Count Lasher (sometimes styled Count Lasha) was the stage-name of Terence Parkins (''c''.1921 – 1977 Michael Garnice states that Count Lasher died in 1977 at the age of 51, but in the ''Caribbean Popular Music: An Encyclopedia of Reggae, Mento, Ska, Rocksteady, And Dancehall'' his birthdate is given as ''c''. 1940), a Jamaican singer and songwriter. Born in the mountainous parish of Saint Thomas, Lasher predominantly utilized first rural, and then urban

mento Mento is a style of Music of Jamaica, Jamaican folk music that predates and has greatly influenced ska and reggae music. It is a fusion of African rhythmic elements and European elements, which reached peak popularity in the 1940s and 1950s. ...

styles in his music, although in later years he recorded some

ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...

and

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

singles. Successful and prolific in output, Count Lasher remains an overlooked figure in the history of

Jamaican music The music of Jamaica includes Jamaican folk music and many popular genres, such as mento, ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub music, dancehall, reggae fusion and related styles. Reggae is especially popular through the international fame of Bob Marle ...

Career

Count Lasher's career started soon after leaving school. An avid fan of mento music, he taught himself how to play the piano and the guitar before traveling to Kingston where he entertained the tourists on boats moored within Kingston Harbour. A prolific performer, Lasher appeared at hotels, beach parties, charity events, and occasionally in cinemas before the start of the movies. He recorded on several different labels (his debut being produced by

Stanley Motta Stanley Motta was an electronics store proprietor who established a record label in Kingston, Jamaica and opened the first privately owned recording studio in Jamaica in 1951, jump starting Jamaica's music industry. Career Motta recorded cal ...

), and was accompanied by various backing bands over the course of his career; early singles are credited to Count Lasher's Seven, with names such as the Royal Calypsonians and Calypso Quartet used later. Though Lasher's music was technically mento in style, Jamaican acts of the era often recorded under calypso-related names as the term ' calypso' had greater recognition amongst tourists. Count Lasher entered some of the music competitions held regularly at Jamaica's Ward's Theatre. On 20 April 1957 the theatre's "Federated Calypso Clash" saw

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

ian calypso artists

Lord Pretender Lord Pretender (8 September 1917 – 22 January 2002) was the stage name of Aldric Farrell, M.O.M., H.B.M. a calypsonian vocalist born on the island of Tobago widely acknowledged to be a "master" of extempo, a lyrically improvised form of calyp ...

and

Lord Melody Lord Melody (1926 – 26 September 1988)Thompson, Dave (2002) ''Reggae & Caribbean Music'', backbeat Books, , p.154-155 was a popular Trinidadian calypsonian, best known for singles such as " Boo Boo Man", "Creature From The Black Lagoon", "S ...

battle mento locals Count Lasher and

Lord Messam Augustus "Lord" Messam was a Jamaican mento singer who performed throughout the 1950s up until the mid 1960s. With his band, Messam released several records that consisted of a mixture of original and traditional material on the Stanley Motta reco ...

. Count Lasher continued to perform until the mid-1970s, releasing more than fifty songs, yet he never recorded any albums or compilations. Both his age and the spelling of his real nameThe writing credit for "Sam Fi Man" is given to ''Terence Perkins'', but the Lasher Disc single "Natta Bay Road" / "Female Boxer" gives the credit to ''Terrence Parkins'' are still open to question, and despite believing that he could be the greatest of all the mento performers,

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

Michael Garnice has also stated that: "Count Lasher may be the single most neglected artist in the history of Jamaican recorded music."

Subject matter

Early recordings released by mento artists were primarily intended for use on the island's

sound systems In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...

, only later being released to the general public. Like most of the mento songwriters, Count Lasher is a storyteller and social-commentator as well as an entertainer. Colorful local dialect is also employed liberally throughout Lasher's work, with themes and issues easily recognizable to the island's inhabitants. The chorus in "Mango Time" presents a list of

mango cultivars The following is a list of some prominent mango cultivars. Worldwide, hundreds of mango cultivars are known, with over 1000 varieties in India. Most commercial cultivars belong to ''Mangifera indica'', while a few commercial varieties grown in Sou ...

: More Jamaican idioms are to be found in Lasher's arrangement of traditional song "The Weed" (aka "Man Pyabba"), which tells of a hungry man encountering an old lady with a basket packed with different medicinal herbs. The protagonist in the story is offered a bewildering array of herbs, with unusual local names such as: 'Tomtom Callback', 'Deadman get-up', 'Granny Back Bone', 'Granny Crack Cracks', 'Guzzu Weed', 'Puss in Boots', and the 'Ducky Batty'. Lasher laments that, "The only one she didn't have was the wicked 'Ganja Weed'.." Many mento acts used suggestive lyrics in their work, and with a name like "Count Lasher" (local slang for a

Don Juan Don Juan (), also known as Don Giovanni (Italian), is a legendary, fictional Spanish libertine who devotes his life to seducing women. Famous versions of the story include a 17th-century play, '' El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra'' ...

