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Book 4. The CD is Shipping. And Book 4. “Granfaddah Buckra An De Ol’ Geeal”
Book 4. CD is Shipping and Book 4. “Granfaddah Buckra An De Ol’ Geeal”
The cover is done, the dedications are made, the printer is partially paid, and copies are on their way to lil’fish in St. Thomas. Our outlet there is “The Virgin Islands Cooperative store” on the corner of the waterfront directly across from “tent city” aka the Venders Mall. For the moment, email orders are,,, orders@lilfishrecords.com
We continue work on Scott Fagan and The MAAC Island Band “Live” album “Shake A Bum” we are anxious to get that finished so we can set up some concert appearances back home. We are happy to do benefits and fund raisers here there and anywhere as long as they are legit. Talk to us. I am thrilled that The Buckra tickles so many people, I love that kind of schupidness I always have and always will. I guess that is why
the CD is dedicatrd to Mango Jones, Brownie (and Walter) Ms. Arona Peterson and her wonderful “Undah De Market” Daily Niws column and all Virgin Island artists yet to come. Perhaps I ought to have said all Virgin Islands Artists devoted to and specializing in “schupidness” but one needs to be supportive across the board, and, more seriously, we must encourage and support Virgin Islands Artists in every way that we can. It’s just so.
They have just released a new film “Strange Powers” about my son (also a writer, singer and recording artist) Stephin Merritt and his band “The Magnetic Fields” I think that two of my recordings from my CD “Dreams Should Never Die” (The Virgin Islands Songs Vol. 2.) “Where My Lover Has Gone” and “La Biega Carosuel/Tutsie are in the film. Incedently, I have been credited as writer of La Biega Carosuel but La Biega is an old Virgin Islands Folk song, that predates us all, What I did write is “Tutsie” and created the medley and arrangement of the two together. When a writer arranges a PD (public domain) folksong the performing rights organizations (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC) credit him or her as writer)
I learned La Biega Carosuel directly from and at the knee of, the notorious “Ruppee” aka “The Vampire” aka “De Obeah Man” aka The Emporor Of The North” aka “Captian Creole” aka “Calwin Martin Moolenar´ himself, of Estate Nelteburg and all points beyond. In any case, it is a very busy time, and that is good.
Here is another Buckra piece, I hope that you will enjoy it as much as I did and do writing and performing it.
Book 4. “Granfaddah Buckra An De Ol’ Geeal”
A time when I wa small ah went to see me ol’ granfaddah de ol’ Buckra de Paehae de fus fus fus. Ah sae “Granfaddah! Ah come tu see yu!” He sae “Ok den, look me hare, but yu gon got tu bettah stay ou de way, a Ol’ Geeal coming to see me fo something an ah don wan yu get mashup when de action start!” Ah sae “Ah Ol’ Geeal? Ah Ol’ Geeal? Who it tis, granfaddah, who it tis? He sae “Ah me bouy, don worry bout dat, yu gon see, don worry bout dat.”
I sae “but Granfaddah, wha kina action yu gon do wid a ol’ Geeal, yu gon teach ha how tu fall asleep in de chair? Yu gon teach ha how tu take out an put in ha teet dem? How to play domino? Granfaddah, Yu tink de ol’ Geeal gon wan tu hear bou when yu poisen yu self an almos whole a dounde road, when yu cook up dat Barracota in de olden days? Oh how yu used tu tief Mango? An Granfaddah wha yu gon gee she tu eat? De Ol’ Geeal ain gon wan no sardine and French bread to wash doun wid kool aid, Wha wrang wid yu, Granfaddah, you don know you too ol to have a ol’ Geeal?”
“Ahh meboy” he sae “ahh meboy” das wae yu wrang, you mubbe tink yu Granfaddah ban ol’? Yu dunno yu Granfaddah is a sharp boy? Yu dunno yu talking tu de man de used to call “Buckre de Pale-Male, de champagne ah Gingerale?” Ahh mebouy, in dose days Yu Gran Papeeto had woman like mosquito, woman like whelks, like genip, woman wha couden done me boy. Yu tink ah spen me whole life scratchin me baney? No Sah, Yu tink all I cou do is siddown onna salfishbox outside de kitchen do? No Sah, Not me me bouy, De ol Buckra still know a ting or two, yu gon see, don worry bou dat!”
De minute Granfaddah see de Ol’ Geeall by de do, he suck in he belly an he stann up straight straight, den he sweep off he hat an he bow doun low like Erroll Flynn, he sae “Come right in my darling, come right in my dear,”
Bouy, ah couldn believe me oy dem, de Ol’ Geeal wa de famous Carnival Queen from Nineteen Fifty odd and we da see ha pitchure in de newspapah almos every week for doin something good, Dis Ol’ Geeal is like de fus lady of de lan. Wha sh doin hare wid me Granfaddah?
