Dave Martins’ music and lyrics brought into life the Caribbean man’s idiosyncrasies

Aug 22, 2024 Letters

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Dear Editor,

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “icon” as ‘a person or thing widely admired, especially for having great influence or significance in a particular sphere.’ Undisputedly, Dave Martins is such an icon notably, in the sphere of music. But Martins is also a historical phenomenon. The essence and content of his music can only be understood though the prism of the respective socio-economic formations of Caribbean societies, their evolution as well as the generational changes in the respective populaces of those countries.

Dave Martins’ music and lyrics were truly democratic in the sense that he was able to bring into life not only the Caribbean man’s idiosyncrasies but to blend each peculiar one together in a holistic fashion that gave it real life in lyrical expression, meaning and understanding of what being a Caribbean man and woman is like.

Those who ‘live on another planet,’ in glass houses or are not au fait with the Caribbean peoples’ Idiosyncrasies and their distinctive, if not peculiar expressions in language, of their intricate customs and mores, and who consider themselves the elite by the use of highfalutin language and the practice of corresponding airs and graces setting them apart from the ‘dregs of society’ must have ‘learnt a thing or two’ from Martins’ ‘West Indian Alphabet,’ ‘West Indian Suitcase’ or ‘Copycats’ among others. Dave Martins, I believe, would have died a happy, optimistic man knowing his music especially the household, ‘Not A Blade Of Grass’ would one day accomplish its historic mission.

Dave Martins’s engagement with the cultural milieu at home and abroad, was greatly facilitated through his musings reflected in his weekly Stabroek News column; ‘And So It Go.’ In my opinion, Martins’ columns could be considered his correspondence with others in the cultural world at large. In that regard, he sought to communicate to his friends and followers a deep cultural and spiritual camaraderie grounded in shared convictions about the transformative potential of social commentary through music. In that respect, his social commentary expressed through the lyrics in his songs differ in genre with the social commentary of the exceptionally high quality of song and music in the rest of Caribbean for example in kaiso, calypso, soca, reggae chutney, socarypso and gospelypso.

The content of Martins’s music embodied the Caribbean people’s dispositions, abilities, idiosyncrasies and talents. In other words, the embodiment of an essential human need that; ‘Man Shall Not Live By Bread Alone.’ And it was precisely in recognition of that human need that Martins was able to create the mastery in lyrics to reflect human nature and every-day life of the Caribbean people.

The beauty of Martins musical artistry was his ability to translate from the abstract, his conviction that all active people were the creators of the lyrics of his music and to make it part of a living Caribbean-wide culture. Reading between the lines, one could easily discern from what he wrote that it was not only those like himself who worked creatively to bring into musical and lyrical form, the songs we enjoy but telling us there was a much bigger picture where lyrics can be democratic because it captured the emotional expression of people.

On April 17,2022 in his S/N column ‘And So it Go’ Martins made an interesting, if not revealing statement concerning ‘The Musician’s Life’ In that connection, he wrote; ‘The professional musician’s life has many attendant aspects, other than the activity itself, so that any successful Caribbean musician will tell you that one of the problems is dealing with hecklers who consider themselves comedians and will shout stuff at you from the crowd, very loud.’

And as though that confession was not sufficient, Martins went on to explain in another column how his music on the one hand, and his column on the other, demonstrated clearly that culture is a historical phenomenon and that its essence and content can only be understood in connection with the respective socio-economic formation of Caribbean societies.

In its May 23, 2021 edition of S/N, Dave Martins in his column, ‘And So It Go… I Do Not Know’ wrote; ‘People often ask me about this column or that, or this song or that. “Boy, where you get the idea for this? What kind of brain you got?” And down the road, there may come a day when I may be able to answer, but as of now the answer, honestly, is “I don’t know.”  It’s not as if I go looking for these things; the truth is they come looking for me, landing on me out of nowhere, and sometimes they come from other people and I truly don’t ask. I simply recognize the suggestion as a good one or it has some other appeal to me, and I go with it, giving thanks for whatever God gave me to propel it.’

Dave Martins’ musical legacy invites us as Caribbean people to reimagine (shades of Paul Mcarthy call) the world through the prism of human creativity and collective endeavor—a world animated not only by economic and political imperatives but by the boundless possibilities of human imagination.

In Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’, we read; “If music be the food of love play on.” As we Guyanese fans mourn the loss of this musical icon, we also celebrate the time he lived and sang amongst us and for us. We will never refuse an over abundance, nor lose appetite for Dave Martins music as the food of love nor life because whenever we feel a sense of frustration, it is his music we shall turn to.

Yours faithfully,

Clement J. Rohee

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• Caribbean, Clement J. Rohee, Dave Martins, democratic, influence

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