The Mighty Gabby - Emmerton

Barbadian Calypsonian Anthony Carter a.k.a. "Mighty Gabby" sings the song he's best known for - Emmerton. The song, from his album "Til Now" is a dirge for the village of his birth.

Emmerton, considered at the time to be one of Barbados's worst slums, was adjacent to the capital city, Bridgetown. In the 1970s the government decided to raze the settlement and use the land to build a waste water treatment facility. Most of the nearly 600 residents of the area did not want to leave, but resistance to the government's resettlement plans eventually failed.

This is how the Mighty Gabby explains the origins of his powerful dirge:

"It was a place where neighbours were each other's lookout. In 1978, when I found out that we had to move, I was very hurt. People's houses were torn down and it was very heartbreaking to see the destruction of that community. They also destroyed the environment and ecology of the place. Emmerton meant everything to me. It was my homeland; it was the place I learned to swim. I had to remember it in song. The song took me just 35 minutes to write."

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[Leon Heallis]

This Song is the BEST of the BESTEST

[nyser1]

LOL! You sure you don't mean the bestest of the best?

[Blue9dragon]

This goes to the very core of all things Bajan.Only a Bajan will understand.

[PassionAngel26]

2 PPL AIN'T UNDASTAN DIS SONG NOT BAJAN FUH REAL

[Dwayne Marshall]

Barbados at its best

[vellosity]

i met gabby as a little girl at brown's beach with his wife...i didn't know who i was talking to until he told me...i told him sing me a song then if ur gabby, and he started singing about the snot coming out my nose...lol sure enough it was him

[Asierramoore]

Amazing song.

[chozendt]

I do not believe you have to be Bajan to understand. This song can be a voice to many people/cultures in many different and similar situations.

[ImGonnaKillYou2nd]

love it

[Wu Realhero]

everyy time i hear this song it brings a tear 2 my eye

[RheddcgK2]

for real!? that's terrible...