Warrior Music

One good thing about music – when it hits, you score more goals.

[Forgive me, Mr. Nesta Marley]

As I pondered how best to riposte to a couple of my fellow bloggers over whether the World Cup should have 32, 16 or 24 teams, I found myself humming that Warrior Nation anthem – Maximus Dan’s Fighter.

There is, of course, a long and established tradition of music in football. Forget Ricky Martin’s poppy Cup of Life (olé olé olé). Go, find Jorge Ben’s Ponta de Lança Africano (or even better, the Soulfly ‘eternal spirit mix’, Umbabarauma). Ben’s brilliant Mas, Que Nada would destroy New Order’s World in Motion in the Pop World Cup.

Fearless Leader Bob wonders why fans get so passionate over their World Cup songs and chants. I’m still annoyed about the ‘official’ T&T song being outsourced, and I can attest that Maximus Dan is one of the most played artists on my iPod – largely due to how many times a day I listen to Fighter and its remixes.

Outside of the usual platitudes about music being the ‘universal language’ and a powerful psychological agent, the Trinbagonian culture is deeply informed by music and musicianship. Steelpan, calypso, soca, chutney – these are indigenous to T&T. Every waking moment of your life in Trinidad comes with a soundtrack – whether it be the music blasting from street corner soundsystems or from expensive stereos in tricked-out Civics. At every fete (party), every ‘lime‘ (informal get-together), there will be music. Football matches are no exception – the most mindnumbingly boring of matches will be livened up by a well-tuned “riddim section”.

If you’re intersted in hearing some of the paens composed to the the T&T national team over the years, check out the TntInGermany website, which has some new tunes and some old styles available for streaming, with a bit of background information as well. For those of you with long memories, you might recall that the the T&T team that almost went to Italy in 1990 was called the Strike Squad. There are a couple of songs that were written for that glorious squad readily downloadable over at the Warrior Nation website.

The gamers out there might be interested to note that two of the Warrior songs will be included in EA’s FIFA World Cup 2006 – Maximus’ Fighter, and The Calling, by Kes The Band.

Given this absolute extravgance of music, it’s even more shocking that any one would dare to claim that “everyone in Trinidad is jumping up and down about the World Cup but no one had thought about doing a record.” No points for guessing that one of the guys from Leeds said that.