Lyr Add: Island Woman (calypso)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Island Woman (calypso)
From: GUEST,Phil
Date: 28 May 15 - 08:57 PM

The Merrymen were Emile Straker's second pass at this Simms composition. Before that he was lead in the Calypso Bandits (Palace PST 686, not sure on the year.)

In addition to the Merrymen covers (a bunch, c.1961-1997 with minor variations in verse/refrain):
The Eloise (Lewis) Trio, 1959 (Decca 78983; Brunswick LAT 8340)
Brothers Four, 1961 (Columbia CS 8425)
Lord Bill Barnes, 1966 (Harmony HS 11188)
Rob de Nijs (song title: "Haaievinnen") 1967 (Philips JF 333.679)

year unknown
Ivan Brown (Edmar 1039)
Roy Fuller (WIRL 1051, Hilary ILP 1048)
Hiltonaires (Coxsone CSL 8020 and about a half-dozen others)
Lord Jellicoe (Hilary/ WIRL 1040)

The lone instrumental (so far)
WIRL Steel (Hilary/WIRL1043)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Island Woman (calypso)
From: GUEST,Phil
Date: 28 May 15 - 08:51 PM

Minor corrections and additions:
4th verse (generally) is 'pocket' not 'bucket.'
The Charlie Lofthouse dedication was for the follow-on "Bahama Lullaby" release, sorry.

Alice D. Simms (rn. Simon?) American educator-composer-author. Born 13 January 1917, New York, N.Y. d. (unk) BA from Cornell and piano with Elizabeth Strauss at Damrosch (precursor to Irving Burgie's alma mater The Juilliard School.) ASCAP mem. 1946

She was what was known as a "cleffer." No surprise for the times her biggest output was (long-lost) radio script but she held her own with the Tin Pan Alley and Bay Street Boys in New York and Nassau:

Love is So Misleadin' (w/ Gene Autry)
Encore, Cherie; Tonight (w/ Fred J. Coots, Tex Beneke, et al)
Foolishly Yours (w/ Leonard W. Joy)
Come to the Casbah, A Wandering Troubadour (w/ Kay Twomey)
and maybe 2-3 dozen more.

Authors and music historians have an astonishing capacity to disconnect the above from her calypso output. If she gets mentioned at all it's as a winter visitor or tourist. She was, in fact, a huge promoter of junkanoo and goombay music and musicians.

Calypso Island (also covered by the Merrymen)
Coconut Water, Rum and Gin
Junkanoo
Push Push
Goombay (w/ Charlie Lofthouse)
and maybe a dozen more.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Island Woman (calypso)
From: GUEST,Phil
Date: 28 May 15 - 08:39 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvITxvoXZaE
Tangled roots.
Haïtian ex-pat André Toussaint covering New Yorker Alice D. Simms for a 1958 Bahamian lounge act.
1958/61 - Bacchanal At Chez Paul Meeres; repressed as same-same ...The Confidential Club, Carib LP2004, reissued on CD as Naxos World 76029-2

Island woman, island woman
You making me forget who I am
Island woman making forget who I am.

1
De fishing good near your island
That's why I come back for more
I saw you swim near my boat
And I followed you back to shore.

refrain
Island woman making forget who I am
Island woman making forget who I am.

2
You dance for me in the moonlight
Drink de rum and have fun
When I wake in d'daylight
You take me money and run.

3
Me pocket is full of empty
I'm back with my family
Someday when I get money
I comin' back, you will see

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Island Woman (calypso)
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 28 May 15 - 10:41 AM

I have it as:
"forgot they soon will be aged"

RtS

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Island Woman (calypso)
From: GUEST,Phil
Date: 28 May 15 - 01:12 AM

"Forgot they soon will be "eight" is indeed correct. It's a salute to a Blind Blake tune. He was a friend of the composer and also appeared in the movie....(!?)

Jup, the song is lifted directly from the 1958 soundtrack for "Island Women" starring the Queen "B" herself Marie Windsor (Emily Marie Bertelson, 1919 – 2000) and Vince Edwards (paging Dr. Ben Casey!) and shot on location in the Bahamas.

Vincent Martin And The Bahamians first released it c.1958 as the title track of both an Island Artist Ltd. LP and a 2xEP. Subtitled as a tribute to the calypso of Charlie Lofthouse who co-wrote the soundtrack with Simms.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Island Woman (calypso)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Jul 14 - 02:32 PM

I hear that line as:

Forgot they soon will be eight

I suppose that means his wife is pregnant with their eighth child.

Subject: Lyr Add: ISLAND WOMAN (calypso, from The Merrymen)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Jun 14 - 07:27 PM

Lyr. Add: ISLAND WOMAN
Alice Simms, sung by the Merrymen, 1970

Oh, the fishin's good near your island
That's why I've come back for more
I saw you swim near my boat
And I followed you back to the shore.

Refrain
Island woman, island woman
Making me forget who I am
Island woman, island woman
Making me forget who I am.

2
I forgot to sail back to market
To sell me fish and get bait
I forgot me wife and me children
Forgot they soon will be *dead (sic)
3
Well, you danced for me in the moonlight
We drunk a rum and had fun
Ah, but when I woke in the daylight
Oh, you'd taken me money and run.
4
Now me bucket is full of empty
I'm back with my family
Ah, but someday when I get money
I'll be going back, you will see.
5
To my little island woman, island woman
Making me forget who I am
Island woman, island woman
Making me forget who I am.

*Need a word to rhyme with bait.
A version by the Spinners posted by Bert in Mudcat Island Folk Festival.

The Merrymen from Barbados.

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