Vintage Unplugged - Episode 2
Vintage Unplugged - Episode 2
Transcript
00:00 In Calypso, there's not very often
00:02 it happens where somebody gets King permanently attached
00:05 to their name.
00:06 Today, I am honored to be able to interview and chill
00:09 and listen to some music with David Michael Rudder, King
00:13 David Michael Rudder.
00:15 And you know where we're going to do it?
00:16 Right here at Kaiso Blues Cafe.
00:18 And with me right now, I've got friend, longtime collaborator,
00:23 and probably an inspirer and all, Mr. Carl Jacobs.
00:27 Welcome.
00:27 Thank you very, very much for allowing
00:29 us to use the space, Kaiso Blues Cafe.
00:32 My pleasure.
00:32 Tell me about the cafe itself.
00:35 Well, this is a long time dream come true.
00:38 You know, through the years, us performing,
00:39 and you know, I always thought of what I
00:42 will do when I stop singing.
00:43 Yeah.
00:44 You know what I mean?
00:45 And I always had this idea of doing a cafe for musicians.
00:48 This is a musician's place.
00:49 So far, we have like Tuesday nights, Tuesday, Friday,
00:52 Saturday, and Sunday.
00:53 So we're doing band.
00:54 Yeah.
00:54 That's real good.
00:55 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:56 And this is to promote all our music and local music,
01:01 local musicians, you know, especially
01:04 young, upcoming artists who have no platform.
01:08 And they need a space to perform.
01:10 And you know what?
01:10 If you want to check it out, you can come down here.
01:13 Kaiso Blues Cafe, 85?
01:14 85 Woodford Street, Newtown, Port of Spain.
01:17 All right?
01:18 Now this is Vintage Unplugged.
01:21 My guest today, your good friend from a long time,
01:24 Mr. David Michael Rudder.
01:25 [MUSIC - DAVID MICHAEL RUDDER, "THE SOLUTIONS"]
01:28 David Michael Rudder was born in Belmont,
01:35 in a neighborhood where boys dreamed of being entertainers.
01:38 Rudder began singing at the age of 11
01:40 with a group called The Solutions.
01:43 In 1977, he joined the brass band Charlie's Roots
01:47 and began charting his musical career.
01:49 He spent many years as one of the vocalists
01:51 with the band, which produced two big hits.
01:55 "The Hammer," a tribute to the late pianist Rudolph
01:57 Charles, and "Bahia Girl."
01:59 In 1988, Rudder released his best album to date,
02:03 "Haiti," which included the title track,
02:05 a tribute to the glory and suffering of Haiti,
02:08 "Injured Room," which captures the energy of the steel band,
02:11 and "Rally Round the West Indies,"
02:13 which has become the anthem of West Indies cricket.
02:16 His music is heard all over the world, from Panama City,
02:19 Panama, to New Delhi, India.
02:22 [MUSIC - CHARLIE'S ROOTS, "BAHIA GIRL"]
02:26 So come music, take me, won't you take me?
02:50 Take me back to my land, yeah, yeah.
02:54 So come music, take me, won't you take me?
02:59 Take me back to my land.
03:01 So come music, take me, won't you take me?
03:09 Take me back to my land, yeah.
03:13 So come music, take me, won't you take me?
03:18 Take me back to my land.
03:20 Oh, how I long for island breezes
03:27 and to see my woman roll like a steel drum,
03:29 soul ringing through a calypso night.
03:33 Don't get me wrong, this big city really made a man of me.
03:38 But a concrete jumbled drum can't play no calypso.
03:42 No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
03:47 So come music, take me, won't you take me?
03:51 Take me back to my land, yeah.
03:56 So come music, take me, won't you take me?
04:01 Take me back to my land.
04:02 So come music, take me, take me, take me back to my land,
04:12 yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:15 So come music, take me, won't you take me?
04:19 Take me back to my land.
04:21 Ladies and gentlemen, King David Rudder is inside Vintage
04:25 Unplugged today.
04:27 Welcome to the show.
04:28 It's my pleasure.
04:29 It is an honor, honor to have you here with us today.
04:32 It's great to be here.
04:33 Ladies and gentlemen, this is Kyle Peters
04:35 from Vision Music Entertainment.
04:36 My name is Ruckus, and together we
04:38 present to you Vintage Unplugged with King David Rudder today.
04:41 So I wanted to talk to you about crafting music,
04:46 because listening to that piece of music we just did there,
04:49 "Song for a Lonely Soul," that is--
04:53 it's descriptive, it is poetic, it is magical.
04:57 People say, well, it's kind of poetic,
04:58 but I never saw myself as a poet.
