Lyr Add: Reincarnation (Calypso)

Subject: Lyr Add: Reincarnation (Calypso)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Apr 11 - 04:21 PM

REINCARNATION
Lord Invader (Rupert Grant)

Yes, I know when you die, after burial
You've got to come back as an insect or animal
Yes, I know when you die, after burial
You've got to come back as an insect or animal
Well, if it's so I don't want to be a monkey
Neither a sheep, a goat, a donkey
My brother says he want to come back a hog
But not Invader, I want to be a bed bug.
Why? Because
I want to bite those young ladies' (buttock? patma?)
Like a hot dog or a hamburger
Even though they're thin don't be in a fright
'Cause only big fat women I want to bite.

Now I want you believe in (so ----?)
I'll be a different kind of bed bug from all the rest,
I ain't biting no ordinary people
They got to be quite social and respectable
Such as female doctors and barristers,
Duchesses, princesses with nice figures
And I'm calling myself King Bed Bug the First.
That's why
I want to bite those young ladies' (buttock? patma?)
Like a hot dog or a hamburger,
Even though they're thin don't be in a fright
'Cause only big fat women I want to bite.

Yes, I know how some husbands are far from fresh,
They will be waiting for this bed bug to bite their flesh,
But I would not bite a man if they killed me dead
As long as the opposite sex's on the bed.
Biting him I might break my teeth,
To a bed bug man skin harder than concrete
And when a bed bug bite a man the result is bad,
Men have too much hairs and the legs too hard,
That's why
I want to bite those young ladies' (buttock? patma?)
Like a hot dog or a hamburger
Even though they're thin don't be in a fright
'Cause only big fat women I want to bite.

Corrections appreciated.

From several online websites.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Reincarnation (Calypso)
From: Amos
Date: 16 Apr 11 - 05:14 PM

Loverly!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Reincarnation (Calypso)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Apr 11 - 06:30 PM

Alternate title is (surprise!) "The Bed Bug".
A cd from Smithsonian Folkways, originally released in 1955, has this song; also the download. Recorded by Moses Asch.

Listen on youtube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwXxbMUrYsk

I'm pretty sure the line is "I want to bite those young ladies' buttock."
Second verse line 1- Now I want you believe me when I confess- with help from Harry Belafonte lyrics. Belefonte either revised the song, or Lord Invader sang more than one version.

Add line 6 in 2nd verse:
And when I bite 'em I'm going 'bout and boast,
And I'm calling myself King Bed Bug the First.
etc.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Reincarnation (Calypso)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 16 Apr 11 - 06:35 PM

Well, what a coincidence! I have a thread on Lord Invader and this song comes up! What are the odds? This song is pretty bawdy, though:).

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Reincarnation (Calypso)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Apr 11 - 06:10 PM

Any corrections to the words?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Reincarnation (Calypso)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 17 Apr 11 - 06:52 PM

I have just added the lyrics of "Jean and Dinah" in a thread- Thread: LYR ADD: JEAN AND DINAH (Mighty Sparrow." i think, Q, that you have already added your own corrections to the lyrics?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Reincarnation (Calypso)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Apr 11 - 07:35 PM

Just not 100% sure that I have the lyrics accurately. That is why I ask if others might be able to verify.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Reincarnation (Calypso)
From: GUEST,James Fryer
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 07:12 AM

The song was originally written by the Mighty Spoiler, he won the calypso crown with it in 1953 I think.

The mystery word is "partner", Spoiler often used this as a punctuation word in his songs.

The other line is "I want you to believe me, so help me bless"

Spoiler has another verse:

So I went and ask Mr Ross
He say he beg the devil to turn him a horse (hoss)
And I ask another fella they call Lawrence
He say he want to come back as a big black wood-ant
But they too foolish, when you turn a horse
You got to carry people's load, get licks from your boss
And as a wood-ant is old wood you have to eat
But as a bedbug I'll be biting the human meat!

There are many recordings of this song from the 1950s -- Invader recorded it more than once, and I have several versions by Jamaican singers.

Spoiler is a brilliant calypsonian and should be better known -- his other songs include Cat Brain, about his sister and their cat exchanging minds; Talk Backwards ("Suppose every woman could afford/to sit down and learn how to talk backward"); Indian Lady:

So the Indian Lady
Took a pound of flour and make a roti
Then she put a radio ariel in the roti, yes partner
And she hear Indian music from Calcutta.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Reincarnation (Calypso)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 01:33 PM

An MRS recording label gives writing credit to Leonard Josephs. Would this be Spoiler? (Sung by Young Kitchner)

Also versions by Jellicoe Barker and Count Lasher
www.mentomusic.com

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Reincarnation (Calypso)
From: James Fryer
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 05:36 PM

No, Spoiler's real name was Theophilus Philip.

This disk collects his songs:

http://www.amazon.com/Unspoilt-Mighty-Spoiler/dp/B000024I29

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Reincarnation (Calypso)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Aug 11 - 09:08 PM

Verse 1, line 1 and 3:
Yes, I heard when you die, after burial

Verse 2, line 1
Now I want you believe me so happy blessed

Verse 3, line 5:
Biting a man I might break my teeth

Verse 3 line 8
Men could have too much hairs and the legs so hard

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Reincarnation (Calypso)
From: James Fryer
Date: 26 Aug 11 - 05:32 AM

"so happy blessed"

No it's definitely "so help me bless". I have several recordings of this song and they all sing the same line there. Also it makes sense :-)