Here's someone who I think should have found more fame than he did.
Pluto Shervington.
A classic reggae artist with a terrific sense of humour and very good at telling a funny story, Pluto only really had two hits in the UK, one being "Dat" and the other titled "Dear Judge", both quite hilarious.
My all time favourite Pluto song is definitely "Ram Goat Liver", and tells the story of someone who's late for work on a Monday, travelling on a bus which accidentally runs over and kills a stray Ram goat.
The decision is taken to quickly cook and eat the goat before anyone finds out, but this dishonesty comes back to haunt him at the end of the tale, proving that crime never pays.
The song is sung with a real Jamaican accent, so I've stuck an attempt at translation at the end of certain lines in the song, hoping that it will help people to follow along and enjoy it more.
Firstly.....just try listening to the song without reading the lyrics and see how far you get, then, when you're totally lost, try again with the lyrics.
Listen to it several times and you'll be humming it all day!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kw3yie9EuI
Now with lyrics.....
RAM GOAT LIVER
Sunday gone I jump on a mini bus
I really late but it's not my fault
And when we nearly reach by the terminus
I feel de bus come to a halt
He lick a ram goat down by de round-about ---
He lick = the bus driver hit
but just as if that could not suffice
A bredda run through the bus and start to shout ----
bredder = brother
He shoulda dead, mek we buy a pound a rice -----
the goat should be dead, so let's buy some rice and make a stew before the owner discovers that he's missing.
Ram goat liver good fi mek mannish water-----
mannish water is a spicy goat stew, supposedly a great aphrodisiac.
Billy goat teeth mek the earring for your daughter
Curried goat lunch put de bite in your bark
It mek your daughter ... It mek your daughter walk and talk
Well the news spread fast like a telegram
Nobody know where de goat come from
We raise a pot and a pan from an Ire-man ----
man who sells pots and pans
Who sit down dere all along
Two twos and the pot a boil-----
two twos is obviously a measure of time
A head o yam and banana tip
Meanwhile quarters a gwan ----
I can only assume that this means that the stew is ready
Lick me goat and a "meeeah" tek me sip
Ram goat liver good fi mek mannish water
Billy goat teeth mek the earring for you daughter
Curried goat lunch put de bite in your bark
It mek you daughter ... It mek you daughter walk and talk
Well I pop two belch and I make a sigh
I tek a walk about the street
But while I waitin down de road fi bum a ride----
hitch a lift
I feel a gripe and start to feel very weak
Before too long you no haf to ask
A runny belly like a judgement day
An everybody in the road a dead with laugh
Its then I know that crime will never pay
Ram goat liver good fi mek mannish water
Billy goat teeth mek the earring for you daughter
Curried goat lunch put de bite in your bark
It mek you daughter ... It mek you daughter walk and talk
Ram goat liver good fi mek mannish water
Billy goat teeth mek the earring for you daughter
Curried goat lunch put de bite in your bark
It mek you daughter ... It mek you daughter walk and talk
Ram goat liver good fi mek mannish water
Billy goat teeth mek the earring for you daughter
Curried goat lunch put de bite in your bark
It mek you daughter ... It mek you daughter walk and talk.