Super blue

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Super blue (2014)

Superblue (also Super Blue or Blue Boy , actually Austin Lyons , born May 25, 1956 in Point Fortin ) is a Trinidadian calypso and soca musician.

Career

Lyons was born on May 25, 1956 in Point Fortin in the southwest Trinidadian region of Siparia ; his parents are of Grenadian descent. The father left the family early and before Austin could meet him; the mother Jesse Harry raised Austin, his four brothers and three sisters alone. He found music early on; As a teenager he founded his own steel band , the (unsuccessful) Apple Stars Steel Orchestra, with which he re-enacted the titles of successful Calypsonians (calypso singers). At the age of 16 he left school and initially worked as a dock worker and later as a seaman. During this time he was nicknamed "Blue Boy" because of his dark, as blue-black mocked skin color. From 1979 he tried to gain a foothold as a Calypsonian, initially in vain. In 1980, with the help of a demo cassette, he succeeded in convincing producer Pelham Goddard, one of the "50 most influential Trinidadians" according to CNC3, to produce the title Soca Baptist, written and sung by Lyons , a calypso with Soca rhythm. The song sparked greater controversy in the country as influential Baptist circles obtained a radio and television boycott of the title, which, however, increased the song's popularity. The then Prime Minister Eric Williams felt compelled to intervene in the dispute by means of a televised address and to call for moderation. Soca Baptist was banned from the Carnival Road March , which the participating moving groups ignored and gave Superblue, who was then still known as "Blue Boy", his first victory at the Road March. He won this title nine times in the course of his career, the International Soca Monarch seven times, which makes him the record holder of the ISM; in the Road March titles he is ahead of Mighty Sparrow (eight wins) but behind Lord Kitchener (nine wins). In 1983 Lyons released an LP called Superman , which earned him a lawsuit with the brand's rights owners ( DC Comics ); 3000 copies of the phonogram had to be crushed and the album was renamed Super Blue Boy . Between 1986 and 1989 Lyons' career rested because of his massive cocaine addiction, but from 1990 he returned to the Trinidadian music business with the new artist name "Superblue". His 1991 comeback title Get Something And Wave followed the Calypso tradition of commenting on political events and referred to the Jamaat al-Muslims coup attempt in July 1990 and the subsequent emergency legislation of Trinidad, which was in force until December 1990. The title was so popular in Trinidad that it managed a hat trick at the Road March in the years that followed. The title Barbara , with which he won the ISM in 1997, was featured on the 1998 soundtrack of the US comedy Side Streets . In 2013 Lyons, aged over 60, achieved another success with Fantastic Friday at both Trinidadian music competitions.

Style and reception

For Allmusic , reviewer Craig Harris described Superblue as “one of the most successful singing artists in Trinidad”, whose defining characteristics are “a light-footed approach to the subject of music, dancing Soca rhythms and the gift of writing witty, ambiguously colored lyrics”. Alona Wartofsky put forward the thesis in the Washington Post that Lyons was the person who helped the soca genre to breakthrough in his motherland Trinidad - while the genre has been regarded as existing and independent since the mid-1970s, only he had The success of Superblue meant that young Trinidadian musicians turned away from calypso and turned towards soca and made the genre so popular that even classical Calypsonians brought soca elements into their music. The Soca news portal Socanews writes about this change that Lyons had "revolutionized" Trinidadian music. For Caribbean Beat, Debbie Jacob saw Lyons' talent as "keeping his ear to the pulse of the times and picking up rhythms and sounds that are in Trinidadian blood". David Rudder said of Lyons' music that it was "very close to the life of ordinary people and the Trinidadian nature". “His lyrics are somehow different. He is very close to the people and has a strange way of piecing things together. "

Lyons himself names the Beatles , Michael Jackson and James Brown as musical companions of his youth, Ras Shorty I as the initial spark for his musical career and Nat King Cole and Bob Marley as influences in his music.

Awards

year competition Song title / award
1980 Carnival Road March Soca Baptist
1981 Carnival Road March Ethel
1983 Carnival Road March Rebecca
1991 Carnival Road March Get Something And Wave
1992 Carnival Road March Jab jab
1993 Carnival Road March Bacchanal Time
1993 International Soca Monarch Bacchanal Time
1994 International Soca Monarch Flag party
1995 Carnival Road March Signal to Lara
1996 International Soca Monarch Bounce
1997 International Soca Monarch Barbara
1998 International Soca Monarch Ato party
2000 Carnival Road March Pump up
2000 International Soca Monarch Pump up
2011 International Soca Monarch SAO Hall Of Fame Award
2013 Carnival Road March Fantastic Friday
2013 International Soca Monarch Fantastic Friday
2018 Carnival Road March Soca Kingdom (with Machel Montano )

Private

Austin Lyons was temporarily in a relationship with the calypso singer Lynette "Lady Gypsy" Steele and has a daughter with her, Fay-Ann Lyons , who is active as a soca musician. Another daughter, Terri Lyons, is also a Soca singer. He lives alternately in Port of Spain and New York .

Discography

  • 1981: Soca In The Shaolin Temple (Charlie's Records)
  • 1982: Tic, Tac, Toe (EP, Charlie's Records)
  • 1983: Superman resp. Super Blue Boy (Charlie's Records)
  • 1990: 10th Anniversary (Charlie's Records)
  • 1990: Revival (EP, Street Life)
  • 1992: In The Power (EP, Street Life)
  • 1993: Bacchanal Time (Ice Records)
  • 1993: Birthday Party / Private Property (split EP with Lennox Sharpe )
  • 1994: Flag Party (Ice Records)
  • 1995: Happy Carnival (Ice Records)
  • 1997: Extreme Blue (EP, Jamaican Me Crazy)
  • 2001: Joy (Rituals Records)
  • 2009: Soca Matrix (Caribbean Music Group)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Caribbean Beat # 4 (Winter 1992): SuperBlue: the Pied Piper of Soca. Retrieved May 11, 2017 .
  2. ↑ CNC3.co.tt: 50 most influential people in Trinidad & Tobago: Pelham Goddard. Retrieved May 11, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b WashingtonPost.com: Superblue's Calypso on Wheels. Retrieved May 11, 2017 .
  4. ^ InternationalSocaMonarch.com: Monarchs. Retrieved May 5, 2017 .
  5. ^ Express of March 15, 2013: Call Him the Super Soca King. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on May 30, 2013 ; accessed on May 13, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.trinidadexpress.com
  6. ↑ AllMusic.com: Superblue - Biography. Retrieved May 8, 2017 .
  7. ↑ SocaNews.com: Machel scores a Road March hat-trick. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 27, 2016 ; accessed on May 13, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / socanews.com
  8. ↑ Newsday of November 25, 2011: Soca Awards at NAPA tomorrow. Retrieved May 5, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Guardian of January 5, 2013: SuperBlue: Vacation from soca competitions over. Retrieved May 7, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Super blue
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Blue, super; Boy, blue; Lyons, Austin (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Trinidadian calypso and soca musicians
DATE OF BIRTH May 25, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Point Fortin