Newspaper – Express
Date Published – Mar 11th, 2014
Writer – Michael Mondezie
“Years gone by only magga gyal getting’ de bligh…”
So started talkalypso king Short Pants (Llewellyn McIntosh) to a vociferous cheer from a packed Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s, during the run of Talk Tent 2014 on Saturday night.
The full house had waited all evening to hear the veteran calypsonian deliver his now famous annual soca recital and there was much speculation about what would be his song of choice.
It took several minutes to quiet them down long enough for him to attempt to continue following the opening lines of Grenadian Mr Kill@’s (Hollice Mapp) Carnival smash hit “Rolly Polly”. Each time he attempted to restart the audience roared louder at the humorous contrast between his trademark serious approach and the frivolous content on offer.
Short Pants has created a new genre. He’s coined it talkalypso—literally talking calypso lyrics in a poetic style—that strips away the melody and harmony of musical accompaniment and exposes the lyrical genius, or lack-there-of, in classic and contemporary calypso music.
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