Words by Jesse Serwer—
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Posts tagged: The Mighty Sparrow
Shocks of Mighty: Mighty Sparrow “The Slave” + New Strut Retrospective
November 3, 2011
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Words by Eddie STATS Houghton
We did not make The Mighty Sparrow our Throwback Thursday king for a day just because we love Trinidad. We do. We really, really do. But all emotional considerations aside, he HAD to be the Throwback artist today, objectively speaking, because we just got word that the rare groove specialists at Strut records will be releasing an exhaustive retrospective on the giant-among-Calypsonians very soon (drops January 24th, 2012), covering his essential tunes from a period covering 1962-1974. Knowing what Strut has previously done with Afro-funk (not to mention Antillean disco) we could speculate confidently that Sparrowmania! Wit, Wisdom and Soul from the King of Calypso will be a concentrated dose of impossible-to-find tropical goodness. But we don’t have to speculate cause we heard the whole damn thing. To give you a taste, we also got permission to stream this track “The Slave,” which is a pretty good sneak preview of what makes the tunes collected here so essential: driven by Afro-syncopation, Sparrow’s velvety voice and a serious brass section that alternates between spooky minor-keyed jazz conceits and prehistoric soca vibes without missing a hot-step. People, get ready.
Throwback Thursdays: Mighty Sparrow, “Only A Fool”
November 3, 2011
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Words by Jesse Serwer
Trinidad’s Mighty Sparrow (look out for more on him in this space later today) is probably the most widely celebrated calypsonian across the Caribbean and the diaspora. But in some places— say, Holland— he is known primarily for his cover of this easy-listening ballad, which hit No. 1 on the Dutch charts in 1977. American songwriters Norman Bergen and Shelly Coburn wrote “Only A Fool Breaks His Own Heart” for British duo Chad & Jeremy in the mid ’60s but Arthur Prysock would be the first to record it, in 1966. Sparrow’s version, backed by Byron Lee and the Dragonaires, was released the following year though it would take a full decade for his version to reach its zenith. After his version’s success in the European charts in ’77, he capitalized on its success with a new version of the song, released in 1978. This video was likely shot sometime around then.
