by RICKY JORDAN and CAROL-ANN TUDOR

BARBADIANS ARE OBSESSED with too much sex, and are far too talented to use calypso as a forum for profanity.

These are the views of a veteran tent manager and a calypso judge-turned-competitor, as reaction to the perceived smut in several Crop-Over songs intensified yesterday.

Manager of the Cave Shepherd All Stars Calypso Tent, Vere Browne, said during the tent's launch at the Ideal Restaurant that Bajans' obsession with sex would continue to be shown, whether in calypso, poetry or other literary arts, especially in the form of the double entendre (double meaning).

At the same time, former calypso judge Sheldon Hope is blasting local artistes who release such songs.

Hope, who is competing in Pic-O-De-Crop for the first time, said there was too much talent in Barbados to sink to such a low level, and he's expressing his criticism in a song titled The Call penned by Gabby.

"There's too much talent within Barbados and we're selling ourselves short. If the only thing you can do is write a song so that 10 000 people can wuk-up and pull off their panties and brassières, then you have accomplished nothing other than getting people sweaty and musty," he told the MIDWEEK NATION.

Echoing one of the key lines in the song, which states, "I am not a prostitute, I am not a whore. Stop the vulgarity!", Hope said even if he didn't make it to the Pic-O-De-Crop Finals, he hoped to make local music practitioners wake up.

"If (the song) causes these guys to...pay close attention to what they're doing as artistes, then I have done my job. A song should inform and create some sort of change, and all of us, right across the board, as writers, singers, performers, arrangers, producers, can do so much better," he lamented, noting that the world was watching as Barbados became a haven for mediocrity.

Browne, meanwhile, said the "smut" in these songs merely mirrored society.

"It's time to take stock. Calypso is about what happens in society, so composers write what they see," he said, adding that they also reflected "truthful elements taking place in our society".

"There is an art, but truthfully in some of the songs there is no great artistry, but it's all about what is happening in our society," Browne stressed.

Songs which have become the subject of much discussion so far this Crop-Over season include Blood's She Push He, Li'l Rick's Conch, Timmy's Sauce, Big Thor's New Key, Basil's Furniture and Mac Fingall's Mummy, Why You Bite Me.

Please see also Page 32A.