aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser
#047– King Short Shirt – ‘Nobody Go Run Me’ (Weed Beat Records ’76)
Hello friends,
you can thank me later, but today I invite you all to a day in the Caribbean – to Antigua we go, and isn’t that nice? And if this weren’t enough, the music is completely different as well, compared to what you had to endure up until now. Yes, it has rhythm, friends, or, to quote John Peel, for a change not a record made by sulky Belgian art students dying of tuberculosis.
Yes, in fact, believe it or not, it’s Calypso time! And before you start shaking your head and skip this wonderful essay: just wait, will you? This tune is well worth listening to, I swear!
King Short Shirt’s real name is MacLean Emanuel, he’s 82 now and after converting to Christianity he changed from Calypso to Gospel by and large. But before this happened, this guy was the absolute king of Calypso in all of the Caribbean! He won numerous Calypso competitions (those are a big deal in all of the Caribbean apparently, not only locally in Antigua) from the 60’s onwards. The last one he attended was in 2013, when he was 71, where he withdrew before the quarter-finals to “give the other guys a chance”.
King Short Shirt had many hits in his long career, and many good albums. ‘Ghetto Vibes’ in particular is highly recommendable. It also includes today’s single, which, as far as I’m concerned, is one of the best examples of what made the King so special – and so important: clever lyrics combined with a great rhythm, a political credo as firm as Billy Bragg’s and – perhaps most importantly – a true love for his homeland:
mp3: King Short Shirt – Nobody Go Run Me
And also, like John Cooper Clarke, featured here a few weeks ago, the King was conferred with the degree of ‘Doctor of Letters Degree honoris causa’ from the University of the West Indies last year. Now, is this a new trend in this series …. ‘Sirs only’? Aah, you wait and see … perhaps it’s Paul McCartney next – who can possibly tell?
Either way – take care and enjoy,
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 