Vet­er­an ca­lyp­son­ian The Mighty Bomber has died. Bomber, whose re­al name is Clifton Ryan, passed yes­ter­day at the age of 93. He would have cel­e­brat­ed his 94th birth­day on Jan­u­ary 30.

His death was con­firmed by his son Sher­win Ryan on Face­book yes­ter­day. Grena­di­an-born, Bomber mi­grat­ed to Trinidad and To­ba­go in 1956 and start­ed en­ter­ing ca­lyp­so com­pe­ti­tions the fol­low­ing year.

Ac­cord­ing to a fea­tured ar­ti­cle on his life pub­lished by Triniview.com, in 1958 he had a hit song called ‘Glo­ria’ that was re­sung by Har­ry Be­la­fonte in 1962.

In 1960 Bomber was in­vit­ed by the Mighty Spar­row to sing at the Orig­i­nal Young Brigade Tent.

He al­so par­tic­i­pat­ed in the in­de­pen­dence ca­lyp­so com­pe­ti­tion in 1962 and placed 4th, though many peo­ple in the au­di­ence felt that he should have won the com­pe­ti­tion.

The Triniview ac­count of his life notes that in 1964 he cre­at­ed his­to­ry when he de­feat­ed the Mighty Spar­row, win­ning the Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so King Com­pe­ti­tion in Trinidad with the songs Bomber’s Dream and James and Joan.

He went on to rep­re­sent Trinidad and To­ba­go at the Com­mon­wealth Fes­ti­val of Arts in Eng­land the fol­low­ing year. He al­so rep­re­sent­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go at Ran­dals Is­land, USA where he met Har­ry Be­la­fonte. He be­came the stage man­ag­er at the Mighty Spar­row’s Young Brigade Tent and held that po­si­tion for 15 years.

In 1976 Bomber was grant­ed a plot of land at Pic­ton Hill by the then Prime Min­is­ter Dr Er­ic Williams in recog­ni­tion of his con­tri­bu­tion to the ca­lyp­so art form.

Among his pop­u­lar ca­lyp­soes were Proverbs, Mr Un­for­tu­nate, Ju­ve­nile Delin­quen­cy, ‘Des­pers vs Bun­ters, An­i­mal Crick­et Match, The God­fa­ther, Pro­fes­sor Broomes, and Land Of Spice.