05:02 That's just the way I--
05:03 So you're talking normally, like,
05:05 you're talking about Sticky Mamba when you're in your chest?
05:07 So because all the images I talk about,
05:11 are things that I remember, I heard, I experienced,
05:15 listened to on the block, you know?
05:18 And those are the things that stuck with you?
05:19 Stuck, yeah.
05:21 People ask me, well, how do you get to write a song?
05:24 I say, I go in the studio now, and I say, roll the tape,
05:26 and something happens, because I've
05:28 been gathering information.
05:30 I don't know what I'm going to write yet,
05:32 because songwriting has become very--
05:35 it's always easy for me.
05:37 But it's easier now because I've been doing it
05:39 for such a long time, you know?
05:41 Like muscle memory now.
05:42 So I just go in and do--
05:48 listen to my spirit, you know?
05:50 And what people say and how they feel, I bring it back out.
05:55 I remember when I was doing the longtime band.
05:59 It just so happened that this lady was passing,
06:02 and she was saying, you see, Juvie morning,
06:05 I go and rub down my body with snake oil,
06:07 and I go whine like I never christened.
06:09 And only a trainer will say that.
06:12 I say, what?
06:13 You're going to whine like you never christened?
06:15 And I started to think about it.
06:16 And the influence that the church has on training exercises,
06:19 especially the Catholic church--
06:20 Especially carnival, yeah.
06:21 The Catholic church, where whining was like--
06:25 An abomination.
06:26 That's one reason for high mastery.
06:27 They say, listen, come and celebrate.
06:29 Yeah, everybody can come and celebrate.
06:31 Yeah.
06:31 So she was breaking the rules by saying,
06:35 well, the only person who can whine to that level
06:37 is if he wasn't christened.
06:38 If he wasn't.
06:39 That line started the song.
06:41 It was a whole--
06:42 all the history of the bands--
06:45 [INAUDIBLE]
06:46 Yeah.
06:47 It was the story of the song.
06:48 But it started-- the trigger of the song was,
06:51 I go whine like I never christened.
06:54 King David Michael Ruddell.
06:56 Dr. David Ruddell.
06:57 We'll talk about that, Dr. King.
06:58 Let's--
06:59 [LAUGHTER]
07:00 Let's take a quick break right here on Vintage Unplugged.
07:03 [MUSIC PLAYING]
07:06 [MUSIC PLAYING]
07:09 Welcome back inside Vintage Unplugged.
07:23 My name is Rokas.
07:24 And I'm here today graced in the presence of Mr. David Ruddell.
07:28 Dr. David Ruddell.
07:30 I want to take you back about, I don't know, 30 years.
07:33 There was a fateful Sunday night.
07:36 You went to the Savannah.
07:38 Right.
07:38 And mashed up everything.
07:40 And went to Midecrop.
07:41 Yeah.
07:42 You remember that night?
07:44 Oh, yes.
07:46 I think it was just--
07:48 the society was looking for something brand new.
07:50 And I had it.
07:51 And you had it.
07:52 Yeah.
07:53 And it really shook up the whole structure
07:57 of Calypso and society.
08:00 So when you-- those songs, you consider them to be Calypsos
08:03 or Soka, or what genre you put them in?
08:07 Soka was always Calypso done with a different beat.
08:09 Right.
08:10 Calypso was like, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom,
08:14 doom.
08:15 And then when Soka came in, it was like, doom, doom, doom,
08:20 doom.
08:20 We were listening to soul music.
08:22 So it had all the elements of--
08:25 Of soul, jazz, funk, kind of.
08:26 Jazz, funk, soul, black power.
08:28 Then the disco era came in the same time.
08:30 So everybody started to put this 100 beats per minute.
08:33 So let me go back to 1986, there for a second, right?
08:36 And you express it.
08:38 You paid tribute that year.
08:40 One of the songs, one of your winning songs,
08:41 the song that came second in the road match, was "The Hammer."
08:44 Right.
08:45 Paying tribute to one of the greatest pan-tuners.
08:48 I knew about that Rudolph had passed.
08:51 So I say, well, let's write a song.
08:54 Yeah, we'll do it.
08:55 And we put it together.
08:56 And it was a big hit in Carnival.
08:59 Let me go to this one.
09:00 Taking in Markuson, Kaiso King of the Night.
09:03 All brought to you courtesy of Markuson.
09:07 "Kaiso King," brought to you by Markuson, King of the Night.
