If you haven’t had the distinct fortune of seeing William Smokey Burke in concert – his music and wit in full flow – then it’s perhaps time to get a copy of his latest album.
Entitled Different Smokes For Different Folks, it’s a veritable cornucopia of work aptly displaying the versatility that is Burke’s; “versatility for which I seldom earn any credit locally”, he quips.
The 17-track album has a twofold mission: packaged chronologically, the songs are a good source of archival material, and its wide variety is a timely response to the wishes of his fans.
“There are several songs here which different people have asked for; so I decided to put them all into one package . . . . Hence the title,” Burke told the WEEKEND NATION.
Some songs were formally done in-studio, others live, and at least one – De Girl Pretty – was taken from a tape recording. Whether this in any way affected the overall technical production is arguable, but response from the general public so far has been encouraging.
Even so, hearing the audience applaud to some of Burke’s NIFCA performances gives a warm touch to what is as much a lyrical project as it is a musical one.
Asked whether he had any favourites, Burke said there were many, but if he had to single out any, it would be the 1974 hit Help Me Love, Track 2.
“Though it was my second number one hit, it’s the biggest song of my life. My first number one was the spouge track Tell Her I’m Sorry [also from 1974], featuring backing vocalists Janice and Beverley Cave and the late Maureen Lowe,” he recalled, noting he was the first local artiste to have two number one hits on both sides of a 45-rpm record.
The album’s first three tracks – Tell Her I’m Sorry, Help Me Love and Get It Together – were done with The Organization, with whom Burke featured on drums between 1973 and 1975.
Alongside spouge, reggae also makes an impact on the album with the Roger Gibbs-penned She Like Um Bad. This hilarious song is bolstered by the chanting of Jamaican Devon Irie.
Spiced with NIFCA numbers, including the 1997 folk song Ode To A Bajan Poe, there are strategically placed displays of musicality in the Chris Allman arrangement Special, featuring wicked live horns, including Arturo Tappin on sax, and the cover of Bill Withers’ Ain’ No Sunshine.
In fact, the three covers – Ain’ No Sunshine, a reggae take on Smokey Robinson’s Tracks Of My Tears, and the Everly Brothers number Bye Bye, Love – give an insight into where Burke’s heart is musically: in the watershed era of the 1960s and 1970s.
Along with amusing songs like Cane Gone, De Girl Pretty and Ode To A Bajan Poe, there are sad songs as well: Characters Of The City is six minutes and 40 seconds of tremendous lyrics, accompanied by a plaintive guitar, while the 2007 song Kensington is a wistful recollection of exploits at The Mecca before it was rebuilt into an ultramodern stadium for Cricket World Cup.
Finally, the album ends with a warning in the form of James And Joanie Phony.
The archival slant, the memories, the jokes and the musicality of Different Smokes For Different Folks all tell a story – even the graphics by Troy Holder depicting a baby Burke with a drum.
“Once a man and twice a child; I was bald then and have come all the way back to being bald now,” Smokey said.
“That photograph was taken when I was months old and was printed in a competition in The Advocate and won first prize. I was destined for entertainment even before I knew it,” recalled the writer, singer, drummer, stand-up comic and social commentator, who is very likely to keep his contributions flowing in another month or so for Crop Over.
