Soca music, Carnival anthems and Caribbean party classics
Trinidad and Tobago · Calypso
Fitzroy Alexander (1926–1988) — calypso composer of the 1950s and 60s.
“Wau, Wau.” Distributor upload (Topic) — supplied by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Not an artist-posted upload.
Born in San Fernando in 1926 and raised in an orphanage in Port of Spain, Fitzroy Alexander became Lord Melody, one of the great calypso composers of the 1950s and 60s. He won Trinidad and Tobago's Calypso King title in 1954 and led the Young Brigade tent, sparring in song with the Mighty Sparrow in a famous friendly rivalry. His gift was writing songs other people made famous: Harry Belafonte recorded several of his compositions, including “Mama Look a Boo Boo,” and his updated “Shame & Scandal” has been covered worldwide. His own best-known recordings include “Boo Boo Man,” “Jonah and the Bake,” and “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” and late in his career he moved with the times into soca-flavoured sounds. He recorded for some forty years before his death in 1988, and is remembered as a songwriter's calypsonian — funny, melodic, and widely imitated.