09:11 [MUSIC - MARKUSON, "KAISO KING OF THE NIGHT"]
09:15 [MUSIC - MARKUSON, "KAISO KING OF THE NIGHT"]
09:18 [MUSIC - MARKUSON, "KAISO KING OF THE NIGHT"]
09:22 [MUSIC - MARKUSON, "KAISO KING OF THE NIGHT"]
09:50 [MUSIC - MARKUSON, "KAISO KING OF THE NIGHT"]
09:53 "Kaiso King," brought to you by Markuson, King of the Night.
09:57 Thank you very much, Markuson, for bringing us
09:59 "The Kaiso King of the Night."
10:01 David Michael Rudder singing "The Hammer."
10:03 That was only one song for that night.
10:05 Yeah.
10:06 Tell me about the other one.
10:07 "Bahia Girl."
10:07 And funny enough, I wrote that-- that was for Krazy.
10:10 He had a song called "Muchacha."
10:12 "Muchacha," yes.
10:14 And he had this song about this girl from Venezuela.
10:17 Right?
10:18 So I said, let me see--
10:19 I'll write another song for him based on another South
10:22 American woman, but from Brazil.
10:24 From Brazil instead.
10:25 So I said, this time, this girl from Bahia--
10:28 Sing a little different.
10:30 This lady, we're lucky.
10:31 She bumps up the Krazy.
10:32 Ah.
10:33 Because the original lyric was Krazy.
10:35 Right.
10:36 Well, this is not affected here.
10:37 Yeah.
10:38 That was supposed to be for him, too.
10:39 The third song I wrote for him was "Encounter
10:41 with the Brazilian Girl."
10:42 "Brazilian Girl," right.
10:43 And we mash up with Bahia Girl.
10:44 Right.
10:45 You know?
10:45 But the fate is like that sometimes.
10:48 Well, you know what?
10:49 Come on, let me sing it Bahia Girl.
10:50 Girl, strike it up for me.
10:52 Give me the slow version.
10:54 Acousticize it.
10:56 That's not a word, but we're going to do it.
10:58 This girl from Bahia, stayed in Moruga.
11:03 This lady, we're lucky.
11:06 She bumps up with Sweet Me.
11:09 Not Krazy.
11:10 As a man with a plan, well, I really didn't waste no time.
11:15 I make up my mind tonight.
11:18 This Brazilian is mine.
11:21 As the music play, Lord, she started to sing.
11:27 To the soca beat, she put a samba swing.
11:31 [HUMMING]
11:34 [HUMMING]
11:37 The old man started to tremble.
11:59 She gave me goose pimples.
12:01 [MUSIC PLAYING]
12:04 Welcome back to Vintage Unplugged.
12:07 I'm sitting here among these masterpieces created by the one
12:11 and only Darren Chihua.
12:12 And I want to say thank you very much, not only to Mr. Chihua,
12:15 but also to Sissons Emulsion for giving us the paint needed
12:19 to make sure this happens.
12:20 Right now, we're going to do vintage throwback
12:24 on Vintage Unplugged.
12:24 When we come back, we have some more with Mr. David Michael
12:27 Rudder.
12:27 Stay tuned.
12:28 [MUSIC PLAYING]
12:31 [MUSIC PLAYING]
12:35 [MUSIC PLAYING]
12:38 [MUSIC PLAYING]
12:42 [MUSIC PLAYING]
12:45 [MUSIC PLAYING]
13:13 [MUSIC PLAYING]
13:16 Welcome back inside Vintage Unplugged.
13:23 My name is Rokas.
13:24 I'm joined by Dr. David Rudder.
13:27 Ah, boy.
13:28 I don't know.
13:31 One of the things that really impresses me and strikes me
13:33 every time I listen to your music
13:35 is your references to what's going on at the time.
13:38 So you always manage to reference,
13:41 whether it's politically or socially, what's happening
13:43 on the ground.
13:44 That's the history of Calypso.
13:47 Why does it seem so difficult for artists
13:48 to be able to do that and write songs about more than just
13:52 the season, or the rum, or the wine, or the--
13:54 That is the system we have now.
13:56 The other day, I was talking to Rachel Price on the radio.
13:57 She said, David, I'll teach them little ones how to think.
14:00 I said, but every song I write is a lesson.
14:03 But every teacher can't even get in the classroom.
14:06 So then let's talk about that.
14:07 Let's talk about the change in regards.
14:08 Before you were King David Runner,
14:11 there would have been Sparrow and people
14:13 who were there before you.
14:14 Sparrow and Kitchener were the men running the show.
14:17 And then after you, we have people like Marshall Montano
14:19 and Bunjy Garlin that came through.
14:21 And they are the gods now, or the big names in the industry
14:24 now.
