Town Hall

The “Town Hall” Concert

Town Hall, a non-profit concert hall at 123 West 43rd St. in New York City, was the setting for Lord Invader’s first known recording of “Rum and Coca-Cola” on the

night of December 21, 1946. The concert was part of the “Midnight Special” series put together that fall by ethno-musicologist Alan Lomax in association with People’s Songs, a leftist group founded by folksinger Pete Seeger. The concerts began around midnight when the hall was available at discounted rates.

(About calypso and leftist politics - in the United States calypso was not thought of as political protest music, but Lomax and Seeger must have been aware of some of the calypsos of the late 30’s, like Atilla’s “Commission’s Report”, which sided with striking oil-field workers in Trinidad. For more on how the politics of Pete Seeger and People’s Songs fared during the “Red scare” years of the 1950’s see Appendix 1 below.

The calypso concert was the only one in the series known to have been recorded - directly onto 12” discs. The discs, which sat unnoticed in a Lomax family closet for more than fifty years, were converted to digital files around ten years ago and released by Rounder Records on two CD’s. They are a “must own” for any serious calypsophile. The titles are “Calypso at Midnight” (Rounder 11661-1840-2) and “Calypso After Midnight” (Rounder 11661-1841-2). Rounder also brought in calypso scholars Steve Shapiro, Don Hill, and John Cowley to provide some excellent commentary. Here is the Rounder link: http://www.rounder.com/index.php?id=album.php&musicalGroupId=760&catalog_id=4964

By all accounts “Calypso at Midnight” was a success and it led to three high-profile concerts in 1947 at Carnegie Hall - in May, June, and October - all of which featured Lord Invader. (The October concert was hosted by Mohamed Khan, just in from Trinidad for another court appearance.) Taken together, these concerts represent a high-water mark in terms of exposure for true Trinidadian calypso in front of mainstream audiences in the United States. The timing was a function of two things - the enduring popularity of the great songs of the 1930’s like King Radio’s “Man Smart - Woman Smarter”, and the wartime experiences of so many U.S. servicemen being posted to Trinidad.

At Town Hall Lord Invader shared the stage with two other Trinidadians who were based in New York - Macbeth the Great (Patrick McDonald) and the Duke of Iron (Cecil Anderson). (For more on the Duke see “Invader at the Brill” on this site.) They ably performed some of the great hits of calypso’s golden era including Lion’s “Ugly Woman” and Caresser’s “Edward the VIII”. This was allowed in New York - to sing another man’s song - but unheard of in Trinidad. Invader got top billing at the concert and rightly so - he was singing his own original material, some of it, like “Yankee Dollar”, composed quite recently. But of course it was “Rum and Coca-Cola” that the audience wanted to hear and Lord Invader did not disappoint. He sang it in a piercing tenor voice, brimming with satisfaction over his recent courtroom appearance. Invader had testified only eleven days previously in the “Khan vs. Feist” civil action. Although the court’s decision was still two months away he had seen his tormentor Morey Amsterdam humiliated on the witness stand by his attorney, Emil Ellis.

Lord Invader was introduced on that evening by Alan Lomax who doubled as promoter and host. In the United States the fame of Mr. Lomax would far outlast that of anyone else on the program that night because of his importance as an archivist and oral historian and his lifelong devotion to folk music and progressive causes.

Listen! to Lomax’s introduction and Invader’s explanation of how he came to write a song called “Rum and Coca-Cola”. From “Calypso at Midnight” (Rounder 11661-1840-2)

Here’s a transcription:

“Diplomatically you ask me what is calypso, Mr. Lomax? Calypso is folklore of Trinidad, a style of poetry telling about current events in song.

With regard to the song "Rum and Coca-Cola," you want to ask me how I happened to compose it, Mr. Lomax? [laughter] Ladies and gentlemen, back home in the West Indies - Trinidad - where I'm from - I'm [from] a small island. I'm proud of it, thank you!

I was traveling on a bus to some place they call Point Cumana - bathing resort -

and I happened to see the GI’s since the American social invasion in the West Indies, Trinidad. [laughter] You know the girls used to get their candies and stuff like that and they go to the [laughter], they go to the canteens with the boys and so on, have fun. So I notice since the GIs came over there that we generally chase with soda, ordinary soda. But they chaser was rum and coke; they drink rum, and they like the Coca-Cola as a chaser. So I studied that as an idea of song, and Morey Amsterdam had the nerve to say that he composed that song back here [laughter].

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. And I am going to sing you "Rum and Coca-Cola" for my first number. Thank You."

Appendix 1

On August 18, 1955 Pete Seeger appeared under subpoena before a Subcommittee of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). The hearing took place at the federal courthouse in Foley Square in downtown Manhattan, the same building where Lord Invader had testified in 1946 and 1947. Presiding over the hearing was the Honorable Francis E. Walter, the chairman of HUAC and a congressman from Pennsylvania. The questioner was Frank S. Tavenner, Jr., the chief counsel.

MR. TAVENNER: In 1947, what was your connection with an organization known as People's Songs?

(Witness consulted with counsel.)

MR. SEEGER: I take the same answer [a refusal to answer] as before regarding any organization or any association I have.

CHAIRMAN WALTER: What was People's Songs, Mr. Tavenner?

MR. TAVENNER: People's Songs was an organization which, according to its issue of February and March 1947, was composed of a number of persons on the board of directors who have been called before this Committee or identified by this Committee as members of the Communist Party, and the purpose of which, from information made available to the Committee, was to extend services to the Communist Party in its entertainment projects. Mr. Lee Hays [folk singer and founder of The Weavers. Hays was the author of the song. “If I Had a Hammer”] was a member of the board of directors, was he not, along with you, in this organization?

(Witness consulted with counsel)

MR. SEEGER: My answer is the same as before, sir.

MR. TAVENNER: Were you not the editor of People's Songs, and a member of the board of directors in 1947?

MR. SEEGER: My answer is the same as before.

MR. TAVENNER: You were actually the national director of this organization, were you not?

MR. SEEGER: My answer is the same as before.

MR. TAVENNER: Was the organization founded by Alan Lomax? [Lomax was hounded by the FBI during the 1940’s because of his leftist sympathies. In the 1950’s he moved to England to escape the anti-communist hysteria. Alan Lomax received the National Medal of Arts award from President Ronald Reagan in 1986.]

MR. SEEGER: My answer is the same as before.

MR. TAVENNER: Was the booking agent of People's Songs an organization known as People's Artists?

MR. SEEGER: My answer is the same.

[At that point the questioner turned to a different subject.]