Edmundo Ros died yesterday, at the age of one hundred. Not far off a hundred and one, in fact.
Who was he? Well, he was a Trinidadian musician who became massive star in the UK in the late forties and fifties, popularising many styles of Latin music in the UK. His records sold in their millions. My mum used to play us his Brazilian cha-cha-cha-style records when we were kids. But Ros also jumped on the calypso bandwagon, and in 1953 he released one of the great football records of all time – which should be better known.
In a recent article I wondered what my top ten football-themed tracks of all time would be. I don’t know, but this one would be somewhere in my top five of all time on the right day. Press this button, then press ‘play’ again – but don’t bother with the rest of the tracks by other artistes on the compilation – mostly a pile of ****!
Just a pity that Liverpool were doing too badly during that era to get included in these so-bad-they’re-almost-brilliant lyrics!
Incidentally, Ros’ record unleashed a craze for football calypso releases in the fifties, but his was the best. If you’re interested, do a Youtube search and have a listen too to a real curio from 1950s calypso giant Lord Kitchener – a record uniquely celebrating both Manchester clubs at once, from 1956 when United won the league and City the cup. ‘Manchester calypso 1956’ should find it, but I won’t put a link here ‘cos it might be offensive to some of my Liverpudlian readers.
Because It's Much More Important Than That 