Wreck A Pum Pum / Short Shorts – Lord Creator, 1969

🇹🇹 🎶 😏 🌴 📀 At the very end of the 1950s, Lord Creator, already the author of several successful calypsos, left his native Trinidad to settle in Jamaica. There he became one of the major figures in the evolution of Jamaican music over the following decade, moving from ska to rocksteady (officially born in 1966) and anticipating reggae. In 1969 he released the album Pepper Pot Calypso Songs Me Mama Never Taught Me, a collection of calypsos whose lyrics, as so often, carry a double meaning. This little 45rpm single is taken from it. On one side, Lord Creator covers Prince Buster’s recent hit Wreck A Pum Pum (honesty and decency forbid me from translating the words here). In under two minutes flat, this rocksteady version lodges itself firmly in your head. On the B-side, I think I prefer the lovely Short Shorts, a swaying calypso with a catchy melody. Creator would have another big hit in 1976 with Kingstown Town, covered twelve years later by UB40.