In his Barack De Magnificent CD, the Mighty Sparrow's sings the praises of Senator Obama.

by TONY BEST

IN HIS 50-PLUS YEARS of giving the world many of its most memorable calypsos, the Mighty Sparrow has touched on almost every aspect of life.

Politics, marriage, sex, economics, education, inter-personal relationship, sport, Caribbean togetherness or disunity, international affairs, you name the subject, the quintessential entertainer, who was born in Grenada but is inextricably linked to Trinidad and Tobago and the rest of the Caribbean, has composed and sing songs as if the globe were his oyster.

So, the Mighty Sparrow has captured on a CD the life, dreams and qualities of United States Senator Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential standard-bearer continues a journey that billions of people hope would take him into the White House.

And within the next few days, the singer/composer, will officially launch his latest work, a 12-song CD with, you guessed it, Barack De Magnificent as the title tune.

"I truly believe that Barack Obama is magnificent and is on the threshold of becoming the next president of the United States," Sparrow told the WEEKEND NATION.

Inspiration

When the two men met, thanks to the efforts of Obama's campaign managers in New York City, the warmth of the greeting, the presidential candidate's knowledge of Sparrow's work and his interest in what the singer wanted to do spurred on the latter in his quest to come up with an exciting musical picture of the senator from Illinois.

"He came into the room, like my brother, real blood brother and said: 'My Sparrow, come on board, give me a hug, come on board. What's the matter with you; I want to hear that song.' On that occasion, close to a year ago, Barack listened to the song and said he liked it," Sparrow recalled.

Back then too, the song was a single on Sparrow's website but Barack's enthusiasm and the overwhelmingly positive response of those who heard it convinced the calypso monarch to come out with a "complete CD" that captures all of the things "that are happening with and around Barack".

It also speaks to the shoulders on which Obama has climbed to become the first person of colour to win the nomination of a major political party in the United States.

By that Sparrow means Dr Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela, to mention a few.

Whole message

"Obama himself told me that in the first two lines of my song, Barack De Magnificent, people can get the whole message," Sparrow explained.

Those lines go like this:

"The respect of the world that we now lack

If you want it back, then vote Barack."

The larger musical canvas on which Sparrow paints the image and the strength of Obama zeroes in on some of the candidate's own messages.

For instance, Obama says "stop the war, stop genocide in Darfur". Next is his stance on domestic social issues: "No matter what, get health care for who have not."

Then, there is the nation's protection against those who would wish to do it harm: "The Foreign Affairs Committee can attest to his tenacity for homeland and job security." As for the situation in Iraq: "He stood his ground when this war was merely a conception; and he said it was wrong and he didn't go along; James Baker and Lee Hamilton, they said of Barack's opinion, there goes a man of resplendent vision."

His lyrics about the "Committee" refer to a panel of the United States House of Representatives in Washington and to Baker and Hamilton, two of Washington's foreign policy gurus, and show Sparrow's grasp of contemporary issues.

"I have always been interested in what's going on around me," reflected Sparrow, a grandfather of nine.

Interestingly, this man, whose real name is Slinger Francisco and is married to a Barbadian, Margaret, now lives in Queens New York. And he shows no signs of slowing down. Australia, Japan, cities across Europe, the United States and Canada, Brazil, the African continent and across the Caribbean are like a network of stages on which he makes his presence and vocal cords felt.