Small Island Pride- Taxi Driver With Lyrics

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3. Taxi Driver (Small Island Pride, 1956, from Jump-Up Carnival, Cook LP 1072)

Great use of double-entendre in which the courtship ritual is expressed in automotive terms. The pace of the calypso rises to fever pitch until the young lady and her car both catch fire.This on has an old time sound. Instumentation is limited to acoustic guitar, bass, and maracas. The guitar strums with a pan-Caribbean rhythmic feel reminiscent of Jamaican mento, Guyanese badji [Bhagee], and other related rural west Indian Song and dance styles.

Well, last year at Venezuela/Boys, I bounce with a senorita
Yes, she wanted a taxi driver/To drive her out when she in for pleasure
Boys, I sent her My application/And she send me her regulation she say, "You car is a Ford/It don't respect Highway Code
It does skid when it overload"
Oh, But she give me a chart
Telling me to drive it fast/Don't mind if it out of gas
If the radiator start to boil/Do, don't stop, let water wash
Down the coil.

Well, as a driver with wide experience/Boys, I send this car for inspection
I give the mechanic man my instruction/To check up from
Diff to the pistons
I even beg him plug the muffler/Because I done know these old
Fords love to backfire
I beg him clip some of the wires tha it mightn't cause no fire
Boy, and plug the radiator/Because I done know all my charge
Is to drive she fast
Don't mind if she out of gas
But if she radiator staart to boil/Do, don't stop, let the water
Overflow the coil.

Well, the car came back from inspection/I told her Monday is
Demonstration
She told me, "No, honey wait until Wednesday/I want to fix
The springs in my upholstrey
Because when we start this fast driving/And my car start over
shaking
The slightest jerk affect my brain/My back might get strain
And then I feel an afterpain."
But I told her, "No, I driving far/Don't mind if you out of gas
But if your radiator start to boil/Do, don't stop, let the water
tear loose the coil."
Well, the car came back from inspection/Boys, we went out on
Demonstration
You know she drive ten miles and a quarter/I told her top,
Turn this wheel over
Boys, is now I start my fast driving/A lot of funny things start
Happening
You know the wires cross one another/The water hose bust
Loose the radiator
Well, boys, the gearbox started a grinding/This gear so hard I
Can't get it go in
So I pull out my gear lever/Water fly through she muffler
Aand the whole car went on fire
If you hear her: "Stop, driver, not so fast"/I said, "Why?" She
Said, "The car out of gas"
I said, "Girl, your piston still pitching oil/And why the hell water can't wash the coil?"