Shorty – Greatest Hits

Review

Shorty’s work is seminal to the development of modern soca: he is usually credited as one of the originators of both the term and the form. On Greatest Hits, almost all the classics (Gone Are the Days, Sweet Music, Shanti Om, Endless Vibrations, et al) are presented in their original versions.

Listening to this collection, we’re reminded of how much Shorty was ahead of his time: Shanti Om (which, in an amazing instance of crossover, was covered by Bombay duo Babla and Kanchan) and the controversial Indrani (not included) preceded the chutney-soca onslaught by more than a decade. Who God Bless and Higher World foreshadow Shorty’s eventual revoking of urban pleasures and rebirth as rural visionary Ras Shorty I. Without this CD on the shelf no serious calypsophile’s collection can truly call itself complete. (GP/eC)