Before ah could ask ha dat question, she watch me straight in me face and she sae “Good afternoon young man, I’m hear to take de measure of your Grandfaddah’s curtin rods” and wid dat de two a dem went straight in side de bedroom.
De nex ting yu know, ah hearin’ “tee hee hee” and “tae hae hae” den something fall doun on de bed an de spring start to squeak and squeal , an Man, ah embarrass to tell yu wha come nex, ah hear de ol Geeal sae “OY!, OY!” Den she sae “Oh me dahlin’ Paehae yu know das how ah like it, yu know das how ah like it,” den she start tu bawl out “Oh Godee, Oh Godee!” (Ah sae to me self “what does dat have tu do wid curtin rods?”)
She SINGIN’ now, “Yes Sah, Buckra, OOWEE!” She SINGIN”now! “Yes Sah! Buckra, OOWEE! Yu got me goin, yu got me goin OY OY,” ah hear dem bouncing up an bouncing up! “Oh Godee Oh Godee!” She bawl out “Don stop now don stop now!” Den a “KA_POW!” ah hear de bed broke doun! An den all ah hear is notin atall, noting atall den de Ol’ Geeal say .. “Hello? HELLO?”
De nex tin I know de Ol’ Geeal bus out tru de do bawlin’ out “Oh God! Oh God! Sonny boy come quick, yu Granfaddah Dead, Yu Granfaddah dead!, Ah done kill yu po Granfaddah, Oh God Sonny boy, ah sae yu po ol Granfaddah dead”
Ah went in tu see fo meself, Man de ol’ boy wa white like a ghos, he oy dem wa roll back in he head, he toung hangin out de side a he mout,. De woman bawl out “Oh God I’s a murderah, I’s a murderah! Ah done kill de sweet ol Buckra!”
Den she sae “Ah got to get outta hare befor me chrren dem fine out, ah gato go, I ain wan me chrren dem know I ain wan nobody kno”…an wid dat she pick up ha wig an she run ou de back and clime doun in de gut an clim up de uddah side a de gut, den she broke thru de chicken coop an she wa gan..
Ah sae “OH Godee!, OH Godee! De ol Geeial done gan an le me here alone wid me po dead Granfaddah”… Ah sae “Oh Godee, how ah gone tell me Mammie, who it tis kill me Granfaddah? How ah gone tell me Mamee wha dey wa doin in de bedroom? Wha ah gon tell de Police?
Ah dunno what u tell de whorl?”
Jus den ah hear what soun like me dear ol Granfaddah voice sae “boy wha wrang wid yu, yu bettah stop yu bawlin befo ah hit yu some clout”..when ah tun around, it…it… look like ah see me Granfaddah dae sittin down good as gol an winkin he oy
Ah sae “but Granfaddah yu done dead like a ol keeat, de ol Geieal done kill yu, yu ain know yu done dead awreaddy Granfaddah? Yu don tink yu bettah lay doun?”
He sae “Ahh me bouy, don be schupiddy, yu keean see das me good way tu get rid a dem guirl? Das me lil trick tu mek dem go home when ah done had me way wid dem.” He sae “Ahh me Bouy…don worry bout a ting, an jus wait til yu see de two Ol’ Geeal wha commin’ tomorrow”!!!
POST 73. Book 4. “The Buckra CD” And Book 4. “When Buckra De Paehae Went Tu Go Tu De States”
POST 73. Book 4. “The Buckra CD” And Book 4. “When Buckra De Paehae Went Tu Go Tu De States”
We have, or rather, while we are right in the middle of compleating our LIVE Scott Fagan And The MAAC Island Band CD “Shake A Bum” We have sent out a few Demos of the new “Buckra De Paehae” CD (Titled “Introducing The Virgin Islands Own “Buckra De Paehae”) while the Demos are out, we are finishing up the cover and will be releasing the CD as early in November as possible.
Three of the eight recordings are LIVE in concert preformances at The J. Antonio Jarvis Museum in Pollyburg, St. Thomas V.I. and capture some of the fun that the audience and I had in presenting and hearing the Buckra material for the very first time.
What a joy it is for me to hear the home folks laughing so heartily. Further, what a pleasure for me to know that some of our own Virgin Island charactors, with their wonderful and profoundly human silliness played out against our own colorful local settings, are not only recorded for posterity, but are alive and well and abroad in the world. I absolutely love that.
As a child I was bothered with why we in the Islands had only things imported and made by someone else somewhere else, why didn’t we make our own things?
At the very least our own music, our own records, our own books, poetry and liturature. Why weren’t our own cultural artists represented on the world stage? I determined to do all I could to change that. I wanted us on the map for things other than cheap rum and trinkets at free port prices.
