Nass­er Khan

Kade Si­mon, born in Erin, aka Lord Bryn­er, was a pop­u­lar ca­lyp­son­ian from the late 1950's to the 1970's who, like the fa­mous Amer­i­can screen ac­tor, Yul Bryn­ner, per­formed with his head shaved. He moved to Ja­maica to join the West In­dies Reg­i­ment un­til the ear­ly 1960s dur­ing the time of the West In­dies Fed­er­a­tion. He per­formed in Ja­maica for a while be­fore re­turn­ing to Trinidad af­ter the col­lapse of the Fed­er­a­tion.

In Au­gust 1962, at the age of 25, he won the spe­cial ca­lyp­so com­pe­ti­tion that was held to cel­e­brate the In­de­pen­dence of T&T, beat­ing the "big boys" the Mighty Spar­row, Nap Hep­burn and the Mighty Bomber in­to 2nd, third and fourth places re­spec­tive­ly. His win­ning ca­lyp­so was en­ti­tled Trinidad and To­ba­go In­de­pen­dence, for which he re­ceived the first prize of $1,000.

The oth­er eight fi­nal­ists were Lord Pre­tender, The Hawk, Mighty Pow­er, Mighty Dougla, Lord Cristo, Chang Kai Chek, Mighty Strik­er and Lazy Har­row, cho­sen from a field of 35 who had au­di­tioned at the Ra­dio Trinidad Stu­dio on Au­gust 9th, 1962.

Fol­low­ing are some of the words which you can lis­ten to at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_ItBb6GqNI:

Peo­ple on­ly talk­ing but they re­al­ly don't know

What's the prop­er mean­ing for Trinidad and To­ba­go

Cipri­ani start the ball rolling

Now the Doc­tor do­ing the bowl­ing

So we have Un­cle Er­ic to per­form a re­al hat-trick.

Be­cause this is your land, just as well as my land

This is your place and al­so it is my place

So let us put our heads to­geth­er

And live like one hap­py fam­i­ly

De­mo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly, ed­u­ca­tion­al­ly,

We'll be in­de­pen­dent­ly.

31st of Au­gust, In­de­pen­dence

1962, In­de­pen­dence

Will go down in his­to­ry for every­one of you

For­get racial­ism and na­tion­al­ism too

Let dis­ci­pline, pro­duc­tion, and

Tol­er­ance guide us through In­de­pen­dence

Con­sci­en­tious­ly, In­de­pen­dence

And con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly, In­de­pen­dence

For­get all this lousy ru­mor about racial equal­i­ty

If you are an East In­di­an and you want to be an African

Just shave your head like me

Then they can't prove your na­tion­al­i­ty

Bryn­er record­ed an amaz­ing 50 sev­en-inch records (usu­al­ly two songs) and 13 LPs (the equiv­a­lent of to­day's CD). On at least one of his ca­lyp­sos, Bob Mar­ley was a back up cho­rus singer.

He died at a rel­a­tive­ly young age, des­ti­tute and lone­ly.

more in­fo

Some of his ca­lyp­sos:

• 1959-Ju­ve­nile Delin­quen­cy; We Want Back Ch­aguara­mas

• 1960-Rich Man, Poor Man; Ri­ot at the Oval; Why Spar­row Lost the Crown; Mar­tiniquian Woman; Ca­lyp­so Sto­ry; See Me Ma­ma; Con­go; Hu­la Hoop Girls; Leave the Yan­kees Alone; The Old Ladies; The Air­port; The Doc­tor and the News­pa­per; Ven­dor Woman; The Princess Wed­ding; South African Ri­ot

• 1961-The Bud­get; Hap­py Birth­day; The Air­port; Old Ladies; The End of the World; Girls from A to Z

• 1962-Ani­ta; The Twist Ca­lyp­so; Car­rera; In­fi­deli­ty; Wed­ding in No­vem­ber; Michael; My Doolahin; Come With Me; Vagabonds; Pub­lic­i­ty for So; Gang War; Night­club Brawl; Trinidad & To­ba­go In­de­pen­dence;

• 1963-Ivy; The Na­tion Ca­lyp­so; Help Your­self; Vile Doc­trine; Blood Trans­fu­sion; Cra­paud & Lizard; Bossa No­va Love; Ca­mala­ta; Sir Win­ston Churchill; Sol­dier; Come Back to Pa­pa; The Dev­il and Man; UN Ba­by; Night Club Brawl; Mar­gari­ta; Ja­maica Why You Run; Trinidad Per­son­al­i­ties; Cus­tom Of­fi­cers; Bryn­ner's Ca­lyp­so Tour; Trinidad Pull­out the Fed­er­a­tion

• 1964-The Groom in the Bath­room; Pan in Church; Judieline; Call Me B'Wana

• 1965-Tiger in Your Tank

• 1966-TV Bac­cha­nal; Lock and Key; Pull the Dev­il Tail; Nev­er Trou­ble the Dev­il; Don't Share Your Love in Four; Naught from Naught; Teach Me to Ska; The Shack is Back; Con­go War

• Oth­er-De­val­u­a­tion of the Pound; Jacque­line; Ba­jan Bach­e­lors; Shame and Scan­dal; Wreck­er Poom Poom; I Shall Be Re­leased; The Games Peo­ple Play; I Will Nev­er Turn My Back on You; Proud Mary; Skull Dug­gery; Lit­tle Willy; Pen in Hand; Who Put Pep­per in the Vase­line; Mis­ery Woman; Roslyn Pussy; Re­pub­lic Yes, Re­pub­lic No; Viet­nam Mora­to­ri­um; Hang Them High; Doo Doo Dar­ling; Hin­du Girl Pamela; Mar­tin Luther King Mes­sage; Caribbean Par­adise; Mr Crab.