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“King Birdie”
Joanne Foster
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Provided
with the expressed permission
of the composer(s) |
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2015
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LYRICS |
Verse 1
Grenada
Couldn’t keep it forever
Straight from Grand Roy
It fly over to Trinidad
Take shelter
By Jean & Dinah
To rest its wing
And sing
Like a Nightingale chirping
March de road eight times asking
Dimanche Gras was de same thing
King king king
Chorus 1
This doctor bird
UWI conferred
His songs explode
King is the word
On O.R.T.T. road
Bridge 1
St. Patrick’s R.C.
and New Town Boys
He first spread his plumage of joy
Two dollars is what
Salvatori Scott
Offered Jean & Dinah for de tot
And dis bird does sing ‘bout Melda
Education, Mr. Walker
Whistle Ten-To –One Is Murder
For Phillip My Dear, yuh hear
From Marajin
To Slave, even Mae-Mae
Maria would say... “Who Dey?”
So doh let de Queen’s Canary
Or de lizard catch my birdie
Doh let de Congo Man cook he
Elaine and Harry, tell Maggie
No Smart Bajan
No dan wid no bird Van
Or is Sedition,
Carlton
Verse 2
One neighbour
Named Mr. Torrealba
He bring bird seed
Just to keep it singing all day
Joker’s gifts
And Piggy Joseph’s
Dey full his craw
Wid more
Dis Calypso Troubadour
Had good caretakers galore
Leon Noel, Cyril Shaw
More, more, more
Verse 3
Young Brigade
Simeon Road it parade
Nest hideaway
Then fly to the Big Apple tree
Sweet dropsy
Then wake up quickly
We get a scare
Oh dear
There was silence in the air
For we bird we really care
Everybody said a prayer
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Tags
Dr. O.R.T.T.
Sing for we
Add one to your legacy
Sing another classic melody
Your songs we’ve song
King Birdie
Wear yuh crown
O.R.T.T.
Sing another classic melody
Bridge 2
To add to de long
list of laurels
From world sources unparalleled
The highest decree
Named O.R.T.T.
Trinbago bestowed on King Birdie
_________________
Click for King Birdie’s/Mighty
Sparrow’s BIO
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Panorama 2015
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Joanne Foster
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Joanne Foster was
the 2013 Calypso
Queen of Trinidad
and Tobago - a title
won singing
More Than An Oil
Drum. She
makes beautiful work
once more with this
tune for the 2015
season,
King Birdie,
composed by Don
Clarke and Gregory
“GB” Ballantyne, as
an honour and
tribute to
The Mighty Sparrow.
Joanne first stepped into the entertainment spotlight in 1988 as a vibrant young teenager,
immediately
announcing her potential by being awarded
‘Best Soloist
& Dancer’ at the San Fernando Arts Festival for Schools.
The following year she placed second in the National Teen Talent Show.
In 1994 Joanne
Foster emerged as one of COTT’s
(Copyright
Organisation of
Trinidad & Tobago) National Song Festival Winners.
She made her 1995 debut at the Spectacular Forum, copping the National Carnival Commission (NCC)
award for the ‘Most
Promising Female
Calypsonian.’ Joanne
was also a Calypso
Fiesta semi finalist
in her first
appearance at that
Skinner Park event.
She would make five
subsequent
appearances at the
Semi Finals: 2002,
2004, 2005, 2006 and
2008.
Additionally, from
2003 she was in the
South Monarch
Competition finals
for eight
consecutive years.
A background
vocalist attached to
the Junior “Ibo”
Joseph Dancing Dread
Studio for many
years, Joanne has
sung background
vocals for many of
the top calypsonians
in Trinidad and
Tobago. In 2012 she
made her debut in
the ‘Pan Tune’ genre
with an exciting
tribute to Pan women
everywhere called Pan Woman Jammin’.
For 2014 Joanne was
on point once more
with
On De Drag and
Take Me With You.
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Don Clarke’s entry into the world of composing music for the steelpan took place in 2004, when he composed
The Bomb vocalized
by Edwin Ayoung aka
‘Crazy.’
Don has composed a number of pieces for the steelpan - the likes of
Pan Mamaguy, Delgado – a musical tribute to the deceased iconic
Pan maker Lincoln “Delgado” Noel, River
Lime, Momentum and Pan Woman Jammin’.
An Atlanta, Georgia, USA resident - Don makes the annual pilgrimage to his homeland to immerse himself in the intensity of the steelband Panorama and to keep grounded with developments within the steelpan community in
Trinidad & Tobago.
For 2015 the successful partnership of Don, Gregory Ballantyne, Junior “Ibo”
Joseph and Joanne Foster is behind
King Birdie.
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Gregory “GB”
Ballantyne
began composing
professionally in
1986, when he
collaborated with
Len “Boogsie” Sharpe
to pen
Pan Rising and
Dis Feeling Nice sung by Denise
Plummer. In the
ensuing years he
would co-write
winning Panorama
selections for
Desperadoes, and
again for Phase II.
In Trinidad, GB’s
compositions have
won the National
Calypso Monarch
(Senior and Junior)
Young King,
International
Humour, National
Queen, Unattached
Monarch, South
Calypso King and East
Zone Monarch.
His works have placed artistes
like Rikki Jai,
Devon Seale, The
Mystic Prowler,
Aaron Duncan, to
name a few, into
winner’s row.
GB’s credits also include
National and
Regional Calypso
Monarch titles in
Antigua and
Anguilla, as well as
Chutney hits such as
‘Tassa-Man’ sung by Rooplal Gidharie and
the perennial
favourite ‘Ribbons’
sung by Marilyn
Williams. |
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