Calypso music is unashamedly joyful music - so it’s a shoo-in for adding some sunshine to your Xmas playlist. And luckily Calypsonians love Xmas so there’s albums of the stuff out there to choose from.
Calypso music is also unashamedly subversive music - stemming from the musical tradition of enslaved Africans in the Caribbean using call and response work songs to mock their slavemasters.
Number 7: Father Christmas by Lord Kitchener
Lord Kitchener is referred to by Wikipedia as Lord Kitchener (calypsonian) to make sure nobody accidentally confuses the grandmaster of calypso for the moustachioed face staring out of the “Your Country Needs You!” First World War recruitment poster.
Be sure to check out his back catalogue. Lord Kitchener knows all the tricks in the calypso lyric handbook - sociopolitical commentary, humour, double-entendre, the experience of being black in a racist world - all set to beautiful calypso music which is a uniquely Trinidadian fusion of African beats and Latin-American rhythms.
According to his obituary in the Guardian he arrived in England on the Empire Windrush in 1948 and stayed here for 14 years - opening a nightclub in Manchester.
“Last night you said to me what I want for Christmas?
Darling, it’s nice to see you are so generous.
Well, boy, take it from me your offer is welcome:
Bring the wine, the whisky and the rum!”
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