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Wanderlust
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For a long time all I knew about ska was contained in this brief Police Squad scene, featuring Dick Clark from American Bandstand:
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Hi David,
„Police Squad“ doesn’t ring a bell. Was that a TV series or a movie? (I think also produced by the Zucker brothers and Abrahams). Maybe that wasn’t broadcast on our television, maybe I just overlooked it until now. Too bad. Was this a prequel to „The naked gun“?
Thank you for “Sleep Little Tiny King”. Did you play in the school orchestra performance? Which instrument? As I wrote before: My music career during school time ended with the triangle. ????
And once again a nice transition, this time to the music style Calypso.
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Wow, Juergen, you got all the details right! Police Squad was a brilliant comedic TV series from 1982, written by the Airplane movie guys, that was cancelled after six weeks. Just too smart for the average couch potato. But the premise was indeed revived six years later with the first of the Naked Gun movies.
Oh, and I played clarinet in the school band.
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Calypso in its present form originated in Trinidad at the beginning of the 20th century and is still an important part of the music of Trinidad and Tobago. The origins go back to African slaves. The word calypso derives from the Yoruba term kaiso; Kaiso is still used as a synonym for calypso in Trinidad today.
“Calypso Rose” is a Trinidadian calypso musician who was the first woman to break into the male-dominated genre:
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Trinidad and Tobago are a Caribbean island nation, located off the coast of Venezuela. The main island is Trinidad. There is also the capital of the island kingdom: Port of Spain. Unlike most other islands in the region, Trinidad and Tobago are not of volcanic origin, but were once part of the South American mainland.
“The purpose of travel is to balance imagination with reality, and instead of thinking how things could be, see them as they are.”
– Samuel Johnson –
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Holy cow, I completely forgot about Sesame Street, which provided the first example of pretty much everything interesting that I know about. This primordial memory was my introduction to steel drum music:
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The Electric Company also got in on the act:
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Holy cow („Heiliger Strohsack“) David once again a very nice transition to the next topic: the steel drum. Thanks also for the two entertaining island impressions (Kermit / Kermit & Harry Belafonte). And of course thanks?,! for the short introduction to punctuation., Finally I know how this works properly?,!.
Yes life is full of rhythm, even if you are banging your head against the wall, because your students are once again not doing what they are supposed to do…
Not only the calypso sound has made Trinidad musically famous, but also the steel drum, also called steel pan in Trinidad. The instrument was invented in Trinidad in the 1930s and is the national instrument there. The British colonial rulers forbade the natives from drumming on African percussion instruments. Therefore, the lower class looked for new ways of musical expression. In this island nation, oil production played an important role and contributed significantly to the industrialization of Trinidad. Thus, the first steel pans were made from discarded oil drums, which were abundant in Trinidad due to the oil industry.
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Wow, I had no idea that steel drums were manufactured with the same technical precision that is applied to standard band instruments. I’m sure the Trinidad natives of decades past just heated and hammered by trial and error until they got it right, and built up some practical wisdom about the process. It would be interesting to hear that version of the story as well.
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Hi David,
when I saw the video for the first time, I was also very surprised how much “high tech” is used in the production of such a steel drum. Years ago I saw a documentary on TV about the manufacturing of steel drums. There, the traditional way of steel drum construction was still presented. Indeed: a single person, equipped with a multitude of hammers needed hours and hours to form the individual sound fields. Constant hammering was done, then again the sound was controlled and so on. And all with nothing but their own hearing. Very impressive. I find it very fascinating what we humans can accomplish with the help of our senses.
By the way, I was looking for a nice steel drum band presentation and unfortunately didn’t find much. Either the picture and sound quality is very poor or they are white musicians who play technically well but seem passionate like a refrigerator.(The Marimba Band guys are kind of impossible to top). I think the following band does a pretty good job:
PS: I have now ordered “Police Squad” as Bluray (all six episodes) at a bargain price. Doesn’t seem to have been a blockbuster here either…
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You won’t regret that Bluray purchase, Juergen! There’s one full episode on YouTube that you could whet your appetite with while you wait.
