Singing schoolteacher Seadley Joseph so loved books, he became known as the Penguin after the flightless bird symbol of the famous publishing house, winning Trinidad’s coveted Calypso Monarch title with a blistering piece of social commentary, “We Living in Jail.”
His 1984 lyrics declared, “Everybody talking ‘bout freedom, but is like everybody blind, If you think we living in freedom, the freedom only in your mind. Everywhere I look, criminals and crooks terrorise as they run amok; While poor you and me behind lock and key, moving round like if we in shock.”
He sang: “While criminals out on bail, honest men catching dey tail in their homemade jail, You can’t walk the streets no more, you ‘fraid to open your door, like we fighting war. We living in jail, we living in jail.”
Some three decades on, his candid composition continues to capture the