That mantra of a refrain is my pick for this year's Parang Soca Road March. I have heard Baron's I want a Spanish woman ad nauseum on every radio frequency locally, and even on a Bajan station picked up apparently only in the hills of Parlatuvier, Tobago. It has also been beaten like a mapapire in every Christmas lime and party I attended.
My music researcher Nicholas St Bernard tells me that the first time he heard I Want a Spanish Woman was when Allan Diaz played it on Sweet 100 FM late in 2008, which means this song is already two-years-old.Another favourite surviving the past couple Christmases have been Black Cake and Sorrel by Da $pirit$ (Shawn "Da Ma$tamind" Noel), and Walter Taylor's Coro Coro. Every Tom, Dick, Mary and Harry is now singing parang soca, including chutney star Adesh Samaroo. But, the stuff that has endured, at least the past 30-plus years and continued to be played, is the work of parang soca icon Crazy, and people like Scrunter, Baron, Kenny J, Marcia Miranda and Singing Francine.
Old school parang soca, like Crazy's Parangsoca m(1978) and Muchacha, and Francine's Hooray Hoorah will last 'til the end of time. Of course parang soca would be incomplete without the ridiculous and this area has ably been covered by Sprangalang, Nikki Crosby and Third Bass. Oh gosh, I love Bass' Par-Hang, a parang soca single about hanging murderers in Woodford Square.
Beside the avant garde parang soca genre, we are also blessed with local soul Christmas ditties and among the best in this sphere are Around my Christmas Tree and Sha La La Christmas Song (Lennox Gray); The Cherry Tree Carol (Hazel Ramberansingh); and Ribbons (Marilyn Williams). Let's not forget the evergreen classic Christmas ballads, like There's No Place Like Home (Sparrow); Nap Hepburn's Tell Santa Claus; and, Kelwyn Hutcheon's How I wish I was a child again. Then, there's the Christmas calypso, inclusive of Relator's Christmas On Sesame Street, Kitchener's Drink-A-Rum, Marcia Miranda's Marmie, and David Rudder's Go Tell It On The Mountain.
Add to that, Pelham Goddard's catchy remake of Tell Santa Claus, featuring Charlie's Roots. No list of top Christmas music would be complete without the inclusion of two singles by two super artistes-Crazy's One For Tito (2009), with lyrics by T&TG journalist Michelle Loubon, and Singing Francine's He is the Reason.
Let the parang soca roll
I asked St Bernard to send me his Top 20 all time parang soca items and, in ascending order, he sent me the following:
De Paintbrush (Kenny J);
Homemade Wine (Scrunter & Los Tocadores);
One For Tito (Crazy);
What Is Christmas (Bunji Garlin);
Bring Drinks (Sprangalang);
Gimme Love (Marcia Miranda);
Eat Something (Scrunter);
Cork In She Hand (Kenny J);
Tribute To Daisy (Scrunter);
I Love Christmas (Designer);
Indian Parang Chic (Taxi);
Christmas Nice (Shadow);
Madame Jeffrey (Scrunter);
Parang Parang (Singing Francine);
Anita (Scrunter & Flores De San Jose);
Bring Out De Ham (Marcia Miranda);
Parangsoca (Crazy);
Muchacha (Crazy);
Soca Parang, aka Piece ah Pork (Scrunter); and,
Hooray Hoorah (Singing Francine).
The real deal
While I really love parang soca, my real passion authentic parang, especially those groups that use non-electronic instruments, like Lara Brothers. Among my favourite parang groups through the years have been La Divina Pastora (how I miss Daisy and Big Birch); Las Estrellas, Los Alacran, Fuego Caribueno, Carib Santa Rosa Serenaders, Love Bunch, Los Alumnos de San Juan and Paranderos de UWI. Of course, beside Daisy and Tito Lara, amongst my favourite parang songsters have been Papa Goon, Henry Pereira and Gloria Alcazar, and now Alicia Jagassar and the lead voice of Fuego Caribueno.
Best of the new
One of my favourite authentic parang numbers is actually an instrumental-Black Cake And Sorrel. Released since 2006, this infectious single is a work by very talented producer Da $pirit$. The other recent parang ditty to capture my fancy is Anda Parranda. Like a breath of fresh air to Trini Christmas music Noel has been consistently excellent with his work, coming with another instrumental-Sweetbread-this year.
Other hits by this talent, who seems to have a penchant for the culinary delights of the season, are Ponche De Creme (2007); Ham And Pastelle (2008); and, What Is Christmas Without Ah Rum?, the latter on the Cuatro Man Riddim, shared by De Parang Cyar Done (Chai) and Macafouchette (Rem Bunction)
Also relatively new to the scene but churning out some fantastic hits in recent times has been south lad Myron B. An excellent composer and recording artiste, Myron's hits include Coming Down Tonight and Is ah nex' house.
Then there are other newcomers who've made an instant impact, like D Diamond (Breathe In); Fireball (Better Belly bus dan to let good food waste); and, Daddy Chinee. Last week I heard what must be the best kept secret in Christmas music-a group of very young men going by the sobriquet of The Crib. A protege of Crazy, this quartet has one of the sweetest songs I've heard this season-More Love for Christmas. Crazy, who has composed over 40 songs for various artistes for next year's Carnival, said that The Crib will be making much noise in soca come C2K11, so listen out for them.
Other new works to catch my fancy this year have been What Is Christmas (Bunji Garlin); Christmas Without Santa (Adesh Samaroo); Bella Trinidad (Leon Coldero); Breathe In (D Diamond); Why Yuh Drink Meh Rum? (D Chancellor); Tabanca (Blackie); My Christmas Tree (Kool); Fork (Ricardo Drue); Never Be The Same (Kevon Carter); Loving Neighbour (Young Voice); and, Bring Yuh Rum (Ajala). There's also a must-buy new CD by Carib Santa Rosa that is available at all leading record shops. One other monster single is Under the Bed by SuperBlue. This ditty is neither fish or fowl as it is not a carol, a parang or a parang soca, but more in the vintage of a Road March contender, and damn nice calypso.
BLOODNOTES
Sadness at Christmas time
To end on a sad note, I extend Pulse condolences to the family and friends of Esther Dalton, and members of Starlift Steel Orchestra, on her untimely passing, as well as the relatives of Ricardo "Smokey" Mc Kenzie.
This life is really brief and fleeting as just Sundays ago I ran into a smiling, happy Esther as she limed in the Queen's Park Savannah at the final steelband concert organised by Pan Trinbago. However she succumbed to a massive heart attack last weekend, and was buried on Tuesday morning, leaving to mourn her only child, daughter Simone, brother former TSTT employee Leslie Dalton, and relatives.
Esther, 67, was a veteran, stalwart member of Starlift and, following her service at Tranquility Methodist Church, a reception was hosted at Starlift's Mucurapo Road Ext panyard. Smokey, a co-proprietor of the internationally renowned Smokey & Bunty Pub in St James was battling a brain tumour for the past six months and died in a Miami hospital on Tuesday.