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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: Can you tell us some of the Calypsonians you have written for apart from 'Sparrow'?
WINSFORD: I wrote for Calypsonians like 'Poser', 'Singing Francine', Machel Montano, Marcia Miranda and 'Baron'. I wrote for many Calypsonians.
MR. DOUGLAS: I was just about to ask you about 'Baron' because I know that most of his hits were written by you and arranged by Leston Paul.
WINSFORD: I didn't always write for 'Baron'. Unfortunately his biggest hit wasn't written by me. It was a song called "Sweet Soca Man" written by Errol Ince. Errol had that song and he was always begging 'Baron' to sing it for him. Eventually one year 'Baron' took it and it became a hit. At first he didn't think much of it at all. The record he had made was properly arranged and so on. I would say that was the biggest song 'Baron' ever recorded.
MR. DOUGLAS: Was it bigger than "Somebody"?
WINSFORD: In a sense, yes. It is his signature song. He had two signature songs. One is mine and one is "Sweet Soca Man". He has another song that I wrote called "Melosian Rhapsody". He always sings that song anywhere he goes.
MR. DOUGLAS: I was about to ask you about that too because to me that was the best song he ever sang. But that is my personal choice.
WINSFORD: Those are his signature tunes. Every artiste has a signature tune.
People are starting to say now how they are getting fed-up of 'Sparrow' singing "Salt Fish". I wrote the original "Salt Fish" for 'Sparrow'. He eventually changed it up so much that it ended up as a ballad.
MR. DOUGLAS: Was it because it was very popular?
WINSFORD: I noticed that sometimes an artiste likes to sing a certain song. He feels comfortable sometimes opening the show singing his song. That is how David Rudder could get to sing "Calypso Rising". He loves to sing that song. Anytime he goes back you must hear him sing "Calypso Rising". 'Baron' likes to sing "Soca Man", "Don't Rock It So" and "Melosian Rhapsody". He doesn't pass up singing those songs.
TYEHIMBA: The topics of your compositions span science, culture, history and geography. What provides the inspiration for your compositions in general?
WINSFORD: I used to read a lot in my life until my eyesight started to give way. I used to buy and read all kinds of books like fictions, biographies and so on. Right now I cannot read [print] but I have television and I could read on the internet. I do not watch movies. I like information so I listen to CNN, MSNBC or the History Channel whole day. I am a fanatic for information. Things are crammed up in my head but when I am writing, ideas come out.
When you are writing songs, what you have in your head comes out. Sometimes what you see, or when you are passing somewhere you may hear a word or a phrase and you just link that to a song. If you are very good like I am these things come out in your song. 'Merchant' used to do that too and 'Duke' does it. It is easy to write a song. You can write a song. Everybody has a song within them. You would have one or two songs but the problem is when you have to do it professionally and all the time. It becomes hard then because you have to search for ideas especially if you are writing for different people. If you write stories and so on that happens.
MR. DOUGLAS: But you also did a lot of the melodies for Calypsonians.
WINSFORD: These days since I cannot play the guitar and I cannot play enough on my keyboard since I had a stroke, I write mostly lyrics. Everybody come to me and I would write the lyrics and they would put their own melody. Long ago, I was writing the whole song. I could arrange it too and put all the chords and so on.
MR. DOUGLAS: Up to when was your association with the Blue Diamonds Steelband?
WINSFORD: I used to arrange for Blue Diamonds. The last thing I arranged for them was "Somebody". It may have been up to that year and then I left the band. The Steelband thing had changed in those days. What really made me leave the band was when I realized I wasn't going anywhere with it.
There was a period of time when Steelband men started to realize that there was nothing in Pan for a Pan player. There is a lot in the band for like the arranger and the tuner who could make a living from it. The Ministry had to come and offer money for you to play in Panorama. It has reached the stage now where fellas are talking about four or five hundred dollars to play one Panorama tune. In my days they didn't have that. Long ago, when you play in Panorama, if you get in the finals, you might win a small prize which had to be divided and you could end up getting five dollars. A time I got five dollars and that hurt so much. In those days, Steelbands used to play in fetes. After we played for the whole Carnival time in all those fetes and so on, they gave me five dollars in a little envelope and told me that was what I played for.
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