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Roaring Lion (1908-1999)
“Don’t kill me because I’ve
got the luck, the looks,
the wear, and then the pluck/…”
From “Papa Chunks”, by Roaring
Lion
“Eddy Grant, my ‘father
and son’, may God bless
this thing you have started
called Ringbang and all
your past and future creations.”
The Roaring Lion as quoted
within the liner notes included
with his Roaring Lion –
Viva Le King CD. [( ICE
951002) ©1995 Ice Records
Ltd.]
In 1993 the biographer at
Ice Records Ltd., identified
the distinguished Rafael
De Leon, the Roaring Lion,
by describing him as “the
Dean of Classic Calypso”
who was then “eighty-seven
years young.” Hence, the
seeming paradox that would
have inhered in the Lion’s
reference to Eddy Grant
as his ‘father and son’
in 1995, was ably explicated
by that same writer in the
following words:
“He [Roaring Lion] has matured
the Caribbean art-form,
and now basks in reflected
glory, as Eddy Grant, the
international recording
artist and visionary, takes
it to the heights in the
nineties.”
The Roaring Lion had been
one of the founding fathers
of classic calypso, which,
in turn, would give birth
to soca by the early eighties.
These two prototypical forms
would ultimately become
incorporated within the
youth-driven, pan-Caribbean
mélange of musical forces
that was first identified
and defined as Ringbang
by
Eddy Grant in the mid-nineties.
“For the first time in our
history,” Eddy Grant declared
of this nascent cultural
movement and philosophy,
“young people are able to
partake both creatively
and otherwise.” Grant said
this to make a distinction
between the stylistically
static, tradition-bound
classic calypsos that canonised
eldership’s monopoly on
‘creativity’ within popular
Caribbean musics, whilst
excluding the vibrant, iconoclastic
innovativeness of ‘de yutes’.
In concert with this, the
enduring weight of that
traditional conservatism
which had saturated the
compositional approaches
being applied to the creation
of popular musics, had concomitantly
been suppressing that scintillant
cross-fertilization of rhythm-centred
forms that resonate naturally
and exultantly within the
heart of the modern Caribbean
spirit.
As a first-generation founder
of classic calypso, therefore,
the Lion can be said to
have ‘sired’ that upcoming
generation of calypsonians
that now includes
Eddy Grant. Yet, as a participant
in Ringbang, the Lion’s
inheritance quite ironically
becomes the mantle passed
on to him from ‘Papa’ Grant.
His benefactor – this Guyanese
philosopher-composer-mentor
so wise beyond his years,
who is our Eddy Grant –
now becomes, at one and
the same time, the son of
The Dean.
Roaring Lion’s career spanned
at least three-quarters
of a century. It commenced
in 1924 when, as a sixteen-year-old,
he entered and sung a humorous
parody directed at Trinidad’s
shango devotees simply entitled
“Shango Cult”, in that island’s
Grand Calypso Competition.
He was comprehensively encouraged
by the warm applause from
the audience during the
first round. This handsome
and personable novice to
the entertainment scene
therefore returned for the
second round. He claimed
first prize with his original
tune “Send Your Children
to The Orphan’s Home”, a
composition he was to later
record in 1934. The man
who had sought out the Lion’s
talent for this 1924 competition
was Douglas Walter, a.k.a.
Lord Walter, the host of
the Grand Calypso Competition.
According to Raymond Quevedo
(a.k.a. Atilla the Hun)
in his seminal and authoritative
study Atilla’s Kaiso: a
short history of Trinidad
calypso, “Rafael De Leon
.. reached his greatest
height of glory in 1933.”