I have been recording for forty seven years now and have fought to make my way as a “white” artist from a primarily black society. I’ve never pretemded to be a child of Africa, but I am most certainly a child of the criss cross crazy quilt of cultures everpresent in the Virgin Islands and the West Indies at large. I have sought to make my own unique contribution to the music and the liturature.
I wanted to lift us up, I wanted our local children and young people (and every one else for that matter), to know and see and believe that that we were as good and bright, as inventivly creative and worthy as any children of any people anywhere ever, because we are.
Hopefully, beyond the laughs and enjoyment inherent in hearing our own people and places referenced, the Buckra works will further stimulate the idea that indeed we DO have the good goods here in the Islands and can contribute and compete at a world class level.
PS I am not unaware of the irony inherent in the idea of “Buckra De Paehae” as an anbassador to the world. However, De Buckra is a universal reminder that every people every where have their own brand of, (as Brownie – Irving “Brownie” Brown of WSTA Radio ST. Thomas) says, “good good schupidness”!
I want to express and acknowledge that Buckra De Paehae is directly inspired by Ron Delugo’s beloved “Mango Jones,” Brownies “Uncle Walter” and Ms. Arona Peterson’s long running Daily News Column “Undah De Market” I thank each of these Virgin Islanders for their inspriation and I hope that Buckra De Paehae will in turn, encourage more and more Virgin Islanders of every age, to shoot for the sky in their own creative efforts.
Now, having said all of that, here is another Buckra recording that I hope you will enjoy. One titled:
“When Buckra De Paehae Went Tu Go Tu De States”
“Man one day I look around ana realize all me fren dem, every las one a alla dem boy, done gan to de states..an so I sae to me self, ah sae “Buckra you bettah go see wha goin on up in de states to see if yu want to join up wid dem up dae an become one a dem freshwater Yankee jus like de res a dem boy.”
Well me boy, de trouble start, when ah went down to de travel office to buy me plane ticket, De white woman sittin doun in dare sae “May I help yu?” Ah say yes Mum, ah wan to go to de states. De woman say, “where would you like to go?” Ah say, ah say, ah would likes to go to de states, de woman say fine, where do you want to go, Ah say wha wrang wid yu you keeyan undahstan English? Yu bettah don frig me up, Ah sae ah wants tu go tu the states S.T.A.T.S. de states, de states! Wha wrang wid yu? Is yu schupid o sumtin?
Wid dat de woman went in de back an come back out wid a big strang bighead jackass of a island man. He say..yu wan me bilge in yu ass fo yu? Wha yu come in here tu frigg up de people dem fa,.. yu bettah scat yu ass befo ah broke it up in splinters!
Wha? ah say wa? Yu kno who yu talking to like dat? Ah say I is a man wha come in here to pay Kole keash to go tu de states an yu going on like a jack ass wid me? Wha wrang wid yu, ah say ah wan to go tu de states, yu nevah heard a de place?
Jus den de woman squeaky lil voice pipe up from in de back, she sae “ask the Idiot where he wants to go to, you’ll see” So de Islan man say “Whey ‘tis yu wan tu go” Now de Buckra starting tu ge frigup, yu know ha ah mean?
How many times ah gat u tell dese schupiddy people whae it is ah wan tu go?
Ah say ah wan to go tu de states! De man come up close close and he say “look yu schupid buckra, Don’t you know that there is more than one state in de states?”
Ah say more dan one state? more dan one state? of course I kno dares more dan one state. wha wrang wid yu, yu tink I don kno about Englan and France? but I wan tu go see dem boy in de united state.
De woman in de back call out, “call the cops, Renwick, nobody can’t be that stupid”
Ah sae who de hell yu callin schupid.. is yu don’t know how to sell a plane ticket tu go to de states, Ahh yu cou kiss me royal red bate me boy, I gan frum here!
An wid dat ah leave ou de place, ana went straight ovah to de seaplane. De fus man wha ah see ovah dae ah sae, tell me something my good fellow, does ah yu know how to fin de states? De man sae of course, but dis plane goin Sain Croix, ah sae but if ah gon ge yu me good money tu go tu de states, yu can’t tun around de plane an go to de states?
De man sae, wha wrang wid yu, yu drunk o something?
Ah sae no man it too early fo dat, I only had bout tree or four..tu start off de day…de man sae “My dear fellow,.. yu bettah go down tu de airport and tell dem people whae yu wan tu go..ah tink dey gon know exactly wha to do fo yu.
So ah pick up me suitcase, ana wen doun de road lookin fo de airpoat, Boy when ah reach up tu de top a China Man Hill, ah cou see how de ting dem change up, almost alla China Man Hill,.. gan from China man Hill, Ah stop a fellow ana say “Hey meson, Wha happen to de whole a doun de road, wha happen tu de China Man dem? whey all dey people dem fum Nisky gane?,
An “OhGodee”, ah sae, look wha happen tu Sara Hill!
