New CD from Blakie
Posted: Tuesday, January 18, 2005
By Terry Joseph
Blakie, Carlton Joseph, D'Warlord, Vintage Music Lives On, says the front-cover of a new 16-track CD release completed over the weekend by producer Moonasar Chankar, who has donated all returns from sales of the collector's item to the late bard's relatives.
Blakie's masterpieces captured on the CD, which lists his wife Joycey Joseph as executive producer are "Steelband Clash", "Hold the Pussy", "Snake in the Square", "Maria", "Chinese Baby Sitter", "Don't Be Quick to Judge", "Blakie Never Lie", "Arabian Festival", "Shanty Town People". "Chinese Restaurant", "Ah Kill a Man", "Live Nice", "Johnathan and Lillian", "Man Badder", the provocative "Send Them Back and a song he planned to perform this season (before ill-health confined him to bed) called "Modern Generation"; a comment on the behaviour of today's youth.
"I felt it was something that had to be done as a memorial to this great calypsonian," Chankar said. "When I visited Blakie's home on the night after his death, his wife told me that he had a number of live recordings which he was planning to compile on two CDs and asked if I could be of assistance in getting it to the market. I immediately volunteered to not only do the production work but donate all receipts from sales to the family.
"You see, I don't think enough people understand the contribution that Blakie made to Trinidad and Tobago calypso and even though there was a lot of nice writing about him after he passed on, those things appear on a particular day and people would read it and probably discard the newspaper, so there is no lasting memory of the calypsonian. I thought this was a way of correcting that and by the mean time making a contribution on a national scale to the family, since the profit from every CD sold will go to Mrs Joseph," Chankar said. "Blakie and I were very close and his death touched me in a way that only the passing of a close relative would normally affect a person. He was very intense about calypso and always available for discussion. He never got into the kind of comparison that would cause arguments because he believed all calypso deserved a hearing and should be judged on merit of the particular song. In fact, it was a discussion we had not too long before he died and it is among my persona
l memories of Warlord Blakie.
"I selected the songs in agreement with his wife, Joycey, because with this first CD we felt we wanted to reflect the humour and that kind of pleasant laughing personality that Blakie was," Chankar said. "Joycey is, in fact, executive producer of the CD so the returns will go directly to her. I did the physical production and looked after packaging and will do the distribution since I am more familiar with those aspects of the business but this is all Blakie for Blakie's family and of course, the music is for his fans."
Some of the songs, most notably "Send Them Back" (aka "Licks, in the Police Van") might not appear politically correct in these times of talk of a new thrust at regional integration but must be taken as a memento of the period when there was widespread agreement on such concepts at street level.
Equally popular in the world of chutney, Chankar, whose calypso production credits include blockbuster calypso hits like Black Stalin's "Mr Panmaker", Trinidad Rio's "Big Shot Party", Kitchener's "12-Bar Joan" and "The Bees Melody", King Fighter's "Man in the Pyjama Suit" and "Come Leh We Go, Sukie", Johnny King's "Wet Meh Down" and Scrunter's "Woman on the Bass" and "She Want Me to Sing in She Party"; said Warlord Blakie's Vintage Music Lives On CD should be in stores by today.
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