by CARLOS ATWELL MANY of this island's calypso songwriters do not have a good grasp of the English language and it is reflected in what they produce. This is the view of Vere Browne, a veteran calypso tent manager who came out in support of some of what Richard Carter, director of Youth Affairs, said about "smut" and "rubbish" passing for calypso this year. Browne, who heads Cave Shepherd All Stars, said there was indeed smut, but it extended to the entire Barbadian society and worldwide. "Carter needs to understand that it goes throughout society," he said. "In popular music and in advertisements, the focus is not on quality but on sex, and I think society has a responsibility to maintain [a reasonable] level of moral and ethical behaviour." However, he noted that the situation was compounded by the limited skills shown by many of the songwriters in handling the English language. No command "Where artistes fall down is that they cannot use the language to convey their messages without vulgarity; they do not have a command of either the English language or Bajan dialect, which is a reflection of the failure of the education system," he said. Another tent manager, Peter Boyce of Bacchanal Time, had a different view. "Smut is in the eye of the beholder. To me, it is not fair to target young people. There have always been ambiguous songs but there is a tendency when certain calypsonians perform, people say they are so clever and call it a lyrical masterpiece, but when others perform something similar, they call it smut," he said. While admitting some of the selections this year were not up to quality, Boyce said some people could not do better. Producer Peter Coppin, of Monsta Piece Crew, warned that the society and the media, in particular, must be cautious in what they did and allowed. "We have to be careful how we make our bed because in the future we will all have to lie down on [it]," he said. Errol Griffith, manager of the Experience tent, felt there was too much "lewd, crude and suggestive" lyrics on the airwaves. "Honestly, I don't listen to radio but if I could find a way to sift through the material and only hear the ones without suggestive lyrics, I would be happy to make the effort," he said. Dennis Johnson, host of the Fireworks, a Starcom Network Crop-Over programme, said: "If you say that there are people who are doing nothing to uplift and enhance or contribute to the national social development - tell me who! Call them by name, so I could get them to make a response, so I could get them to face you off and say what they think is developmental or uplifting about whatever you call smut and nonsense," he said. * carlosatwell@nationnews.com
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