{"id":56592,"date":"2026-10-15T19:20:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T23:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=56592"},"modified":"2026-10-15T19:20:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T23:20:35","slug":"thanks-for-the-music-sparrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=56592","title":{"rendered":"Thanks for the music, Sparrow"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Raffique Shah
\nOctober 03, 2026<\/em> <\/p>\n

Raffique Shah<\/a>Over my decades of writing, I would have written several times about Slinger Francisco, more popularly known as The Mighty Sparrow. His wit and ability to rhyme coupled with the melodious sounds of his voice and catchy rhythms of his songs are to this day unparalleled. There is no calypsonian today who is able to remotely compare with the ingenuity of The Mighty Sparrow. As with anyone of his esteem, hearing of his passing was a profoundly sad occasion.
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\nSparrow was Grenadian by birth, by nationality, a Trinidadian, but the truth is he belonged to the entire Caribbean and Caribbean people throughout the world. Crooning out a \u201cJean and Dinah\u201d, or \u201cTen to one is Murder\u201d will have everyone from centenarian to toddlers alike humming and dancing along. He will more likely than not, go down in history as the greatest calypsonian ever. From his debut in the 1950s, he used his powerful and melodic voice, his good looks, his immense talents and his ability to turn any situation into a rousing, rhyming calypso.<\/p>\n

And \u201csmut\u201d\u2014the man was a genius at that. Smut is a talent that not many people have, but also if not done correctly, would probably result in an arrest for public indecency. The Birdie, like quite a few others, was a natural at smut. It came effortlessly to him and it entertained his fans. Many a woman would blush when he crooned close to the crowd. The man was infectious. Like the fictitious James Bond 007, many a man wanted to be him, and many a woman wanted him between her sheets, even if she already had a lover. Such was the magnetism of the late crooner. His repertoire extended from snazzy political commentary, to smut, to humorous calypsoes. His party songs have transcended generations and will continue to do so for decades to come.<\/p>\n

His more poignant tunes would go on to identify with entire generations. \u201cSlave\u201d told the tragedy and cruelty of slavery and \u201cEducation\u201d was meant to show the importance of getting a sound education to future generations. Politically he reminded us that you had to be a millionaire to live in this country with the prices we faced at the stores with his \u201cCapitalism gone mad\u201d, and then he sang about our lack of infrastructure and poor state of agriculture with his very catchy \u201cWe like it so\/Take your steel-beam and go\u201d, both of which were sung in the early 1980s under the George Chambers-led PNM government.<\/p>\n

But this is not political commentary today. This is to celebrate the life of a man who brought recognition to our small twin-island state, with his huge personality and enormous talent, one of the greatest performers to grace our stages. I was fortunate to have been born into a \u201cSparrow-home\u201d, ten years younger than the bard. My generation and those before us were fortunate to experience some of the best calypsonians of that time, including Sparrow, and I suppose I can safely say, Sparrow and the late Aldwyn \u201cKitchener\u201d Roberts were among those who propelled calypso beyond race barriers and generations. Time was when Indian households would never touch a calypso, far less be seen dancing to one. Imagine then, if you will, the household singing every Sparrow calypso, learning the lyrics word for word, oblivious to innuendos and strong sexual undertones. It would be many years later as an adult we would truly understand what Sparrow was actually singing about. He never had the need to be crass or obnoxious with his lyrics, although he did talk about baring his black butt on stage a few times because he had an ongoing war with many Trinidadians over his nationality. But most of them would have lived their lives as huge fans of The Birdie.<\/p>\n

We from the Caribbean were fortunate to be the fans of an artform that managed to turn its history upside-down. I say this because of what calypso came from and the main reason it came about\u2014slavery. It was a means of expressing the frustration and pain of a people oppressed and enslaved; then it became a means of mocking the white slave-master which brought about the more humorous side of the artform. Calypso then sowed its seeds and spread its wings, inspiring the development of other genres such as ska and rocksteady, and later, reggae.<\/p>\n

The thing about good music is that it lives on forever. I passed it down to my children and they passed it on to their friends, and their future generations. So, while The Birdie has made his final exit from this life and has now gone on to be lore, legend, his music will live on for centuries to come.<\/p>\n

Thanks for the music, Sparrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Raffique Shah October 03, 2026 Over my decades of writing, I would have written several times about Slinger Francisco, more popularly known as The Mighty Sparrow. His wit and ability to rhyme coupled with the melodious sounds of his voice and catchy rhythms of his songs are to this day unparalleled. There is no … Continue reading Thanks for the music, Sparrow<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[169],"class_list":["post-56592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-tt","tag-raffique-shah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56592"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56593,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56592\/revisions\/56593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}