MP3:
1. Maintenance (2:45)
2. Bloodshot Eyes (2:44)
3. Jamaica Fashion (2:31)
I found this album at a flea market in Grand Bend, Ontario a few years back. I didn't have particularly high hopes for it (a hotel band?), but as it turns out, one of the Montego Beach Hotel Calypsonians (the singer) was a fellow by the stage name of Lord Lebby. Lebby was one of the pioneers of Mento, a rural Jamaican folk music that both preceded and helped to inspire reggae and ska. Performed on guitar, banjo, bamboo flute, maracas, bongos and a crude portable piano called a rumba box (the second guy from the left on the back cover photo is holding one), the music on this album is charmingly ramshackle, the Jamaican country music of its day.
A lot of the material on this album, aside from being pretty good, is also quite risqué for stuff that was, presumably, performed for the benefit of well-to-do tourists. "Maintenance" is the heartwarming tale of a guy who would rather be locked up in jail than help pay to support any children he might father.
Fortunately for him, the girl ("related closely to ink") who claimed he was the father of her baby gave birth to a child "whiter than snow". Her mother said this was because she was drinking Milk of Magnesia every day, but the singer, unconvinced, concludes "For me to mind a child, well you got to know/That scamp had to be born singing Calypso". And "Bloodshot Eyes" is downright ghastly, a kiss-off song addressed to an ex-girlfriend who got beaten up by the guy she left the singer for. It's kind of disturbing to imagine tourists happily sipping their daiquiris and tapping their feet to lyrics like "For your eyes look like two cherries/In a glass of buttermilk" and "Now you better shut your peepers/Before you bleed to death". On the other hand, "Jamaica Fashion" - a lighthearted tune singing the praises of a few pretty girls scattered throughout the Caribbean - has a great flute solo and absolutely no objectional content.
- Contributed by: Beau Levitt
Images: Front Cover, Back Cover, Label
Media: LP
Album: Souvenir Album
Label: Montego Beach Hotel Gift Shop
Catalog: LOML.502
Credits: Maintenance (Composed: Joseph Clemendor; Copyright owned by Stanley Motta Ltd.), Bloodshot Eyes (Composer: Mann-Glover; Copyright owned by Vogue Record Co.), Jamaica Fashion (Composer: Member of Montego Beach Hotel Band)
Date: 1950's
What a treat to visit and find this album blogged! It's a good one. To add to what you wrote, the author of Maintenance, Joseph Clemendore, was better known as "Cobra Man"; he was originally from Trinidad and came to Jamaica around 1953. In addition to being a singer, he was also a contortionist. In 54 or 55, he was involved in some kind of controversy that involved him mistakenly letting a cricket bat fly out of his hands during a performance (it hit a well-to-do lady in the head).
And a recommendation? The version of "Bloodshot Eyes" on this recording IS really nice, but an absolutely amazing version was recorded by Emory Cook in Jamaica in 1960 on the album "Calypso Jamaica." You can hear it on emusic:
http://www.emusic.com/album/10893/10893681.html
The banjoist, Cecil Mitchell (better known today as "Motherless"), plays a really standout solo.
Posted by: Daniel Neely | April 28, 2007 at 06:59 AM
Also, "Bloodshot Eyes" was originally released by Hank Penny (as a country record in 1951) and Wynonie Harris (as an R&B record in 1951)--the Harris version is one of my favorite recordings ever.
Posted by: Douglas | April 29, 2007 at 02:09 AM
I have another Lord Lebby album with a brown cover. Haven't heard it yet.
Posted by: Pinball King | April 29, 2007 at 11:03 PM
Cool stuff, this. You should never underestimate hotel bands. A lot of the best groups to come out of West Africa got their start as hotel bands.
Loving the extra history in the comments above, too. It does seem a bit subversive to be singing a song like "Bloodshot Eyes" to a bunch of sunburned rich people from Europe and North America, much less sending them home with a copy of it. A lot of calypso lyrics are way more extreme than "Maintenance," by the way. It was a more political, confrontational music than it gets credit for.
Posted by: Joe | May 01, 2007 at 11:44 AM
We are trying to find out what happened to Joseph Clemendore (cobra Man) - do you know if he is still alive or has living relatives? Please email if you know anything at [email protected]
Posted by: Lynette Gravesande | March 12, 2008 at 10:12 AM
The original version of "Bloodshot Eyes" was a 1951 rock and roll smash hit by US artist Roy Brown, who also composed "Good Rockin' Tonight", another smash later to cross over in a famous Elvis Presley cover version.
Roy Brown, as many early rock and roll artists, was popular on Jamaican dancehalls in the 1950s. He was one of the greatest rockers.
A version of Joseph Clemendores' "Maintenance" was also recorded by mento producer Stanley Motta (artist unknown).
Doc Reggae
docreggae.com
Posted by: Doc Reggae | February 22, 2009 at 09:46 AM
please could you give any information on Joseph Clemendore (Cobra Man) would like to know if he is alive and which contry does he reside in.
Posted by: Dionne Duncan-Francis | August 20, 2009 at 12:33 PM