Song of the Charmer
The dog is back — with a professionally designed logo. We’ll mark the occasion by considering the musical legacy of Louis Eugene Walcott, a calypso singer of the 1950’s who was known as “The Charmer” or “Calypso Gene.”
Walcott, the son of Caribbean immigrants, was born in 1933 in the Bronx and raised in Roxberry, Massachusetts. As a boy, he loved listening to Jewish cantors. Indeed, in an interview with Henry Louis Gates, he recalled that, after taking up the violin “all my heroes were Jewish,” especially Jascha Heifetz. He also speculated that his Jamaican-born father, who he seldom saw, was of Sephardic ancestry.
Walcott aspired to attend Juilliard, but instead went to Winston-Salem Teachers College on a track scholarship. Rather than become a teacher, however, he began touring, singing in clubs, and releasing records. While obviously far less successful, some have compared him to the young Harry Belafonte. He recorded covers of calypso standards including the “Ugly Woman” song (discussed in our 12/4/17 post). He also wrote original compositions.
The most interesting of Walcott’s songs is probably this one about Christine Jorgensen, the first American to undergo sex reassignment surgery. While offensive by contemporary standards, it endures as a historical curiosity.
In 1955, Walcott abandoned his career as a musician. But five years later, he released a new record that was played from loudspeakers and sold at rallies in Harlem. It illustrates a dramatic change in his world view and preoccupations. Here is an excerpt:
Today, Walcott is better known as