RED PLASTIC BAG – “Arthritis”
RED PLASTIC BAG – “Arthritis”
I can’t even remember what kind of process led me to this, which is fine since I can hardly work out what kind of process led it to exist either. What is it? It’s a soca tune about arthritis. “In your hip! Arthritis! In your neck! Arthritis! In your hand! Arthritis!”. Galloping drums and horn presets, and soca’s usual sugar-rush approach to its hooks make this sound like a day-glo daytime TV medical ad: you wonder if dementia might not be more of a worry than joint pain.
It points up one of the things I love about Soca: its Calypso roots mean there’s an instant-songwriting ethic where no topic is unworthy of a song, however unlikely. So as a listener you never quite know what you’re going to get. On the singer Ras Iley’s 10th Anniversary collection, for instance, “Soca Ninja Turtles” rubs beats with “IMF Takeover”. Both tunes were written by Red Plastic Bag. (Info from the very useful Calypso Archives). Maybe it also goes some way to explaining why such a formally competitive music seems relatively egoless and good-timesy.
Tom in FT /New York London Paris Munich • Pop • 777 views
Nice tune composed by a master lyricist… the song isn’t as simple as that though. It is a double-entendre approach discussing the Prime Minister of Barbados at the time (Owen Arthur). So it should in fact read “Arthur-itis!” Cheers
Aaah, brings it back – the year after you posted this, Tom, I picked up a Red Plastic Bag album on holiday in Barbados. No-one had heard of Rihanna then, and Red is a lot more fun anyway.