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Colon Colon

Lord Cobra

musdetropico:

Lord Cobra - Colon Colon

It appears in the “Panama! 3” compilation album by Soundway Records.

DOWNLOAD ALBUM HERE!


Cobra, who died in 2000, was a Panamanian bartender-turned singer, and his work has appeared on the past two compilations in the Panama! series. In “Colón Colón,” from 1971’s Tamayo, we find Cobra taking a dark approach to calypso, complete with minor guitars and mournful backup singers. But his words expose the song as a proud display of territorial egoism. Cobra doesn’t hesitate to sing the praises of his hometown, proclaiming, “If you really want to have some fun, just come to Colón.” It took nearly 40 years for the message to arrive, but better late than never.

A record review by Eric Jackson:
Lord Cobra died a Pentacostalist, but I don’t know what he believed all those years when he tended bar in Colon. In 1970, along with his band of the time, the Pana-Afro Sounds, he covered the Lloyd Thomas calypso classic “Rocombey:”

One night I took a chance

And I went to a Voodoo dance

I was looking for new romance

That’s why I went to the Voodoo dance

Did he get saved, then lost? Or lost, then saved?

Fortunately, some of the late Wilfred Berry’s (Lord Cobra’s) music has been saved, even if he was so horribly ripped off in his lifetime that he never received a penny in royalties from the five albums he recorded or the 43 songs he wrote. With this compilation, however, there is a hope that the musicians who made these 15 tracks between 1965 and 1975 will see some justice and some recognition, though it will surely not be enough.