A Christmas Jamboree
Christmas Jamboree: 2016
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To celebrate a family event featuring
A Jamaican menu and three
News stories of 2016,
We invited Lord
Intruder to
Keep us smiling
Through the uncertainties
Of the coming year on our fragile, fractious Earth.
May peace and love undergird the human family in 2017.
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Christmas Jamboree (Calypso)
Video below
It was a Christmas Jamboree, Took place in a Ladysmith locality
Repeat
Family from Vancouver and de Island, come together for a celebration,
It was the season for Peace on Earth, And for the great expansion of girth
So we’re singin’
(Chorus)
Eat de oxtail, and goat curry, Fill yu plate and do not worry
Drink yu sorrel but let’s not quarrel
At our Christmas jamboree.
2.
Well Uncle Sam gave us a shock, Selecting a Donald to lead de flock
Repeat
President Elect going to drain de swamp, But on his mouth they should have put a clamp
If we had to choose without de Russian luck, De Donald we’d select is de Disney Duck
But we’re singin’
Eat de Oxtail an’ Goat Curry….
3.
Oh Canada I do lament, From division and discord we’re not exempt,
Repeat
Rachel want send Alberta crude, To Pacific Coast in a toothpaste tube
Trudeau says to that we are not averse, But others say de pipeline will be our curse.
And we’re singin’
4.
Toronto Blue Jays break our heart, By telling us from Edwin we have to part
Repeat
How can Blue Jay fans exist, Without Bradda Edwin on de Blue Jays list?
We go to Cleveland on a Greyhound bus, Get Edwin and him parrot on de bus wid us
So we’re singin’
5.
(Reprise verse #1)
It was a Christmas Jamboree, Took place in a Ladysmith locality
Repeat
Family from Vancouver and de Island. Come together for a celebration,
It was the season for Peace on Earth
And for the great expansion of girth
So we’re singin’
(Chorus)
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Reworking a 1953 Trinidadian Calypso song from Lord Intruder
Use full screen
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Videography by Deanne
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Lord Avmercy and the Miserichordes
‘Perform‘ Christmas Jamboree in front of a packed house (!?)
In Ladysmith, British Columbia
December 29, 2016
Click on a photo to start slideshow
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Post Scriptum:
A Brief Reflection
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The above ditty borrows the template of Lord Intruder to celebrate a family get together. Lord Intruder’s calypso tune has stayed present in one of the most cherished recesses of the blogger’s brain. The tune has surfaced periodically over the last 65 years as a kind of refresher of my fantasy as a lad of 14 years old to be a singer.
The blogger owes a debt of gratitude for his “Jamboree”, to Lord Intruder for the repeated use of his engaging melody to express a measure of joy and provide a gesture of social solidarity on 4 occasions in the last 30 years. On one occasion 25 years ago, his melody was the template to a “Girvan Jamboree” which took place in a ‘Kitchener locality’.
Talk about cosmic convergences!: here we had a family reunion of some of the Caribbean descendants of a nineteenth century emigre to Jamaica from Scotland at cousin Lisbeth’s Kitchener (Ontario, Canada) family home. Lord Kitchener, decorated British Military hero had given his name to Lord Kitchener (Kitch) the most famous Trinidadian calypsonian of the 1940s through the 1970s. We had in our midst 25 years ago, our cherished Norman, diplomat, statesman and tireless lifelong promoter of Caribbean integration. At that party, Norman was an enthusiastic participant in writing the lyrics to our rendition of “Girvan Jamboree”. Norman and his family would later take up residence in Trinidad and Tobago. Norman was, of course the “Caribbean Man”, an ideal towards which, in my recollection, the region has aspired since at least the 1950s when Lord Intruder and the other Trinidadian “Lords” put calypso on the world music stage.
Words for the 2016 Christmas Jamboree were provided by the Jamaican born blogger who was smitten by the Trinidadian “Lords” of the 1950s, Lord Kitchener, Lord Woodbine, Lord Beginner, Lord Invader and the aforementioned Lord Intruder. The blogger harboured a secret desire to be Trinidadian and to express joie de vivre as it is expressed at Carnival in Port of Spain. For this performance the blogger ducked into a wall closet, removed his calypso shirt from its hanger, dusted off the cobwebs and was instantaneously transformed as Lord Avmercy into the Trinidadian calypsonian fraternity. He was aided enthusiastically by the Miserichordes, a motley collection of family people whom he loves.
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A shout out to our favourite purveyor of patties from the Jamaica to:
Christal Chambers, Kelowna, BC
Your patties are
Divine!
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Click on pan to magnify
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