14:26 How is it, then, we have to continue our traditions?
14:28 Who did you learn from?
14:30 The school of Calypso was always--
14:33 Calypso society was always melded together.
14:36 So whatever happened, Sparrow was the first--
14:40 Sparrow was the iPad.
14:42 He was Apple and the internet, everything one day.
14:45 People truly knew what Sparrow was going to say about that boy,
14:47 what Kitchener was going to say.
14:49 And that's how it used to be.
14:51 At the end of the day, with all these formula songs,
14:55 the songs that survived--
14:57 After.
14:57 The cream.
14:58 When you come down to take Carnival week,
15:01 the four or five songs are the stories.
15:04 Look how the sun just rising up.
15:06 And the vibe, the atmosphere, have vibe.
15:08 And nothing can't shake.
15:09 So the stories still come.
15:11 True.
15:11 I'll give my natural vibe back.
15:13 I'll shake up something over there.
15:14 I think I want a story.
15:16 That time when you jumped the wall and it went this side.
15:18 This is a story about the society breaking down.
15:21 All Trinidad is today, this was the kind of omen
15:24 that things falling apart.
15:27 So on one level, it's a fact.
15:29 It's a party song.
15:31 On the other level--
15:33 It's very deep.
15:33 It's a story about society falling apart and crumbling.
15:40 Is it juxtaposition?
15:41 Yeah.
15:43 I jumped the wall about 12 o'clock and I gone inside.
15:49 Stand up in the people's face, I open wide.
15:54 Everybody inside there like they're fighting hard.
15:59 But when I watch all their faces, mama, yo,
16:01 these people are going mad.
16:04 It must be the budget that demand from white holidary.
16:09 Because all of them inside are there like they
16:11 suck a crazy seed.
16:14 That kind of hate couldn't come from weed.
16:17 This is not a fet in here, this is madness.
16:19 This is not the kind of jam where you stab like a chubbity
16:25 begging for mercy.
16:27 This is not a fet in here, this is madness.
16:31 ♪ Ay yi yi yi yi yi yi yi yi yi yi yi yi ♪
16:34 ♪ Everybody mad ♪
16:36 ♪ Ay yi yi yi yi yi yi yi yi yi yi yi yi yi yi yi ♪
16:39 ♪ Where we going ♪
16:41 ♪ Sink time where we going ♪
16:43 ♪ Sink time where we going ♪
16:46 ♪ Why we going there ♪
16:48 ♪ Because we mad, we mad, we mad, we mad, we mad, we mad ♪
16:52 ♪ We more than mad ♪
16:53 ♪ Sink time ♪
16:55 ♪ Sink time yeah ♪
16:57 ♪ I say we mad, we mad, we mad, we mad, we mad, we mad ♪
17:01 ♪ We more than mad ♪
17:03 ♪ Sink time ♪
17:05 (laughs)
17:06 - Vintage Unplugged, David Rudder.
17:10 We'll be right back.
17:11 (upbeat music)
17:14 So, Mr. Rudder,
17:26 over the years, one of the most consistent themes
17:29 in music, in our music, has been women.
17:32 - Right.
17:34 - Is it because they shake themselves a lot?
17:36 - Well--
17:37 - Or is it because we are just so fascinated
17:38 by what they can do?
17:40 - All life starts as female,
17:42 and then turns into male and what have you.
17:45 - Interesting, no, I didn't know that.
17:46 - So, I think that women always ahead of men.
17:51 - This is true.
17:52 - They're kind of, we more of the primitive--
17:56 - I would agree with that.
17:57 - And they're more sophisticated.
17:59 I used to work, do jingles and things in the '80s.
18:02 Where you have Grand Bazaar.
18:04 - Grand Bazaar, oh.
18:06 - That was the Stag Factory.
18:07 - Right.
18:08 - And the giant over the road was Carib.
18:10 We wrote this song, this thing called Stag,
18:14 the recession fighter.
18:16 (laughs)
18:17 - We might need that song to come back.
18:19 - Suddenly, now the whole beer industry turned upside down.
18:22 Man was getting beer for 89 cents.
18:24 And then you know what?
18:25 Carib said, "No, enough of this."
18:28 And they buy Stag.
18:29 (laughs)
18:30 But the strange thing about it is that,
18:32 while getting back to the women,
18:34 is that the main drinkers of Stag were the women.
18:39 So they made that beer kind of rule.
18:41 So even that, you know?
18:44 Even at that level.
18:44 So women always focus on Carnival,
18:47 whether it's Gin and Diner, you know, or Margie.
18:51 And you know, one of my favorite songs is "Nuff Respect."
