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The Mighty Duke Speaks
The Mighty Duke
TriniSoca.com Reporters
Recorded: on September 27, 2007
Posted: October 03, 2007
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TRINISOCA.COM: In terms of the Calypso arena, who are some of your favorite Calypsonians?
DUKE: A lot of those guys. Besides being a Calypsonian, I love Calypso. It is the love of my life. Once a guy has a good Calypso, I love it. Sometimes what you may not think is a good Calypso I might think it is a beautiful song. I have a few friends but basically most of the guys are my friends.
TRINISOCA.COM: I want to go back a little bit to the early beginnings of your career and where you would have experienced society during the whole Butler Movement. What are your thoughts on how the Trinidadian society has evolved from then till now?
DUKE: I would say one step forward, two steps backward. Evolve is the word, not progress. I don't think we have progressed per say. How do you judge progress? Do you judge progress by concrete and steel or by people? We haven't progressed because, for instance, we had less killings in those times than we do now. People do not respect human beings anymore now. We do not respect life, we do not respect people or property or whatever anymore as we did in my time. Sometimes, I do honestly wish we had that same old time society. I remember as a child coming into Port of Spain on a Sunday evening and seeing families holding hands walking down Frederick Street window shopping. Today you don't dare do that sort of thing. You wouldn't get the chance to do that.
I did a song on that around the seventies called "Brotherhood of Man" and today it is very relevant. I wish I could go back to the old time days. Those were the days when Butler would get up on stage and talk and people would listen to him and sing a hymn after and so on. People believed in him and they respected him. The politicians today are just playing games; they are not like the politicians we had before. I wouldn't say all of them but most of them are very dishonest. Not dishonest in the sense of stealing money alone but dishonest to the people. I cannot accept when you don't want to do something that you were put there to do. That is the dishonesty I do not like.
TRINISOCA.COM: I feel that the state could do a lot more in relation to Calypso. I am a fairly young person and I have not been exposed much to your work because it's just not there. A few times you may hear a song playing on the radio but your body of work is not easily available. There are other Calypsonians whose work is just not available as well.
DUKE: That's right. Look at a man like 'Kitchener' for example. We could never get another man like 'Kitchener'. He is our Beethoven, our Mozart. After 'Kitchener' had gone, have you ever heard a beautiful melody? It seems like his work never meant anything to our government. Nothing is being done for him to keep his name alive. We are not going to get another one like him again. If you go in any concert hall or anywhere in the world you would see a picture of people like Mozart, Czajkowski and those people because they keep them alive out of respect for what they did. We here in Trinidad do not have any respect for what 'Kitchener' did. 'Spoiler' was a man who was way ahead of his time but there isn't any respect for their work.
That is why today our youths are branching off to Dub and Jamaican [music]. We never taught them to respect our work and our artistes. The government never said, "These are your people; respect them." The youths today are out there looking for heroes but they are not looking for their own; they are looking for other people's own. They build up the foreign artistes more than they build our local artistes. That is why when you talk to the younger children today they are either talking Jamaican or they are trying to sing a Dub and not a Calypso. The reason for that is because we never showed respect to people like 'Spoiler', 'Cypher', 'Kitchener' and those Calypsonians who made a lifetime contribution to Calypso. If they had praised them up and respected them, the kids will grow up thinking, "Wow, that is our boy and I want to be like him." They never did that and they are not doing it. Hence the reason you would find people are saying the art form is dying and so on. They are the ones who are helping to kill it.
TRINISOCA.COM: These Calypsonians and their Calypsos tell the evolution of our society. Certainly their lyrics should be a main part of the school curriculum.
DUKE: That is right. Calypso should be taught in school as 'Chalkdust' has said so many times. There is so much you can teach in Calypso that you would be amazed. When I hear certain songs, they bring back certain things to me. I heard a song by 'Kitchener' not too long ago and it reminded me about a fire in Port of Spain. It reminded me of where certain stores were and how Port of Spain looked at that time. He talked about the fire taking the store and then it was taking another store and so on. That to me is history. An artiste could also sit down and paint Port of Spain in that era. What we do not seem to understand is that Calypso is not just a song and culture per say. Calypso is ours. It's a lifeblood and we should cherish it. Because our art form is being neglected, a lot of things are happening that we are not aware of.
TRINISOCA.COM: What words of advice would you give to budding Calypsonians?
DUKE: You have to love it. It is the only way you can deal with it. It's yours and it's your blood. If you love it you are going to deal with it no matter what they say or do. Do not just come into it because of what you think you may get from it. Come into it because you want to put something into it.
TRINISOCA.COM: You also spoke about the evolution of our society and how certain things are missing from how you experienced it in the early days. What would you say are some of the things that should be done in our society presently?
DUKE: There are so many things that have to be done. They can teach the young people to love their country. We do not love anymore. The young people have lost that love of country. If you love your country and you respect your country you would treat it better. You would act better and you would do better to build it. You wouldn't want to talk Jamaican. You want to talk Trinidadian as much as possible so that people would hear that you are a Trinidadian. You don't want to associate with Jamaica in that sense. Sure we love Jamaica but you have to be who you are. Love your own first.
I have a song called "Love Your Own". Love your own and teach them to love the country. Teach them to love and respect. Bring back the old time values. I find that the old time values are so neglected today and we need that. In spite of all the money we have, we need the old time values. We need to respect people, we need to respect the elders, and we need to respect property. For instance, a young guy would be sitting here and you would be sitting over there and he would play the stereo he has so loud that it would deafen your ears. You may not want to hear his stereo but he would play it to deafen you without thinking that you may not want to hear it. We have to ask ourselves if what we are doing would affect another person. They say you have freedom but freedom to what extent? If I stretch my hands out I am free but when I hit you then I am in your space. We have to learn to respect people and property and whatever.
Continue...
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