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Winsford 'Joker' Devine Speaks
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TriniSoca.com Reporters
Recorded: on July 19, 2007
Posted: September 12, 2007
MR. DOUGLAS: When you left Morne Diablo after twenty-two odd years, what did you do and where did you go to?
WINSFORD: I went down to Port of Spain after a friend came down to visit me. He saw me playing the Pan and invited me to come up to Port of Spain. I came to Port of Spain one day and I only went back to visit after that. When I came to Port of Spain, I visited him and he introduced me to the Blue Diamonds Steelband. The band was on Prince Street at that time but they eventually moved to George Street. That is how I became known in town as a Pan player.
While I was playing Pan, I developed this thing about writing Calypso. I used to sing as well; I used to sing things that I wrote. He heard me singing and I remember he said, "Yuh good boy!" He encouraged me to make Calypsos and sing. He was like my mentor. Not only did he mentor me, but he also mentored 'Explainer' and 'Merchant'. After that, I grew into the Calypso business and I started selling Calypsos.
WINSFORD: He got a tape recorder for me and he said, "Tape everything that you write." I remember it was a reel to reel tape. I taped about fifty songs from pieces. Out of those songs came the song "Drunk and Disorderly". When he heard the tape, he said, "Boy, these songs good." He took me to a Syl Taylor who was the leader of the 'Sparrow's' Young Brigade Tent. They used to hang out in a club on Charlotte Street. All the Calypsonians used to hang out in that club drinking and playing billiards whole day. He took me to the club to meet Syl Taylor and he played the tape. Syl Taylor bought the whole tape and he gave me three hundred and sixty dollars for it.
He told me he would give people the songs to sing. The first person he gave one of the songs to sing was 'Blakie'. It was a song called "Road March Recipe". I do not think that song was ever recorded. After that, 'Blakie' sang two other songs. The following year, he sang a song called "Simple Calypso". That song was also on the tape. He recorded that song. It eventually ended up second in the Road March that year. He sold some songs I took to 'Sparrow' as well. That was how I got in with 'Sparrow'. He sold him a song called "Queen of the Bands". That song was also one of my songs on the tape. He recorded those two songs.
I got to know 'Sparrow' when he started to sing those two songs. I eventually gave my friend two of those songs to give to 'Sparrow'. The same "Drunk and Disorderly" song was called "Drunkard Calypso". I never got any credit for that song. 'Sparrow' put his name on that song as his own. I never claimed credit for that "Drunkard Calypso". One night a partner of mine came to me and said, "Sparrow singing one of your songs boy. Leh we go down by 'Sparrow' and listen." I went down by the Young Brigade and I met 'Sparrow'. 'Sparrow' asked me if I was the man who wrote those songs and I told him yes. He said, "Hear what happen. Come down by me tomorrow. Let your partner bring you down by me." I went down and we spent half the day with 'Sparrow' and we talked. 'Sparrow' said, "You would start to write songs for me?" That day I got the largest amount money I ever got in my life. 'Sparrow' gave me twenty-eight hundred dollars. I was an old country bookie who didn't know anything. After that, I wrote for 'Sparrow' for seventeen years until we fell out.
MR. DOUGLAS: Apart from writing for 'Sparrow', did you start writing specifically for other Calypsonians as well?
WINSFORD: I was writing for myself because I always had intentions to sing. When I started to sell the songs, I realized that people would buy the songs. From then on, I started writing to sell. That is what caused the first breaking up with 'Sparrow'. A few years after that, I came and I was writing for 'Sparrow' every year. I wrote some songs that he didn't like and I remember he said to me, "I don't like these songs."
That same year I contacted Singing Francine through my friend. I took the songs that I wrote for 'Sparrow' and I gave them to Francine. Francine bought and recorded four of the songs. That is when 'Sparrow' and I fell out. He didn't like that I started to write for Francine. Four of the songs were released but I can only remember two of the songs. They were "St. Peter Say" and "Love is the Answer". From the time the songs were released on the radio they were sellers.
I wrote another album for 'Sparrow'. I wrote a song called "We Digging Horrors". That was the year 'Sparrow' cursed on the stage and so on. He wasn't popular with those songs because he wasn't singing them good. 'Sparrow' used to pay me to write exclusively for him.
MR. DOUGLAS: Even in spite of the fact that he had rejected those songs?
WINSFORD: He didn't want me to write for anybody else. He felt that he was paying me to write exclusively for him. It was ridiculous for me to have songs that he didn't want me to use for anybody else. That same thing is what eventually caused a big breakup between 'Sparrow' and I. I wrote songs for him that he felt I should not have given to anybody else. Francine is the first person to put my name on an album. When it became known that I wrote it a lot of people started to come to me.
MR. DOUGLAS: During all that time, were you still involved with Blue Diamonds and so on?
WINSFORD: That is how I was easy to be found. The fellas used to tell people "De man playing in Blue Diamonds. Just go and ask for 'Joker'." They used to come and check me by Blue Diamonds. Plenty people used to come and check me. People like 'Poser' and all those fellas used to come and check me. I used to write like one song and so on for them.
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