Carisa Lee

carisa.lee@cnc3.co.tt

Forty years af­ter its re­lease, the ca­lyp­so Lor­raine re­mains a favourite of many peo­ple.

The lat­est per­son to ad­mit this was BBC jour­nal­ist Ros Atkins, who tweet­ed that af­ter he dis­cov­ered the song by Win­ston Hen­ry (Ex­plain­er) in 1982 he could not get enough of it.

“It’s just an enor­mous track it was the track that brought the house down every­thing, I used to run this night in Brix­ton, in fact, me and my wife Sara loved it so much it was our first dance in our wed­ding,” Atkins ex­plained on a BBC Ra­dio 6 broad­cast.

Atkins tweet was liked and shared thou­sands of times as many Trin­bag­o­ni­ans en­dorsed his state­ments about Ex­plain­er’s hit song.

“This song is a TRUE clas­sic” K said.

“No doubt this Ex­plain­er hit is one for the ages,” Den­zyl added.

And while Hen­ry was thank­ful for the recog­ni­tion, he was not sur­prised that it came from a for­eign­er. Ex­plain­er said up to three years ago he per­formed Lor­raine in­ter­na­tion­al­ly.

“It was al­ways a big song, it’s on­ly in Trinidad I find peo­ple used to take it as if it’s an old song, but that’s the way we are,” he said.

The vet­er­an ca­lyp­son­ian said in this coun­try their mu­sic is viewed as good enough on­ly for com­pe­ti­tions but he be­lieves ca­lyp­so can make waves in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, sim­i­lar to what Lor­raine did in the last four decades.

Calypsonian Winston Henry (Explainer) sheds tears of gratitude during an interview with Guardian Media at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain.

SHIRLEY BAHADUR

“You know who I ad­mire, the so­ca men and so­ca women, Patrice Roberts and these peo­ple, you know why I ad­mire them be­cause they go out put on shows and sell them out…So the so­ca sky­rock­ets every time,” he ex­plained.

He said he and Alphon­sus Ce­les­tine Ed­mund Cas­sell (Ar­row) were the on­ly two West In­di­an ca­lyp­so­ni­ans to reach on the British charts.

The Ra­ga So­ca (Reg­gae and So­ca) cre­ator said this was why he sang Monar­chy in 1980 be­cause a crown does not do any­thing for the art form. How­ev­er, back then Ex­plain­er said his song was able force a change in the Ca­lyp­so Monarch Prize mon­ey from $1,000 to $12,000.

An in­crease he al­most ben­e­fit­ted from in 1982 when he placed sec­ond with Lor­raine, a song he al­most did not record.

“I was more on songs that prob­a­bly had some kind of in­ter­est com­pet­i­tive wise...I did not be­lieve I could win a com­pe­ti­tion with that,” he said.

But arranger Franky McIn­tosh was per­sis­tent on not on­ly putting the song on his Man from the Ghet­to Al­bum but al­so lead­ing with it.

“He say one day you go­ing to re­mem­ber me…and you go­ing to re­mem­ber this song was cho­sen by me be­cause I know this song will take you many, many places I would nev­er for­get his words, “Ex­plain­er said.

And yes, Lor­raine (not her re­al name) is based on a true sto­ry. Ex­plain­er said ex­act­ly how the song de­scribed it was how it played out in his life at that time. His favourite lyrics are Babe, my mind is made up Air­port Kennedy will be my next stop. Doh cry and try to con­vince me. Be­cause meh suit­case done pack al­ready.

“When I was about to come back home for Car­ni­val when I told her I go­ing home she start to cry. In most cas­es you find peo­ple get to­geth­er and they have to sep­a­rate be­cause of their sit­u­a­tion,” he rem­i­nisced.

The Explainer dances as he sings his hit song, Lorraine.

SHIRLEY BAHADUR

Over the years Ex­plain­er has worked with many young so­ca artists, he be­lieves they are the fu­ture.

He al­so lec­tured at school and in prison and said get­ting the youth in­volved in cul­ture re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ties can cre­ate av­enues to steer them in the right di­rec­tion away from crime.

“Be­fore you be­come a crim­i­nal there are so many things you can do,” he said.

Ex­plain­er plans to re­lease an­oth­er al­bum lat­er this year.

The Explainer sings his hit song Lorraine.

SHIRLEY BAHADUR