Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 01:14 PM

I certainly don't know but maybe something useful will be harvested in this thread, or not.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 05:46 PM

Let's only hope so!

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 11:57 PM

Grishka, what happened to the woman in the incident you witnessed? You state that "the policewoman did her routine job". Was she (the woman accusing her boyfriend) arrested?

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 07:37 AM

Morwen, this story is set in Rome. A woman from southern Italy appeared at the Carabinieri police station and told them her boyfriend hat gone, taking their common holiday savings with him. The lady officer told her to file the case in the couple's home village. The victim, as broken-hearted as broke, sensed a lack of compassion and went to the Polizia di Stato. After an hour she returned and sobbed: "They told me the same". Well, I don't really think the man had gone to Switzerland with his loot (a holiday in Rome can be expensive, but living in Ticino all the more so).

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 07:44 AM

Whoa! So is this what you think happened in the case of Matilda? Except that the money disappeared from King Radio (or whoever the theft happened to)'s bed and the cart and horse were stolen and sold too. So this could have been a true story. What do you think will turn up in this thread? Confirmation that a Trinidadian woman with the first name Matilda (no surname mentioned- was probably a common name) was romantically involved with dockworker (what was his actual job?) Norman Span in 1938?

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 10:38 PM

What I meant by "was probably a common name" was that Matilda was probably a common first name in Trinidad at the time the song was written and set.

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 03:28 AM

New York Girls tells much the same story. Let that be a lesson to you.

I could tell you what SINSULL did to me, but it's just the same old story. Don't trust them New York girls, or them Trinidad girls. They're all the same....

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 04:21 AM

And don't steal a man's money. He might turn out to be a songwriter and write a humiliating song about you, which turns out to be so popular that it's Carnival Road March three years in a row!(:*
(1938, 1939, 1940).

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 20 May 11 - 02:12 AM

Does anyone think we'll get any new information on Matilda on this thread?

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 20 May 11 - 02:26 AM

One thing I have noticed. It is likely that this song was written in 1938 because it is impossible for it to have been Carnival Road March in 1938 if it was written in 1939. If it was written in 1940 it is unlikely to have been Carnival Road March the previous two years. Grishka, I get what you're saying, but is there a way to get confirmation of these facts as related in the song: a) that a woman named Matilda stole her lover's money and material possessions, selling the cart and horse, causing a local/nationwide scandal in 1938?
b) she absconded with the stolen property?

BTW, the Duke of Iron also did a cover of this.Link here- Duke of Iron-Matilda:. In one of the verses, he varies the lyrics and implies that Matilda cheated on him with Lord Invader.

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 20 May 11 - 02:27 AM

Used the wrong word. It should be "states".

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 20 May 11 - 03:12 AM

Refresh.

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 20 May 11 - 05:19 AM

Morwen, if I knew anything about this case and wanted to communicate it, I would have done so before. I can only add the general observation, not too novel, that songs inspired by real events sometimes tell you the truth about the author's feelings, but never about the facts. Calypso is particularly often about tall tales and fantasies, with built-in tongue-in-cheek. Sorry to disillusion you.

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 20 May 11 - 06:17 AM

I know. Sorry if I gave the impression that I believed anyone on this forum knew something about the truth or not about this song. I think I will add this transcription of the Duke of Iron's recording. He adds a humorous touch to the song.

MATILDA
(As sung by the Duke of Iron)

Oh lord, it is Matilda,
Believe me friends, it's Matilda,
What a dizzy call!
Matilda, she take my money and run Venezuela.

Everybody!
(Chorus: Matilda, what a dizzy call!
Matilda, Lord I got to fall,
Matilda, she take my money and run Venezuela)

Five thousand dollars, friends, I lost,
The woman even sell me cart and horse,
Oh Lord, Matilda, she take my money and run Venezuela.

Everybody!
(Chorus)

Well the money was to buy me house and land,
Then she draft a serious plan,
Oh Lord, Matilda, she take my money and run Venezuela.
(Chorus)
Well the money was just inside me bed,
Stuck up in the mattress right below me head,
Don't you know that Matilda done find me money and run Venezuela?
(Instrumental break)

Well I feel a jumbie shove me head,
He said, "Boy, no money inside your bed:
Don't you know that Matilda done take your money and run Venezuela?"
Everybody!
(Chorus)

When I put my hand was all in vain, 
On the spot I got a serious stain,
Oh Lord I mean, Matilda she take me money and run with Invader.
Everybody!
(Chorus)
So never me friends to love again,
Because all me money gone in vain,
Oh Lord, Matilda, she take me money and run Venezuela.
Everybody!
(Chorus : Play it out boys. Instrumental break.)

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 20 May 11 - 06:19 AM

The other thing I realised: every singer who does this one is male. Is there anything significant about this?

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 20 May 11 - 06:22 AM

Because I, for one, wouldn't have any qualms about singing it.

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 20 May 11 - 06:26 AM

Any female posters who have sung this or another song that is clearly from a male perspective?

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 20 May 11 - 06:25 PM

Yet another version of "Matilda"

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 22 May 11 - 11:57 PM

Refresh. Anyone want to speculate on why all the singers who perform this song are male?

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 26 May 11 - 05:06 AM

Refresh.

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 24 Jun 11 - 02:40 AM

Refresh. Anyone still interested in this thread? Another interesting thing is that some Jamaican folk songs share this song's melody.