I just found an interview with Leslie Nielsen in which he does a post-mortem on Police Squad. He says the consensus of the creative team was that the show failed because the average TV viewer has to contend with too many distractions to deal with a situation in which all the humor is blink-and-you’ll-miss-it. So that’s why they later went to the movie format, with much more success.
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Another nice calypso inspired song: „Rum and Coca-Cola“ is a calypso-style pop song that originated in Trinidad. In early 1945, the song gave the Andrews Sisters a number one hit on the charts and was a US million seller (two lawsuits of plagiarism were an unexpected encore, as the lyrics were by a certain Lord Invader and the music by Lionel Belasco).
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Hi <em style=”color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: inherit;”>Jürgen
Rum and Coca-Cola was way cool ! Questions 1- Is this site mega-slow for U ?(is from here in Tampa) 2- Is it a German/Euro ASCII keybord standard thing? How do U get the <em style=”color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: inherit;”>
Umlaut dots over the u on USA Keyboard ???
Cheers
Juergen-<em style=”color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: inherit;”>Jürgen
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Hallo Juergen,
yeah rum and coca cola is kinda pretty cool because it sounds so antiquated. Regarding your questions: Yes, the M&L homepage has been building up very slowly for some time. Wasn’t always like that. If it bothers you: tell the Wagner team under “Support & Suggestions”. They take feedback like this seriously. I don’t understand the second question correctly, since I only see special characters here (html codes): Do you mean how do you get the points on the “u” ? Simply hold down the letter key a little longer and a selection of different „u“ variants will appear: ü,û,ù,ú etc. This should actually work regardless of your keyboard version (yes, I have a German keyboard incl. umlauts). Your word processing software should be able to do that.
Grüße
Jürgen
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Hi Jung,
while we’re on the subject of the Caribbean: I found a cover version of a Beach Boys song that you may not know yet…
PS: I like the part “…Bodies in the Sand…” the best ????
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Hi Jurgen, nice one. This one was a surprise hit for the Beach Boys in the 90s, going right up to #1 in the charts.
As we are talking about Caribbean, I always like Bob Marley.
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Hi Jung,
Jamaica without Bob Marley is like Jamaica rum without the sugar cane, never mind, it’s just missing something. Thank you for the very nice video. Yes, music connects: „Let’s join together and I’ll feel all right“.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.”
– Mark Twain –
I find it impressive what a lasting influence Bob Marley’s music has had on British and Western musicians:
The Boomtown Rats / Banana Republik
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This reply was modified 1 year, 12 months ago by Jürgen Bereit.
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Hi Jurgen, the 1st video you posted is not available for some reason for me. Yeah, Bob Marley has so many great songs like Three Little Birds. I couldn’t say I was ever a big reggae fan, but Bob’s music transcends genre preferences, because his music is so good, just can’t help but feel good and touched when I hear it.
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Hi Jung,
this must have something to do with music and publishing rights for certain music videos in Europe and the US. Sometimes I can’t see US clips either. I have replaced the video clip and I hope it works this time. Otherwise just contact me again. I have a few more links… 🙂
Yeah, Marley wrote music history. I feel like you: reggae is not necessarily my music, but it reflects a remarkable attitude towards life. One of the most famous covers was probably played by Eric Clapton. I tried to find out what the content of the song is supposed to be about. Lots of opinions, no clear statement. Eric Clapton doesn’t seem to have known exactly either. Anyway, a great piece of music:
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This reply was modified 1 year, 12 months ago by
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The song „Dreadlock Holidays“ gave the British band “10cc” an international chart hit in 1978. Here is a nice live recording with the former bass player and singer of “10cc” Graham Gouldman.
„If you think adventures are dangerous, try routine. This one is deadly.”
– Paulo Coelho –
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Another wanderlust-fun-sun-reggae-happy-pop song by the danish pop duo “Laid Back”. With this, admittedly somewhat shallow song, they stormed the European charts in 1983. The title flopped in the US, but their piece „White Horse“ was played in many US clubs (so it is said). The last thing I heard from „Laid Back“ was the song “Bakerman (..is baking bread…)“ well, and after that the buns were sold out…
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