Lyr Req: Oh, Not A Cent

Subject: Lyr Req: Oh, Not A Cent
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 13 Jun 11 - 04:43 AM

Does anyone have the lyrics to this song, which uses the melody of "Linstead Market" and was recorded by Irving Burgie using the stage name "Lord Burgess"?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Oh, Not A Cent
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 13 Jun 11 - 06:02 AM

According to Gordon Rohlehr and Hollis Liverpool (known as "Mighty Chalkdust"), the chorus is "Oh, not a cent, not a cent, not a cent to buy rice". Anyone know this song?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Oh, Not A Cent
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 14 Jun 11 - 02:45 AM

Refresh.

Subject: ADD: Oh, Not A Cent
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Jun 11 - 01:45 PM

This song may be based on the Jamaican "Linstead Market."

OH, NOT A CENT
A "Calypso" by Massie Patterson and Lionel Belasco

Oh, not a cent, not a cent,
Not a cent to pay rent,
Oh, not a cent,
Not a cent to pay rent.

See them Barbadians
Come from Barbados
Think nobody like them,
See them Barbadians
Come from Barbados
Think nobody like them.

Oh, not a cent, not a cent,
Not a cent to pay rent,
Oh, not a cent, not a cent,
Not a cent to pay rent.-


Sheet music, voice and piano. Free transcription by Maurice Baron.
This seems to be the earliest printing of this song.
Pp. 20-21; Massie Patterson and Lionel Belasco, 1943, Calypso Songs of the West Indies, M. Baron Co. New York.

(Hard-to-get publication; if I find a beat-up copy with the pages separated, I will scan, but I don't want to damage my copy).

Copyright 1943, M. Baron Co., New York.

I have a cd by Irving Burgie; I will check it for this song later. I believe his cd dates from the 1950s.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Oh, Not A Cent
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 14 Jun 11 - 10:57 PM

I think he recorded it on an LP actually.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Oh, Not A Cent
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 14 Jun 11 - 11:06 PM

Q, when you say "based on Linstead Market" do you mean the tune? Because the lyrics are quite different. There is no mention of a market in this song. Yet the lyrics fit the tune quite well.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Oh, Not A Cent
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Jun 11 - 12:37 PM

Versions of Linstead Market have the chorus line "not a mite, not a bite" or "what a night, not a bite" or similar; suggests "not a cent, not a cent."

Not much point in discussion; just a personal reaction.