De whole a Sara Hill what was dare since de Island get belch up from de bottom of de deep blue sea, is gan, ah sae Tell me man, ah gotta know, wha goin on doun here?
De man sae, “No entiendo, meson I no speakiddy de englee”Ah SaeWha? I mubbe gan Poto Rico.
When ah did finally arrive at whea de Harry S. Truman airport suppose tu be, ah see all kina ting, but what I don see is de Harry S. Truman airport,
Ah see a kina fatty woman livin in a smally smally lil house right in de middle a de road, de woman stannin up wid she hand out side de door beggin money from de car dem, an every onea dem stopping to ge she some, Ladee me boy, Oy ain nevah see noting like dat an look a joke, I ain even reach close to de states yet
But de ting wha ah keean see is de terminal, de big ol hangah place whey de steelban dem used to be bawlin blood for we cu dance an wuk up wid dem Puerto Rican Gurl when de come fo Carnival! Ah hol ah man ana sae “Hey, wha goin an here meson, wha dey hidin’ de airport?” He sae “Allah Akbar? Abdoul Ab Salamm, Abdoul Ab Salamm..
De fatty woman sae, look ovah de hill man, look ovah de hill.
Lemme tell yu something, all I wan tu du is gemme plane ticket tu go tu de states tu see dem boy an fine out if I wantu join up wid de fresh watah yankee dem, but not only doan nobody know how tu sell a plane ticket tu de states, but now dey gan an change up de name and move de airport. Yu sure dis is dey way every body does get tu de states? Lard if is so had tu go, imagin how hard it mus be tu come back, wha yu tink?
Meson when ah finally reach dung, tu de place wha dey suppose tu be selling de ticket dem, ah sae “ah wan tu buy a plane ticket tu de states” de woman sae “Ok where are yu goin” Ah sae Oh lard don’t tell me dis is dat again, ah sae Ah wan tu go tu de states! Wha wrang wid alyu people, ah wan yu go tu de states!
Den de woman sae, ok which state. Now dis is one Islan woman wha mussa had good states side training because das de fus time any body ask me dat question, ana wan yu know I were ready wid me ansah, Ah sae ah wan tu go to de place wha name Miami, Atlanta, Florida, New Yawk, because das whea alla dem boy is.
She sae I’m sorry, that’s impossible, there is no such place. I sae Yu lie, Yu Lie, Yu big bum ting yu, ah catch yu now, yu lie, das whea alaldem boy gan, wha wrang wid allyu crazy people, Ah sae, gimme me plane ticket an don frig me up no mo o I’ll broke off me foot in yu Batey!!
When she hear dat De woman eye dem open wide wide and she say “of course Mr. Buckra De Paehae, just one moment please, wait here, I know exactly who can help you.
Ah sae now yu talking, dis is de way yu suppose tu treat a man who is all dress up an goin to de states.
Jus den two man hooks me up from behine, dey grab on tu de back a me pants an lif me up straight up in de air, me pants went up in me bum til ah had tu bawl out “Oh God Ah Dead, ah give up, ah give up! Den dey grab me han an me foot an thro me in de back like two hundred poun a wet sal fish.
All dis time all de touris dem laughing me boy, ana hear one a de chrerenn dem sae “Mommy whats the matter with that man?” De muddah sae “Nothin dear that’s just what too much rum and hot sun’ll do to ya, an thats exactly what’ll happen to your blasted Father if we don’t get ‘im back to Baltimore right away”
When De man dem thro me doun, de bigges one sae
“C’mon now Buckrat boy, let’s hear some more of your noisy big lip about what you’re gonna do wid yer foot, an who your gonna do it to”
Ah sae Oh God, Oh God ah give up, ah give up, ah change me moine sah, ah change me moine, I ain want tu go tu de states, ah change me moine, ah wan tu go home.
Walll… De man sae “It’s too late fer that Buckrat, ya crazy little weasel, you’re goin ta Guantanamo wid the rest a dem terrorists. Ah sae “Oh Godee Oh Godee!, Ah give up Sah Ah Give up Sah!
Man, ah had tu beg dem, an beg dem, an beg dem boy tu loose me, an when de finally lemme getaway, Lord me boy, ah ain stop til ah pass Demarara. Wen ah catch meself, ah sae “Buckra, It look like yu bettah tell one a dem boy in de states tu sen doun a ticket fo yu, if dey wan yu come up tu play fresh watah yankee wid dem. An when dey sen doun me ticket, das how de Buckra finally get tu go tu de states,.. but das a whole uddah story meson, believe me..das a whole uddah story,
Laa-dy, me bouy… whata trelele!”
Scott Fagan's Mem.wa? 