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Interviews at Mighty Terror's Funeral
TriniSoca.com Reporters
Event Date: March 19, 2007
 | | | Mighty Terror | |
On March 14, 2007, Mr. Fitzgerald Cornelius 'Mighty Terror' Henry, popularly known as 'The Golden Voice' died at the age of eighty-six after a prolonged battle with cancer. Funeral services for Mr. Henry were held on the 19th March, 2007, at the Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral in Port of Spain thence to the St. James Crematorium where his body was cremated.
TriniSoca.com interviewed some of Trinidad and Tobago's renowned Calypsonians, Mas people and musicians who were gathered at Mr. Henry's funeral to commemorate his many achievements and contributions to the art form. These are their testimonies:
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William 'Dr. Will B' Bannister
 | | | William Bannister | |
I am here to pay my last respects and to really get more history on Terror. He was one of the oldest surviving Calypsonians but he is gone now. We have to send him off with 'nuff' respect, 'nuff' Kaiso, 'nuff' culture and that kind of thing. As you can see, I am wearing my hat and that is because the dress code, the putting together of the rhythms and the rhymes and especially the pan songs are the things I got from guys like Terror, Kitchener and those guys who came from the early times. Anytime I want to do a pan song, Kitchener, Terror and those guys still inspire me. I could always learn from them. I extend my condolences to the family and so on. I know the Kaiso is in good hands and we will have to carry it on until the Lord is ready for us too.
Randolph 'Count Robin' Hilliaire
 | | | Randolph Hilliaire | |
I have known Terror since he came back from England. He was a little older than I am. I have always admired his compositions and his melodic voice. He had a golden voice. The Calypsos he made are going to be immortal now.
I had experience performing with him when Shadow had his Master's Den. I also had experience performing with him in New York. He had a show with me a couple of years ago at Tropical Reflections. I had the honour of taking him to his daughter in Queens, carrying him to both shows and back. We weren't intimate friends but we were Calypsonian brothers as we say. I have been hearing him on the radio stations here and I like "Pan Talent" and "Little Monkey" which I grew up with as a school boy.
If you study his melodies, they are much different than a lot of the melodies most of us sing. He always had a tempting musical melody through all his songs. They are not simple melodies but you can hear the variations and all the different movements in the music and so on. I would say he was very instrumental in melodies. May God bless his little soul. He just got there before we did. We are all getting there.
Earl Curuth
 | | | Earl Curuth | |
I have known the Mighty Terror since about 1965. I was a member of the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment Band during that time when he came back home. He came down there to do some rehearsals for us to do a show with him at the Queen's Hall. I went away from about 1968 but when I came back in 1983, I worked with him in the Calypso tents. I was the musical director in a few of the Calypso tents that he performed in. We had a very good relationship during those years. I scored some of his music. Up to about last year when I met him, we always discussed different things about the good times we had in the tent and the amount of encores he got during the songs he performed. It was nice. One of his songs I like very much is "Pan Talent". That song is what you call a classic in the Calypso sense. Everybody played that song and up to now they still play his song in the schools Steelband Festivals. I know I am missing a very good friend but we all have to go some day. May God rest his soul.
Lucien Joseph
 | | | Lucien Joseph | |
I was born at the corner of Abercromby and Oxford Streets. Terror and I were very good friends. The tent was on St. Vincent Street and I used to go and watch Terror, Spoiler and many of the Calypsonians from the back of some German friends of mine on Abercromby Street. I like Terror's songs "Chinese Children Calling Me Daddy", "Pan Talent" and a couple of them which I cannot remember right now. His music was very good. He was a very good Calypsonian. We cannot get anything like that again regardless of what. There are many who are coming up but they cannot reach that standard.
Winston 'De Fosto' Scarborough
 | | | Winston Scarborough | |
To me this is a disgraceful turnout because it was never really told to the nation that such an icon at the age of eighty-six has departed from us. You could do a hand stand in this church walking forward and backward, left and right because there is literally nobody here. Some of the people who have come here to view the parting of this great man came in the wrong capacity. They are not honest nor are they sincere; a waste of time. I am not going inside of the church because Terror meant so much more, not only to me but to the country and the fraternity for what he has given us over the years.
Nobody; not the radio stations nor the collective media fraternity have collectively come together with strength and power to do something to make Terror's farewell and departure from earth something much more significant than what it is today with the few people who are here at the church today to say they are bidding farewell to Terror. This is a real hypocritical society. It is an upside-down place. This is Terror we are talking about. This is 'The Golden Voice', the man who has given so much to this nation. To see this tiny handful of people here at his funeral service to bid him farewell is a national embarrassment. It is a national shame. If I can die maybe like a monk where nobody could find me I would prefer that death. You would be looking for me forever but I would be dead for a long time without you knowing. This here is not good. It is not what it should be. I can walk through here and feel the breeze blowing at every corner because there aren't many people to block it off to the point where I can say, "Oh God it hot". I can actually feel the breeze blowing cool and calm.
I would like to say to 'The Golden Voice' and his family, I know my God will richly bless his soul for what he has given to this country of ours. He was really under pressure. He was neglected by so many people in the fraternity and he was really lost where that was concerned. In the end he had so much bitterness in his heart because of how he felt. I remember 'Rootsman' and I went to see him Tuesday night before his passing on Wednesday afternoon at 3 o'clock. We knew then that he was making the transitional departure from earth because he was already traveling. We prayed with him. We have been in that nursing home constantly.
I want to take this opportunity to thank the people in the nursing home for their dedication and commitment. May God richly bless them, not only for what they did for Terror but for what they continue to do for all the aging people who are in that particular nursing home. Terror, your soul will rest in peace. I do not know about everybody else, but your family and a very few of us, myself including, would truly miss you for the contribution you have made. I ask God to enter you into the kingdom of heaven and for you to sit among the archangels and sing those golden melodies forever.
de Fosto sings:
All these years, so much years you give to us all,
From a young man, to evergreen standing tall,
Oh yeah, like a Mighty Terror,
Like the old man river, gauging very slow,
You contributed, so much, we know, Calypso Maestro,
Do-ray me-fa-so-la tee-do,
We hero, forever, and ever,
Singing tunes of gold, voice to touch your soul,
Musically sweet, crooning to the beat,
Yes you had we dancing in the street,
Oh boy, you touch everybody soul,
Your music is harps of gold, and this I must say to you,
You did all that you can do,
So, play the pan for Terror, play the pan,
Play the pan for Terror, play the pan,
Ah golden piece of music we go jam,
Oh boy, what ah talent, excellent talent,
To you we now hoist, the man with the golden voice,
Yeah, the man with the golden voice
What a talent, excellent talent. We should rejoice the man with the golden voice. It's a pleasure to do this because this is heart. You do something from your heart. God is the greatest judge and the only judge of humanity and mankind. When people are honest and sincere you can feel it. You feel sincerity. Some people try to buy their way into people's lives and do mischievous things around a time like this. It is so unfortunate. Let me say as Terror might have wanted to say. He spoke silently in those last moments of his life. He reached out to God and his family. He asked for forgiveness in his own way and he reminisced on the past. He did all of those things before the last bit of life left him at that point.
Continue ...
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The Mighty Terror is Remembered
By TriniSoca.com Reporters : March 21, 2007
Eulogy for Fitzgerald Henry aka 'Mighty Terror'
By Alvin C. Daniell : March 21, 2007
Remembering the Mighty Terror in pictures:
www.trinisoca.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=68441
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