Lord Invader and His Calypso Rhythm Boys – Teddy Boy Calypso (Bring Back the Cat-o-Nine) (1959)

First post for several weeks and had no choice but to spring back into blogging action after stumbling upon this remarkable record after dinner this evening.

I’ve been reading a lot of books on 1950s/1960s Britain recently and this song captures the age perfectly. Released on Pye Records in 1959 by Lord Invader, the song is a passionate call for the application of corporal punishment to those pesky Teddy Boys. And all this from a Trinidadian born in 1914 …!

The lyrics:

The only thing to stop these hooligans from causing panic in Great Britain,

The only thing to stop these Teddy Boys from causing panic in England,

Well I hope that the Government see they need another kind of punishment,

I say one thing to cool down this crime is to bring back the old time cat-o-nine.

 

CHORUS:

So the old time cat-o-nine beat them bad and they bound to change their mind,

Send them to Dartmoor with licks like fire and they bound to surrender.

 

The police is working harder and harder to see this thing go no further,

Every night they on duty to safeguard us from violence and robbery,

But they would not stop at all, Peter is going to pay for Paul,

I say one thing to cool down this crime is to bring back the old time cat-o-nine.

 

And in the days of Judge Hitchins, as you know, nothing never happen so,

Any man pass under his hand can tell you of the rod of correction,

He used to treat them meek and mild, he never spare the rod to spoil the child,

I say one thing to cool down this crime let’s thrash them with the old time cat-o-nine

 

And every night they’re walking about in a band attacking woman and man,

You see that though they have no respect for no person beating innocent people,

But the judge and the juries, can settle this thing easily,

I say the cat is the only H-Bomb to drop and this “Robustness” must stop