Carnival Celebration Lyrics & Tabs by Small Island Pride
Carnival Celebration
guitar chords lyrics
Official Small Island Pride lyrics from-
Calypso Awakening From The Emory Cook Collection
1. Carnival Celebration (Small Island Pride 1956, from Dance Calypso, Cook LP 1180) Verbal Bravado abounds as the calypsonian issues a challenge to well known hoodlums like Mastifay and Cutouter. There were several calypsos of his type, since the singers were easy to pret to various underworld charecters. The sparse instrumentation, featuring prominent guitar and maracas and no horns, harks back to an earlier, pre-commercial era of calypso.
Ah, Mastifay, Mastifay/Meet me down by the Croisee
And Cutouter, Cutouter /Meet me down by the green corner
Well. I waiting for this carnival/To jump up with these criminals
I going to arm myself with a big stick/Any man in town I meet,
That is real licks
Cause I done tell Mammy already/Mammy do, do tie up your
Belly
Cause is murder, federation/With war and rebellion
When they bar me by the junction.//
Monday morning I wake up early/Two drink of Vat* to steam up
My body
And I jumping up like I crazy/I alone go collapse the city
Monday morning I wake up early/Two drink of Vat* to steam up
My body
And I jumping up like I crazy/I alone go collapse the city
With my razor tie on to my poul**/I like a badjohn in the 18th
Century
And with my stick in my waist/I chipping in space
Is to spit in ole nayga face.//
Well, to show you I in for trouble/On my right hand is my steel
Knuckle
My chooker# in my left pocket/Boys, my pooya+ under my
Jacket
And I jumping up like if I wild/I know they bound to say that is
Old style
But they could beat me like a child/I taking licks with a smile
And I pelting war like I wild.//
Well, as man I consult my doctor/ to check my lungs and my liver
I done pay of my Lawyer/So he could pay off my undertaker
And as I have no mother nor father/They could post me back
To Grenada
Cause I tell Mr. Chance/I done pay in advance
To bury me down in Grand'Anse.//
Vat 19, locally made rum; ** type of wood, frequently used in
Stick-fighting; # dagger; + machete
(Lyric Information from Smithsonian Folkways)
