ni­val af­ter the Lent

Well the crowd start to bawl, they eh know what they talk­ing 'bout

Why the so and so hyp­ocrites doh shut up dey mouths.

Cho­rus ....