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UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 4 NOVEMBER, 2018
GRADUATION 2018
For Winston Mc Garland Bailey
, a simple country
boy growing up in the 40s on his grandparents’ farm
in Les Coteaux, Tobago, the whole world was music
– the ripple and murmur of the river, the rhythm
of the waves and the “dup-dup-dup” of his running
feet being hotly pursued by “crapaud music” rising
from the gully. Add the reel and jig of freshly-heated
Tambrin drums, ringing steel and the bright voice of
a fiddle…calypso, steelpan and the Les Coteaux jab
jabs’ “Pay de devil…pac pac-pac pac”. It blewhismind!
His family may have had other plans for him but
from very young his mind was set: “Dey could say
what dey say, and want what dey want! What about
me? I supposed to say what I say and want what I
want! What I want to hear is music.” He decided he
would make his own music. Always beating on some
ol’ bucket, he would tell them that one day he would
sing calypso and that he would be “The Shadow”.
One day, he left Les Coteaux for Charlotteville
where Joseph Kerr aka “Bar Joe” handed him a guitar,
taught him two chords and went off to work in his
garden. When Bar Joe returned, he was stunned
to find that Winston had taught himself to play
the instrument. He called his neighbours, “Look! I
just went in my garden and leave this boy here and
when I come back he playing music … and singing
too”. Winston’s novice fingers were in serious pain
but Bar Joe and his new audience wouldn’t let him
stop. They kept a rhythm and he went on strumming
late into the night. The next day they wanted more.
When he returned to Les Coteaux, the question was
on everyone’s lips, “How he just leave here and come
back home a musician?”
Soon after, he was on his way to Trinidad tomake
his way as a calypsonian.
His style was unorthodox from the start. There
were many detractors and numerous setbacks but
Winston was (in his own words) “a stubborn little
boy who grew up to be a stubborn old man”. Ever the
rebel and never one to compromise his originality, he
persisted, true to his unique style of composing and
performing.
Today, we have the Shadow-image (the long,
dark jacket or flowing cape with a broad-brimmed
hat), the curious, bouncing Shadow-dance, the
distinctive Shadow-sound that brought the bass line
to the forefront and the very African Shadow-beat.
While others found success by adapting to suit the
changingmusical environment, Shadow compelled us
to adapt to him! He now has more than four decades
of converts to his infectious “rhythmic melodies” and
the philosophical poetry of his imaginative, humorous
and deceptively simple lyrics.
Historian Bukka Rennie maintains that “Shadow
in his very simplicity and apparent childish lyrics
remains in fact our most complex calypsonian…no
different [fromWilliamBlake] in his simplicity, poetic
abstractions and glorifying of nature”.
Winston Bailey’s off-beat genius didn’t always find
favour with the judges and he eventually decided to
ignore the Calypso Monarch competition. However,
in 1993, after a 17-year absence, he returned to
competition. Finally in 2000, the judges could deny
him no longer. He took home the Calypso Monarch
title with “Scratch Meh Back” and “What’s Wrong
With Me?” The following year, he won both the
Road March and the International Soca Monarch
competition with “Stranger”, making him the only
person to attain these three major titles and at 60, the
Mr Winston Bailey, the Shadow.
oldest International Soca Monarch winner to date.
And who can forget the iconic Road March
winner “Bass Man” in 1974, a year in which he also
copped the Road March second place with “I Come
Out to Play”, a feat that no other calypsonian or soca
singer has equalled.
Mr. Bailey did not give up calypso to go plant
peas in Tobago and instead has given us over
45 albums and CDs of extraordinary music that
has influenced generations of calypso and rapso
artists. Calypso expert Professor Gordon Rohlehr
believes that “Shadow is going to be remembered
for his contributions to rhythm and melody, for his
strangeness, his weirdness, that sense of obeah in his
music, the theme of retribution, his dedication and
obsession with the music”.
The UWI 2018 Honorary Graduate Citation
MR WINSTON BAILEY
Awarded Degree of Doctor of Letters (DLitt), honoris causa
His songs have been featured in major motion
pictures, he has received citations from mayors
in many cities, was the UN Honorary Caribbean
Spokesperson on AIDS from 2001 to 2002, and in
2003 was the recipient of the Trinidad and Tobago
Hummingbird Medal.
However, Mr. Bailey did not measure his success
by titles and awards; for him it was truly all about
the music. Winston Bailey was The Shadow, Shadow
was the music, the music was Winston Bailey. As he
put it: “My story never move from music … I could
do plenty things without the music, but it would be
empty things.”
We mourn the passing of The Shadow, The Bass
Man, The King from Hell, The Dread Wizard of
calypso music, and we celebrate his music.
“Shadow is going to be remembered for his contributions to
rhythm and melody, for his strangeness, his weirdness, that
sense of obeah in his music, the theme of retribution, his
dedication and obsession with the music.”
– Gordon Rohlehr
