Calypso

Following last week's admission that this blog isn't going to change the world, I decided to use it to chronicle the answering of some heavy questions that weigh on my mind.

For starters, how did a form of Caribbean music end up named after a chick from Greek Mythology?

I know, you're thinking, "WTF?" but I don't waste my time with easy things like not giving a flip about why things are the way they are, I wake up with Taj Mahal in my head and start wondering, how. How the hell did that crazy Odysseus suddenly end up somewhere in the general area of Trinidad and Tobago while cavorting on Malta?

Boat, I know.

Naturally, Wikipedia has an entry on how whitey discovered the music when slaves of the French were allowed to make sound.

That doesn't really tell me anything except a faction of humanity is totally insane and another--thankfully stronger--chunk of the population manages to keep singing even when living under really really messed up circumstances. Which I'd grasped by the age of four.

Looking up the musicians themselves, I found out the type of song called Calypso started out as Kaiso. Which brings my quest to an abrupt end. The only connection exists in the confused minds of the fans and writers of the Pirates of the Carribean franchise.

I realize I could have just asked my neighbors' cousins, but I didn't want to seem like a total ass. So I put it on the Internet.

Calypso