Ok, this is a hell of a story. You know it’s going to be a sad and fucked up tale when it begins with Christopher Columbus… so we’ll skip about 400 years of very, very unfortunate shit that went down (you remember the old rhyme, “in 14 hundred and 92/ Columbus sailed the ocean blue/ and served as a catalyst to the biggest genocide in human history—doo” or something like that).

Mid 19^th century-ish, Trinidad and Tobago were under British control. Of course, we all know the Brits may not have invented “the Man,” but they sure as hell mastered it. During the waning years of slavery, the Man realized he was on thin ice in the Caribbean, but instead of making things cooler, the man heated it up and banned slaves from talking to each other. Seriously! I know, what a bunch of dicks—but wait, it gets worse.

So the slaves started communicating with drums, as many cultures in Africa did. Then the fucking Brits outlawed drumming! Now the Man can make as many rules as he wants, but you can’t stop the shining, so the people started cleaning out and tuning bamboo stalks that they would beat together rhythmically to communicate. Guess what the Brits did next—that’s right, they banned those sticks.

We’re up to the early to mid 20^th century now, and, in addition to ruining and raping indigenous culture, the white folks had a way of doing the same thing to the previously pristine environment.

Around this time, giant oil drums (metal barrels) were washing up on the beaches of Trinidad after they were thrown overboard by British oil companies. Forget “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Life gave Trinidad toxic waste and catastrophic oppression, and they made some most joyous and soulful music in the world. Steel drums were made by heating and pounding these giant oil drums until they were tuned to a chromatic scale. (Technically they’re called “steel pans.” The “drum” part actually refers to the oil drum not the structure of the instrument made out of it.) Ta-da! Calypso is born.

The Marines stationed in Tripoli really dug the music and the culture around it, and much like VD, they spread it from port to port.

Around about 1960-something, the Esso Oil Company realized a few things. One: they had really pissed off the locals. Two: the people were using their oil drums to do something the masses loved and had captured worldwide audience with it. And three: they could co-opt the beauty and soul that was rebelling against them, and make themselves look like the polar opposite of what they really were.

So Esso decided to sponsor the biggest, baddest steel band in town, the Tripoli Steel Band, and change their name to the Esso Trinidad Steel Band. (They did the same thing on a few other islands too). As evil as oil companies and the Man are, this money made it possible for a 28-member band to support themselves and tour the world. There’s pretty much no other way for a 28-member band to pull a profit on the road, so this is actually one of those times where the Man helped himself and helped the world at the same time. I know, it’s rare.

Sometime around 1970 Van Dyke Parks enters the equation. Parks is a wunder-producer and musician who has played with the Byrds and produced everyone from the Beach Boys and Ry Cooder, to U2, Rufus Wainwright and the Scissor Sisters, and perhaps, most important to me, he did the Bare Necessities which Ballou sang in the Jungle Book. Parks is a genius producer, and his real bread and butter is juxtaposing lyrical themes with musical moods and styles that seem counter intuitive. Google him and listen to his work, and what I just said will make total sense.

So Parks picked up on these guys and recorded this album of covers. In addition to some classic reggae tunes (which is totally different than calypso, btw), Parks added steel pan versions of Apeman by the Kinks, I Want You Back by the Jackson 5, Cecilia by Simon and Garfunkel, Come to the Sunshine by Harpers Bizarre, and even Sabre Dance by Aram Khachaturian, among others. The results are mind blowing. Ride on Sammy is the new soundtrack to my life.

This album’s been in and out of print for a while, but is being reissued today, thanks to the good folks at Allegro Media, who I believe are working in conjunction with Minky Records. Looks like they’re already selling out on Amazon as I type this, but you can get it on Allegro’s page now. I’d advise doing it quickly, because I’m not sure they printed enough copies to meet the demand. Buy it now, and tell your friends about it before they run out.

Oh yeah, Van Dyke Parks also produced the Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs covers collection I was ranting about a couple of months ago. And of course, Matthew and Susanna were in the Austin Powers movies, and Tom Cruise was in Austin Powers 3, and Tom was in a Few Good Men, with… Kevin Bacon.