The Road March Curse
07/02/08 06:35 Filed in: Carnival
Faye-Ann Lyons-Alvarez is just young
enough not to know of the Road March curse, or blessing, depending
on your perspective.
I trace the genesis of this Carnival phenomenon back to 1974, when The Mighty Shadow (as he was then known) was either placed last, or so close to last that the indignity of it was indistinguishable, for his Dimanche Gras performances of "I come out to play" and "Bassman."
An outraged public promptly went out into the streets and made Bassman one of the most thorough trouncings in Road March history to that date.
Since then, the tradition of street revenge for perceived injustices in judging have continued, and include Bill Trotman's "Mammy, Mammy, I want to go back to school."
The curse in the equation kicks in when performers return to face the judges, who have always seemed keen to stick to their guns by placing such "popular" performers even further down the line. It took Shadow almost 30 years to claim the Calypso Monarch crown, but he never stopped being the people's champion and remains the third most well-known and popular calypsonian after Sparrow and Kitchener.
That's hardly bad company to be keeping, for either Mr Bailey or Mrs Lyons-Alvarez.
I trace the genesis of this Carnival phenomenon back to 1974, when The Mighty Shadow (as he was then known) was either placed last, or so close to last that the indignity of it was indistinguishable, for his Dimanche Gras performances of "I come out to play" and "Bassman."
An outraged public promptly went out into the streets and made Bassman one of the most thorough trouncings in Road March history to that date.
Since then, the tradition of street revenge for perceived injustices in judging have continued, and include Bill Trotman's "Mammy, Mammy, I want to go back to school."
The curse in the equation kicks in when performers return to face the judges, who have always seemed keen to stick to their guns by placing such "popular" performers even further down the line. It took Shadow almost 30 years to claim the Calypso Monarch crown, but he never stopped being the people's champion and remains the third most well-known and popular calypsonian after Sparrow and Kitchener.
That's hardly bad company to be keeping, for either Mr Bailey or Mrs Lyons-Alvarez.
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