18:53 I know we didn't really touch it today,
18:55 but that is actually one of my favorite songs.
18:56 I really enjoyed the craftsmanship in that particular song.
18:59 - Right.
19:00 - You know?
19:01 It's like, I'm watching you and I like you and everything,
19:02 but I want to show you-
19:03 - You know, look, respect, and then-
19:04 - It's all the respect.
19:05 - You know, I wish, I hope you say yes, but you know, if-
19:08 - Come now, say yes.
19:10 - Say yes.
19:10 - I'm begging you.
19:11 (laughs)
19:12 - It's really like a tease, but you know?
19:14 You know, it's like, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
19:17 (laughs)
19:19 - You go put it back around and bring it to 2016.
19:21 - Yeah.
19:22 - With that same desire when you're saying,
19:24 instead of saying yes, say yes.
19:25 - Yeah, but the thing about this song is that,
19:27 I decided, okay, okay.
19:29 Let me do this song of today, the whole computerized-
19:34 - Sonically, sonically speaking, yeah.
19:35 - That tone, you know, that the youths are accustomed to.
19:38 - Yeah.
19:38 - I will, since they're stuck in a rut with the bumper,
19:42 rollback bumper, throwback bumper, you know?
19:45 I said, well, I'll do a bottom song.
19:47 - A bottom song.
19:48 - But it's not really, but underneath, that is on one level.
19:52 The other level of the song, that's like madness,
19:54 is that the woman I'm talking to is Trayland Tobago.
19:57 - Right.
19:58 - And she's a kind of seductive.
20:01 - Voluptuous.
20:02 - But also could deliver on her pain to the society,
20:06 you know, it's like, this kind of sugar can't be good for me.
20:09 - Yeah.
20:10 - You know?
20:11 So it's like I'm saying, you know, something,
20:12 if you feel like giving up on you as a society-
20:15 - You're wrong.
20:16 - You're wrong.
20:17 - You're wrong.
20:18 - Mr. Trayland Tobago, you, with your big, thick,
20:20 wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong self,
20:23 I come in for you.
20:25 ♪ Together we perspire ♪
20:32 ♪ Woman, together we'll achieve ♪
20:37 ♪ Girl, you're taking me higher ♪
20:42 ♪ Look how my chest don't start to heal ♪
20:47 ♪ So if you feel that bottom get away from me ♪
20:51 ♪ Oh, man, let me tell you this ♪
20:54 ♪ You're wrong ♪
20:58 ♪ Between me and you and the drum and the bass ♪
21:02 ♪ Let me tell you this ♪
21:03 ♪ It's trouble in tongue ♪
21:08 ♪ So you have a pretty face and a lyrical ways ♪
21:12 ♪ Trying your best to bring me down ♪
21:17 ♪ So now you feel like you're ready and you're out and bad ♪
21:24 ♪ Wrong ♪
21:29 ♪ Together we perspire ♪
21:34 ♪ Together we'll achieve ♪
21:38 ♪ Girl, you're taking me higher ♪
21:43 ♪ My body start to heal ♪
21:48 ♪ Oh, man, you don't know ♪
21:53 ♪ What you're doing to me ♪
21:57 ♪ I'll be like Sargasso, yeah ♪
22:02 ♪ Soon I'll be covering your sin ♪
22:07 ♪ So, woman, if you feel that bottom get away from me ♪
22:10 ♪ Let me tell you this ♪
22:12 ♪ Wrong ♪
22:17 ♪ Between you and me and the drum and the bass ♪
22:20 ♪ Let me tell you this ♪
22:21 ♪ It's trouble in tongue ♪
22:26 ♪ So you have a pretty face and a lyrical ways ♪
22:29 ♪ Trying your best to bring me down ♪
22:32 ♪ No way, no way ♪
22:35 ♪ So if you feel that you're ready and you're out and by ♪
22:38 ♪ Let me tell you this ♪
22:40 ♪ Wrong ♪
22:43 ♪ I say you're wrong, wrong, wrong ♪
22:47 ♪ Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong ♪
22:52 ♪ Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong ♪
22:56 ♪ You're wrong, wrong ♪
22:58 ♪ Yeah, you're wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong ♪
23:04 ♪ Miss Trinidad Tobago ♪
23:09 ♪ I hear that's your name ♪
23:13 ♪ Well, Miss Trinidad ♪
23:17 ♪ What's your claim to fame, oh ♪
23:22 ♪ Bacana ♪
23:26 ♪ Carnival ♪
23:29 ♪ But situation ♪
23:35 ♪ All over this nation, oh ♪
23:38 [MUSIC]