-like character), it is unsurprising that Perkins recorded several 'saucy' numbers. "The Man with the Tool", "Female Boxer", "The Ole Man's Drive", and "Water The Garden" are examples of songs where

double-entendres A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially a ...

are gleefully employed by Count Lasher. Sometimes the subtext is only thinly-veiled, for instance in "Robusta Banana": In "Maintenance" Count Lasher recounts a tale of having been sued for child support, when he is adamant that the baby does not belong to him. The baby is white, and Lasher notes how: "I'm black, you think, and he motheris closely related to ink". After he is told that the baby is white because the mother drank

Milk of Magnesia Magnesium hydroxide is the inorganic compound with the chemical formula Mg(OH)2. It occurs in nature as the mineral brucite. It is a white solid with low solubility in water (). Magnesium hydroxide is a common component of antacids, such as milk ...

when pregnant, Lasher retorts: "..put me in jail if you like, I ain't paying.. ..For me to mind a child, well you have to know, that the scamp must be born singing calypso". Many other subjects were examined by Lasher in his work. The

West Indian A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). For more than 100 years the words ''West Indian'' specifically described natives of the West Indies, but by 1661 Europeans had begun to use it ...

passion for

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

is documented in tunes like "Final Test Decision" and "Tribute To Sobers", and in "Trek to England" Lasher angrily commented on the West Indian emigration boom of the time. He felt that the local 'gals' had been made 'vicious' by their obsession with obtaining enough money to purchase a ticket to the country.

Covers

Count Lasher's "Calypso Cha Cha" was covered and renamed "Rocking Steady" by

Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements o ...

. The track appears on Marley's album ''1967–1972 Gold''. "Sam Fi Man" was later recorded by fellow mento artist Stanley Beckford.

Discography

Count Lasher was prolific in terms of singles released, yet he never recorded an album, and no compilation of his music has been issued. A (possibly incomplete) selection of Count Lasher's recordings is given below:

1950s

* "Sam Fi Man" / "Things Gone Up" (Motta's Recording Studio SM 141-DSM 39A/B) – as Count Lasher's Calypso Quintet * "Mango Time" / "Breadfruit Season" (Motta's Recording Studio) – as Count Lasher's Seven * "Water The Garden" / "Trek To England" (Motta's Recording Studio) – as Count Lasher's Calypso Quintet * "Two Timing Lennie" / "The Saturday March" (Motta's Recording Studio) – as Count Lasher's Calypso Quintet * "Pick Your Choice" / "Shepherd Rod" (Motta's Recording Studio) – as Count Lasher's Calypso Quintet * "Perfect Love" / "Mother Bad Mine" (Motta's Recording Studio) – as Count Lasher's Calypso Quintet * "Man A Yard" / "The Ole Man's Drive" (Motta's Recording Studio) – with George Moxey & His Calypso Quintet * "You Got To Pay" / "Time For A Change" (Motta's Recording Studio) – with George Moxey & His Calypso Quintet * "Calypso Cha Cha Cha" / "Perseverance" (Caribou Records 1959 CRC 100) – as Count Lasher & His Calypsonians * "Slide Mongoose" / "Miss Constance" (Caribou Records 1959 CRC 105) – as Count Lasher's Calypso Quintet * "Calabash" / "Dalvey Gal – Parson" (Caribou Records CRC 106) – as Count Lasher with Orch * "Talking Parrot" / "Doctor" (Kalypso Records RL 15) – with Charlie Binger & His Calypsonians * "Sally Brown" / "Cinemascope" (Kalypso Records RL 15) – with Charlie Binger & His Calypsonians * "Man With The Tool" / "Final Decision" (Melotone Records 1963 FTM 2607) – as Count Lasher & His Band * "Lasher Rides Again" / "Love Friction" (Melotone Records 1963) – as Count Lasher & His Band * "Fish And Ackee" / "Please Louise" (Melotone Records 1963) – as Count Lasher & His Band * "Robusta Banana" / "Mo-Bay Chinaman" (Chin's Records C 1006) – as Count Lasher's Calypso Quintet * "Jamaica Bananas" / "Don't Fool Roun' Me Gal" (Chin's Records) * "Jolly Jolly Shilling" / "Count Lasher Rides" (Lasher Disc Records LD 01) – as Count Lasher & His Pepsters * "Natta Bay Road" / "Female Boxer" (Lasher Disc Records LD 02) – as Count Lasher & His Pepsters

1960s

* "Hooligans" / "Jump Independently" (with Lynn Taitt and the Baba Brooks Band, Dutchess 1964 WIRL DR 1530-2/DR 1531-2) * "Ring Ding '67" / "Winnie The Whip" (PEP Records 1967 S 7/S 8) * "Dry Weather House" / "Tribute To Sobers" (SEP Records 1966 G 132/G 131 LOP 214/LOP 216) * "Peace, Peace, Peace" / "Things Gone Up" (SEP Records 1966 G 140/G 141 LOP 215/LOP 217) * "The Growth Of Federation: A Song About The Caribbean Federation" (Soundtrack for ''The West Indies'', BIS Radio Television Division) * "Bam Bam" (with Lynn Taitt and the Baba Brooks Band, Dutchess Records)

1970s

* "A Change Me Mind" (Bongo Man) * "Clean Face Rasta" (Bongo Man 1974 BM 00035 FCD 74-A) * "Font Hill Duppy" (Bongo Man 1974 BM 00037 JR 9899) * "Time To Sow" (Bongo Man 1974 BM 00030 FCD 74-B) * "Water The Garden" / "Tenor In The Garden" (Sight & Sound Records) * "Maintenance" / "Maintenance Part Three" (Bongo Man BM 00040 FCD 88-A/FCD 88-B)