The Merrymen "Caribbean Treasure Chest" 1962(?)***

I thought I'd continue with summer sounds, since I'm in that mood. I know that for most people summer is almost over, but I'm preparing for my summer vacation - September, after all, in Greece is late Summer rather than Fall. Last year I presented an album by Barbados' Merrymen, which proved one of my less popular posts.

This time I thought I'd bring out the big guns: see if you can resist the charms of Emil and The Merrymen's international big hit "Big Bamboo". It's the song that put the band on the map, hell it put Barbados on the map. Jamaican and Trinidadian music were already getting known outside the Caribbean, but who knew anything about the music of Barbados? The Merrymen formed in the early 60's, playing an amalgam of calypso and acoustic folk music reminiscent of Harry Belafonte and The Kingston Trio. They recorded their debut Caribbean Treasure Chest in 1962 (1966 according to discogs, but that doesn't sound right) and went on to have a really long career (they were still going strong until at least 2011) even getting to play for British royalty. Their single "Big Bamboo" was a no.1 hit in Holland a few years later, probably because of the big Antillean community. It's a traditional island tune full of delicious sexual innuendos, which the band don't seem to acknowledge at all - at least in this 1962 version, unlike the one that charted in Europe circa '69. It keeps the hilarious lyrics and cheerful melody, while The Merrymen gave it a charming folk reading and added the "working for the yankee dollar" chorus from the famous Caribbean song "Rum And Coca Cola". Next up is the Belafonte ballad "Island In The Sun" and jaunty instrumental "Take Me, Take Me", followed by their take on The Kingston Trio's folk "Wreck Of The John B" (I just realise how spot on I was spotting their influences). Side One closes with a "Calypso medley" of traditional songs (If You See Me Little Brown Girl/Millie Gone To Brazil/You Say You Young/Sly Mongoose). Here we get a glimpse of Emile Straker's specialty, a whistling solo. Side 2 opens with a popular song from Trinidad (Roaring Lion's "Mary Ann"), continues with another instrumental "Caroline" and then with "Island Woman" a calypso ballad with pretty harmonies. They follow it with a happy tune recounting the story of local pirate Sam Lord, and then with Mexican standard "Cu-Cu-Ru-Cu-Cu (Paloma)" and another tinny-sounding instrumental called "King Ja-Ja". On the whole this is a nice collection of Caribbean folk and calypso songs by one of the genre's top bands, however forgotten they may now be. If it has a flaw, it's being a bit too white- (or, if you prefer, European-) sounding for Calypso - compared, say, with the likes of Lord Kitchener or Mighty Sparrow. Pleasant listening in any case. The album hasn't, to my knowledge, been reissued since the 60's, but there are original copies out there as well as some Merrymen compilations on CD. Enjoy the sample below...

**** for Big Bamboo, Wreck Of The John B, Legend Of Sam Lord

*** for Island In The Sun, Calypso Medley, Mary Ann, Island Woman,

** for Take Me Take Me, Caroline, Cu-Cu-Ru-Cu-Cu, King Ja-Ja

The Merrymen "The More The Merrier" 1965(?)***

I got this LP and a few others for 50 cents a piece at my neighbourhood record store. It's by a group I had never heard of before, The Merrymen. I found it kinda amusing that the liner notes refer to the Carribean as "our" (as in The British Crown's) "islands of the West Indies", but mostly it was the idea of these guys from Barbados posing with a backdrop of palm trees playing the "exotic" Greek tune "Never On Sunday" (Actually the original name of the song translates as "The Kids of Piraeus", but it featured in a 1960 movie called Never On Sunday). Around the same period Harry Belafonte also recorded many Hadjidakis tunes, including a different song from the same movie, for a successful duets album with Nana Mouskouri, so it seems that something about Greek music resonated with "West Indians". Well, it turns out the Hadjidakis connection had led me to one of the Caribbean's best hidden (to me, that is) "secrets". Apparently Emile Straker and The Merrymen are one of the region's best loved bands, have recorded a score of albums and even had a "hit" in Europe and the UK with "Caribbean Treasure Chest" (also in the ¢50 pile, presented here). So what did these guys do to deserve the title of "the Barbados Beatles"? Well, first of all, they're a boy band of the 60's: four loveable guys with a sunny disposition (no Lennon among them, then). Secondly, they have a knack for pleasant melodies and, thirdly, an ease in appropriating elements from different styles (Mexican ballads in "Rosita", Mediterranean music in "Never On Sunday", blues in "Corina", American folk in "Folk Medley" and the rockin' "Freight Train"). Truth be told, their blueprint seems to be not the Beatles but The Kingston Trio with a dash of Harry Belafonte. And even if they can't beat the latter with their renditions of "Scarlet Ribbons" and "Yellow Bird", Emile Straker can easily out-whistle anyone in pop music - which is what he's most memorable for in his country, apparently. For all their aforementioned diversity though, the record's highlights come when the Merrymen delve into their country's traditional calypso tunes like "Diddley Bops" and the "Merry Medley". Enjoy them with an ice-cold rum cocktail, one of their island's specialties...

**** for Diddley Bops, Merry Medley (Nobody's Business/Brown Skin Girl/Matilda/My Bucket's Got A Hole)

*** for Rosita, Freight Train, Yellow Bird, Never On Sunday, Corina, Folk Medley (My Lord, What A Morning/When The Saints/Gotta Travel On/Lonesome Me)

** for Scarlet Ribbons, Just Walk On By

P.S. Regarding the specific release date, there's no info either on the LP itself or in wikipedia, discogs, allmusic and other online databases. One relatively detailed history of the band is rather hazy with the timeline, but mentions in passing "...back in Barbados in May 1965, the Merrymen recorded another album with George Benson which spun off the song Diddly Bops" - unless they included it in more LP's (not unheard of in the 60's) this should be it. Apparently there are just two (contemporary) pressings on the WIRL label, one from Barbados and a Jamaican one, while the album has never been re-released either on vinyl or CD.