Moses on a motorbike, that first reply up there is a real 'Cat Classic! Ironic considering calypso can be one of the most racist, anti-Semitic, misogynistic forms you've never heard and has since been demoted to a "style" of the reggae "genre" in the largest user built discography on the planet. Laugh-ah while you can monkey-boy!

The difference between calypso and reggae is everything. They have nothing in common save the relative physical proximity of Jamaica (reggae) and Trinidad (calypso) in the Caribbean. As to calypso, what we're reading here is a rigid dictionary definition that bears insufficient correlation to reality. Noted calypsonians Lord Executor (Philip Garcia) and Lord Protector (Patrick Jones) both cited Martinique as the source for the better songs of the late 19th century pre-tent era.

From about 1900-1950 the party line will do for now, sort of. The commercial-institutional aspect of "Calypso Monarch" is what's missing here. Same general concept as the Trini steel drum (pan) and "Panorama" competition.

The mid-20th century world "calypso craze" however, is none of the above. Harry Belafonte "The King of Calypso" and Irving Burgie "The Father of Modern Calypso" are deemed unauthentic by textbook musicologists. The "Paul Whiteman" of calypso as it were. Yet one can still read "Calypso" in the title of albums from Bermuda to Barbados. The repertoire is usually a mix of lounge, pop & world folk standards. "Western-eared" Americans such as Norman Luboff (Yellow Bird,) Conrad Mauge (Zombie Jamboree,) Alice Simms (Island Woman, Calypso Island) and Burgie (Island in the Sun, Jamaica Farewell) were responsible for more "traditional" titles than a lot of born and raised Caribbean musicians.

"The Trinidad and Tobago Unified Calypso Organization" (TUCO) is a ghost of the "golden era" but they still compete. Hat's off to this year's repeat Monarch - Roderick "Chucky" Gordon.