By MARINA SALANDY-BROWN Sunday, February 11 2007

Some of the calypsos that appear in the fabulous new music collection West Indian Rhythm (316-page LP-size book with 10 CDs) have never been published or heard before. When Decca, the US record company, put down the 267 tracks in those recording sessions between 1938-1940, the world was a turbulent place and colonialism was alive, if not very well, as some of the calypsos attest to.

Our colonial masters felt the need to censor calypsos for their salaciousness and their political piquancy in order to control law and order in this fretful land. The song arrangements had to be submitted prior to recording and they were either edited or banned outright. Of course, this being Trinidad, some controversial material escaped the net and has survived to be included in West Indian Rhythm together with full transcripts and newspaper clippings that relate to some of the issues. They reveal both the anti-colonial sentiment and the narrow-mindedness of the average citizen at that time.

The most famous and scandalous of the banned songs was Netty, Netty, sung by both Roaring Lion and King Radio. The line “Netty, Netty, gimme the thing you got in your belly” offended deeply and complaints were made to the colonial authorities who also deemed it “the most lewd of the lot”, with “a very vulgar rhythm.” The line about Netty having to give him back his money if she couldn’t take the digging - clearly about prostitution - created a stir in Grenada where Lion was accused of insulting the good Grenadian people.

But it was politics that most excited the colonial authorities. In his witty calypso of political comment, Sedition Law (not released until 1942 when the US had already moved in on TT and British colonial control waned), King Radio communicated his opinion on the censorship laws in force at the time.



Tubal Uriah “Buzz” Butler (1897-1977) and the events around the oilfield workers strike on 18 June 1937 that he organised were the source of many provocative calypso lyrics. Butler had escaped from the ensuing riots in Fyzabad where fourteen died, including four policemen. After three months, he surrendered in order to address the Foster Commission, established to investigate the cause of the riots.

For Butler, poverty, low pay and the unequal distribution of resources were the reasons, but he was dismissed as a mere rabble-rouser, charged with sedition and given a two-year prison sentence with hard labour. During the war he was re-imprisoned “for security reasons”. Nine of the calypsos of the period dealt with this issue, making it the most documented event in our musical history. Many of those songs were banned.

Sedition Law



Believe, I warning the rich and poor

Be careful, friends today, from this seditious law

Believe, I warning the rich and poor

Be careful, friends today, from this seditious law

If you talk without defence, you have no evidence

They mean to licence we mouth, they don’t want we talk



A fellow was charged for that offence

And his lawyer couldn’t break down the evidence

Because the jurors’ decision that he was guilty

But the judge really acted with sympathy

I mean, by giving him two years in custody



I agree with any man who speaking for their rights

But you cannot say everything what you like

There’s certain things would affect the authority

Who has the strength and the force in this colony

And, when you get the blow, in the jail you’ll walk



You want to be versed in politics

I mean, you got to be plucky with a lot of tricks

First, you got to use a little diplomacy

Mix up with common sense and psychology

And, when you get the blow, not only talk

They mean to licence we mouth we foot, they don’t want we walk



Politics improving our native land

We lectured and preached by women and men

But you gotta know, friends, what you talking about

As you’re sure to pay damn dear for your mouth

So, if you know you can’t use the knife and fork

They mean to licen’ we mouth, they don’t want we talk.