The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #1733   Message #2558856
Posted By: GUEST,Bob Coltman
06-Feb-09 - 07:58 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Yellow Bird
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yellow Bird
Irving Burgie, besides writing all those songs for Harry Belafonte and recording "Yellow Bird," did a lovely version of "Choucounne" (his spelling) on his first and by far best album, Lord Burgess' Calypso Serenaders, on Stinson SLP 42, issued sometime in (I think) the late 1950s. His performances elsewhere varied from okay to schlock, but on this album, accompanied by Ozzie Baez on maraccas, Al Lindo on bongos and the wonderful pennywhistle of Herbert Levy besides his own guitar, he turned in some of the finest calypso performances of all time, and one of the few to feature both French and English-derived songs. The playlist:

Carolina Caro
Angelique, Oh!
Choucounne
Panama Tombe'
Rum and Cocoanut Water   
Oh, Not a Cent             [a clone of Linstead Market]
Rookambey
Old Lady, You're Mashin' My Toe

If someone can straighten out the tangled web of Stinson masters and persuade the heirs of founder Herbert Harris and son Bob Harris to agree to some CD reissues, this wonderful (if short - originally 10") album would be high on the list.   

Bob