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 03:30 PM

Morwen, any information on that recording of Matilda " by Radio King?
I can't find a listing of date 1938; only the 1950s one given by Joe.

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: Gda Music
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 04:16 PM

*Matilda* - Radio, (Trinidad 1/2/39)   
Decca UK Series: M30740 - Matrix 91637-A
US Issue No 17410

as listed West Indian Gramophone Records in Britain: 1927-1950
John Cowley
Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations
University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL   (February 1985)

Quite near that date you referred to.

GJ

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 05:50 PM

Thanks, Gda Music. Much appreciated.

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: EBarnacle
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 11:17 AM

I like Lord Relator's line:
"Matilda, she had a different plan."

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 17 Apr 19 - 11:39 PM

"Well the money was right inside me bed,
Stuck up in the mattress right below me head,..."

*Me money was right beside de bed,
Jook up in de mattress right below me head...

Jook = Old Northern English for out-of-the-way but easy to reach. Hidden, concealed. "Jook joint" same-same.

"Mow 'dat water" - heard somebody sing it this way and asked what the heck it meant. "Heck if I know. Found the lyrics on the internet."

Googled it. Afraid to ask Mudcat... how da heck does one "mow" water?

Subject: Lyr Add: MATILDA (King Radio/Norman Span)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Mar 20 - 04:29 PM

The words in parentheses are sung by backup singers. The words in brackets are my conjecture when the actual words were incomprehensible to me.


MATILDA
As recorded by King Radio (pseudonym for Norman Span) on the compilation album "Calypsonians (1930-1960), Vol. 1" (2018)*

Matilda, Matilda, Matilda, she take me money and run Venezuela.
Ev'rybody! (Matilda, Matilda, Matilda, she take me money and run Venezuela.)

1. Ten thousand dollars, friends, I lost.
The woman didn't leave me cart and hoss.

CHORUS: Oh, loss! Matilda, Matilda, Matilda, she take me money and run Venezuela.
Ev'rybody! (Matilda, Matilda, Matilda, she take me money and run Venezuela.)

2. Me money was to buy a house and land.
But the woman she had a diff'rent plan.

3. Me money was underneath the bed,
Tucked up in the mattress underneath me head.

4. Believe me, friends, I don't know what I done.
The [zombie?] say: "Look! your money gone."

5. Believe me, friends, I am losing me mind.
The woman didn't leave me one thin dime.

6. I don't know why the woman treat me so.
[Me salon stop?] king of calypso.

* This is obviously a different recording from the one transcribed by MowenEdhelwen1 above, on 1-Apr-2011. I believe that one can be found on the following various-artists compilations:
"Calypso Carnival (1935-39)"
"Calypso Pionners [sic], Vol. 2 (1925-1947)"
"Man Smart, Woman Smarter"
All these can be heard on Spotify.

Subject: Lyr Add: MY ZELDA (Allan Sherman)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Mar 20 - 05:10 PM

Words in parentheses are sung by the audience.


MY ZELDA
Tune: "Matilda" by King Radio
As recorded by Allan Sherman on "My Son, the Folk Singer" (1962)

Oy!
My Zelda, my Zelda, my Zelda, she took the money and ran with the tailor.
Once again now!
My Zelda, my Zelda, my Zelda, she took the money and ran with the tailor.

My Zelda she found her big romance
When I broke the zipper in my pants.
My Zelda, she took the money and ran with the tailor.

Ev'rybody!
(My Zelda, my Zelda, my Zelda, she took the money and ran with the tailor.)
Sing along with Moishe now!
(My Zelda, my Zelda, my Zelda, she took the money and ran with the tailor.)

It's almost too sad to tell to you.
She took seven books of Green Stamps, too.
My Zelda, she took the money and ran with the tailor.

Ev'rybody!
(My Zelda, my Zelda, my Zelda, she took the money and ran with the tailor.)
Once again now!
(My Zelda, my Zelda, my Zelda, she took the money and ran with the tailor.)

That tailor he really hurt my pride,
He made my lapels an inch too wide.
My Zelda, she took the money and ran with the tailor.

Ev'rybody!
(My Zelda, my Zelda, my Zelda, she took the money and ran with the tailor.)
Once again now!
(My Zelda, my Zelda, my Zelda, she took the money and ran with the tailor.)
Members of Hadassah!
(My Zelda, my Zelda, my Zelda, she took the money and ran with the tailor.)
Ev'rybody!
(My Zelda, my Zelda, my Zelda, she took the money and ran with the tailor.)

Oh, why did she go and fall in love?
I haven't seen her since Tisha B'Av.
My Zelda, she took the money and ran with the tailor.

Ev'rybody!
(My Zelda, my Zelda, my Zelda, she took the money and ran with the tailor.)
Sing a little softer!
(My Zelda, my Zelda, my Zelda, she took the money and ran with the tailor.)
Ev'rybody!
(My Zelda, my Zelda, my Zelda, she took the money and ran with the tailor.)

Subject: RE: Origins:Matilda [Mathilda](King Radio/Norman Span)
From: nigelgatherer
Date: 14 Aug 20 - 04:34 PM

Re the date, this is listed on the CD 'Trinidad Calypso 1939-1959':

Matilda - King Radio
Norman Span (a.k.a. King Radio) King Radio (vocals), other musicians unknown. 1939.