Warlord and the badjohns

February 02, 2005
By Bukka Rennie

Blakie moved around easily in the world of the badjohns. That was the social milieu in which he seemed to feel most comfortable. The going-ons that led to conflict between competing steelbands and between rival communities over control of the Special Works established by the Government to ease the burden of the unemployed would provide limitless material for Blakie's calypsoes.

But he was not the kind of artist who stood apart and aloof with the aim to lay claim to something called "objectivity." Blakie was part and parcel of the milieu and was accepted as such by the people, particularly the people of San Juan and those who commanded the "streets" of the Croisee (Quai D'orsay).

San Juan then was a rather peculiar place. There were "heavies" in that community whose reputations made the area one that people of the nation were terrified to enter. Businessmen operating in San Juan then were made to pay extortion dues either in cash or kind.

Anyone wishing to do harm to an enemy would then most likely come to San Juan to hire someone to do their bidding. And in like manner anyone seeking protection would most likely come to San Juan to hire such a service.

The one social entity around which all the various elements would coalesce at Carnival time to play mas was the steelband called San Juan All Stars.

There is the story of the steelband clash in 1959 between Desperadoes of Laventille, whose portrayal that year was Noah's Ark and San Juan All Stars, portraying Battle Cry.

In that story it is said that as customary San Juan All Stars was searched by police by the railway in PoS and all that could be deemed as weaponry were seized.

The band proceeded up Charlotte Street playing Till the End of the Rainbow arranged by one of the Albino brothers, and all was well as they moved slowly, lined up behind a host of other types of portrayals ahead of them.

Until it is said that Blakie began to insist that his Road March offering of that year be played as the first change from Albino's Rainbow.

Blakie's calypso was more up-tempo and the band as a result began to move much faster and found itself inadvertently running through the bands ahead of them. Until they came up to Desperadoes who, in true military pincer style, opened up as if to allow them through, then tightly closed around them.

There are old folk of San Juan who maintain up to today that they were battered severely in that conflict not only because of the fact that they were devoid of most of their weaponry while the Ark turned out to be full armoury, but more so because Tokyo, another steelband of east PoS, came running, pushing their pans and blocked the most likely escape route.

The animosity between San Juan and east PoS would continue for many a year after. In fact, after San Juan All Stars received sponsorship and later went into demise, Eastside Symphony would take up the mantle and take the conflict to another level.

Interestingly, we can recall no definitive calypso from Blakie on this 1959 clash. A calypso that could be considered the equivalent of this is his 1954 Steelband Clash.

One has to ponder why? However a member of Desperadoes had been killed on a Special Works project in San Juan (a pick-axe was used to pin the victim's head to the roadway) and the person who was charged and jailed for this murder was Lance Scott, who, by the time of his release, became embroiled in a conflict in San Juan over control of Eastside Symphony. Blakie then sang:

...Who know Lance Scott/a danger man from in San Juan/He like to cut anybody tackle de fellah/Well, he hear that dey out to kill him/So he come home by Lord Blakie/And want me convey in song/Dis message for he/

...If Four O'Clock in de morning/and on yuh door look yuh hear a knocking/Run, boy, go tell yuh boss, Valdez coming/ Blakes, dey playing a Django/but all o' dem 'fraid de cocoa (ie the tea that is served in jail)...

In fact while singing this song in one of the favourite nightclubs in San Juan, Blakie was assaulted by one of the heavies for supposedly "bigging up Lance who ent no badjohn!"

If you listen carefully to the start of the recorded version you will hear Blakie say: So you go cuff me in my mouth for singing my own calypso... or something to that effect, followed of course by the famous laugh.

And as if in open defiance of those who were hostile to him for singing such a song, he sang a similar one titled Jubal Say:

...Ah really don't want no trouble/Dat's what Jubal say/Ah minding mih wife and children, every blessed day/...It have horses for courses/... I ent saying no more/ Tell dem Jubal say is war...

Eventually the internecine warfare in San Juan would subside and the leadership question of Eastside Symphony would be settled. But Eastside will continue hostilities with the young turks of Renegades/ Law-Breakers of Harpe Place, PoS. Listen to Blakie:

...It is Carnival/I could talk because I ent fraid/It is Carnival/I talking directly to Renegade/It is Carnival/Ay, allyuh hear what Lord Blakie say/No bottle pelting, stone throwing or cutlass passing/Is dem hooligan ah mean/Ah say keep de Carnival clean...

One couldn't be more bias but again Blakie in any San Juan versus PoS conflict would never claim any objectivity.

In his Victory Tent days, Blakie would take on the calypso status-quo. Anyone who had something to say and was rejected by OYB or Revue would be allowed to sing.

Shadow with his Threat, attacking the dual-monarchy of Kitch and Sparrow, would get refuge at Victory and many of the young artists would flourish as a result, thanks in no uncertain manner to the Warlord and his way of seeing and doing.

In ending one would want to suggest to those who possess control of Blakie's estate that two calypsoes in particular that should not be ignored in any future compilation are John Craig and Tribute to San Fernando. These two works can help flesh out the bigger image of what the Warlord was all about.

PT I | PT II | PT III