This was the year in which
his enduring comradeship
with Atilla became transformed
into an indomitable professional
association in which their
unique and original songs
were showcased amongst the
first calypsos to be recorded
between 1933 and 1934. Attilla,
as chronicler, goes on to
further describe and objectify
the nature of this relationship
within the same paragraph:
“This association was one
of the most important in
the history of [calypso]
and marked the erection
of several milestones in
the art. It saw the coming
into being of the duet and
the drama …” (104)
It was during those years
that recognition of that
compellingly transcendent
talent that was to inspire
the Roaring Lion to traverse
many lands, first came to
the fore. The Lion’s performances
within the United States
of America, saw the perennially
young ‘King of the Stage’
perform at the Village Vanguard
and Blue Angel nightclubs,
in addition to the Waldorf
Astoria. More significantly,
his inimitable versatility
and charm, in combination
with his award-winning music
and lyrics, galvanized influential
members of the American
entertainment world into
according The Dean top billing
amongst celebrity acts at
New York’s prestigious Carnegie
Hall, and also at the Hollywood
Café owned by Rudy Vallee,
who was America’s most popular
singer, songwriter and radio-show
personality during that
era..
The Lion was a fluent wordsmith,
and this flair for language
directed him to the attention
of the British monarchy
when he penned the song
“Three Cheers For The Red,
White and Blue”, to commemorate
the crowning of King George
VI in 1936. They directed
regal approbation upon the
Lion once more at the time
of this ruler’s death in
1952, when he soberly composed
the calypso entitled “The
Death of King George VI”.
And yet once again, in 1952,
they were galvanized into
acknowledgement of his undeniable
command of monarchical themes,
when he wrote yet another
classic calypso in honour
of the coronation of Queen
Elizabeth II.
Lion’s “Welcome Calypso”
was written to welcome Pope
John Paul II to the Republic
of Trinidad and Tobago in
1985. On that occasion Lion
was given the honour of
presenting the religious
leader with an autographed
copy of that record, for
which he received the Pope’s
blessing.
Another highlight of his
career was his presentation
to Franklin D. Roosevelt,
the 32nd President of the
United States of America.
Within the elegiac remembrance
entitled “Roaring Lion’s
Eulogy” (www.icerecords.com/foundmen.htm)
that was written by Eddy
Grant and read at Roaring
Lion’s funeral, Eddy Grant
gives the following ironic
recollection of that meeting
which became historic in
more ways than one:
It is said that upon being
introduced to President
Franklin D. Roosevelt and
being asked if he was from
the Land of the Hummingbird,
Lion replied, “no sir from
Trinidad, ‘The Land of the
Calypso’”, a name it is
destined to be called forevermore.
Roaring Lion is best known
for such timeless hits as
“Mary Ann”, “Fan Me Saga
Boy, Fan Me”, “We Come From
the Glory”, and “Ugly Woman”.
These are classic calypso
tunes that dancers around
the world cherish.
Produced by Ice Records
Ltd. in 1993, Roaring Lion’s
CD entitled ROARING LOUD
– STANDING PROUD (ICE 930202),
represented a collection
of 12 of Lion’s best known
and most loved songs, recorded
under the careful eye of
Eddy Grant at his state-of-the-art
Blue Wave Recording Studios
in Barbados. The guest artists
who appeared on this landmark
album included Eddy Grant,
David Rudder, and Len ‘Boogsie’
Sharpe on pan. This CD/album
was the first ever to be
released by the eighty-seven-year-old
veteran, since most of his
previous recordings were
78s, in addition to his
1985 single in honour of
Pope John Paul II.
In 1995, the Roaring Lion
engaged in another momentous
collaboration with Ice that
saw a further 11 of his
classic renditions immortalized
for all posterity in compact
disc format. Those songs
run as follows: (1) “Papa
Chunks”, (2) “Jail Dem”,
(3) “Shango”, (4) “Woopsin
Woopsin”, (5) “Man Centipede”,
(6) “Ugly Woman”, (7) “Out
De Fire”, (8) “All Women
Are Beautiful”, (9) “The
Highway Code”, (10) “Wash
Your Hands”, (11) “Song
of Peace”. The title of
this CD is, of course, VIVA
LE KING.
Truly, The King is not dead!!
His father lives! His son
lives! And their art tells
of his mighty accomplishments!
Viva Le King! Long may the
Lion continue to reign!!
From The Archives Of Ice
Records Ltd.
[Revised by Harold Beckles
– November, 2002.]
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