Pluto Shervington - Ram Goat Liver

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post showcases a sound file of and lyrics for the Jamaican Reggae song "Ram Goat Liver" written & performed by Leighton "Pluto" Shervington. Selected comments about this song from the featured YouTube sound file's viewer comment thread and other information about this song also included in this post.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SONG "RAM GOAT LIVER"
From http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090301/ent/ent3.html
"In 1974, while Ernie Smith was on his way to the Federal Records (now Tuff Gong) on Marcus Garvey Drive, Kingston, he saw an accident. When he got to the studio he told Pluto Shervington about it. By the end of the week, Shervington had recorded a song based on the story. That song took off immediately and, 35 years later, is one of the enduring classics of Jamaican music.

Pluto Shervington puts his Ram Goat Liver into the canons of folk music.

"I think that song has got into the category of songs like Evening Time and Linstead Market. I think Ram Goat Liver is past a hit," he told The Sunday Gleaner."...
-snip-
Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto_Shervington for biographical information about Pluto Shervington.

The story this song tells is as follows:
"Man boards a bus. Bus hits a ram goat. News of the accident quickly spreads to the surrounding community, but no one knows who owns the goat. They decide to make mannish water. They get a pot and cooking supplies from a Rasta, who witnessed the accident. Soon the pots boils, other ingredients are added. The pot cooks, our narrator gets his share of the food and eats."

As he is waiting down the street to bum a ride he starts feeling such abdominal discomfort that he wants to die and is forced to relief himself then and there to the laughter of passersby. The moral of the story is that crime does not pay. The chorus: Ram goat is good to make mannish water (a soup made of goat that encourages stamina), its teeth can be made into earrings for your daughter and it makes a good curry goat lunch. It will make your daughter walk and talk."
-Shannon Richardson, 2013 [two comments from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGtStkmZv8A
"Pluto Shervington Ram Goat Liver with Lyrics HD"]

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FEATURED EXAMPLE

Pluto Shervington - Ram Goat Liver



ZIONHIGHER, Uploaded on Jun 27, 2008

A tune that was a hit in 1974. the version is next.

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LYRICS FOR "RAM GOAT LIVER"
(Pluto Shervington)

Sunday gone I jump on a mini bus
I really late but it's not my fault
And when we nearly reach by the terminus
I feel de bus come to a halt

Ee lick a ram goat down a de round-about
but just as if that could not suffice
A bredda run through the bus and start to shout
You shoulda dead mek we buy a pound a rice

Ram goat liver good fi mek mannish water
Billy goat teeth mek the earring for you daughter
Curried goat lunch put de bite in your bark
It mek you daughter ... It mek you daughter walk and talk

Well the news spread fast like a telegram
Nobody know whey de goat come from
We raise a pot and a pan from a nya man*+
Who sit down dey all along

Two twos++ and the pot a boil
A hit* a yam and banana tip
"meanwhile a little waters a gwan*+++
Lick me goat and a meeeh tek me sip

Ram goat liver good fi mek mannish water
Billy goat teeth mek the earring for you daughter
you daughter ... It mek you daughter walk and talk

Well I pop two belch and never sighed
I tek a walk go outta street
But while I waitin down de road fi bum a ride
I feel a gripe and start I feel very weak

Before too long you no ha fi ask
A runny belly like a judgement day
A everybody in the road a dead wid laugh
Its then I know that crime will never pay

Ram goat liver good fi mek mannish water
Billy goat teeth mek the earring for you daughter
Curried goat lunch put de bite in your bark
It mek you daughter ... It mek you daughter walk and talk

<--interlude-->

Ram goat liver good fi mek mannish water
Billy goat teeth mek the earring for you daughter
Curried goat lunch put de bite in your bark
It mek you daughter ... It mek you daughter walk and talk

Ram goat liver good fi mek mannish water
Billy goat teeth mek the earring for you daughter
Curried goat lunch put de bite in your bark
It mek you daughter ... It mek you daughter walk and talk

*Lyrics differ than those found at http://www.smartlyrics.com/Song616257-Pluto-Shervington-Ram-Goat-Liver-lyrics.aspx

These corrections were posted by YouTube commenters on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGtStkmZv8A Hat tip to Shannon Richardson, liveAliveShow, and chimaera01, and any who others I omitted for those corrections.

+ CliveAliveShow, 2013
"Good but translation is a bit off. Eg, nya-man = nyabinghi man..."

++ chimaera01, 2013
"two twos...meaning in no time."

++ Shannon Richardson, 2013
"Please note that mannish water never cooks in two twos (quickly), it is a 4 to 5 hour cook on a wood fire. The meal was probably undercooked and resulted in this poor guy having "judgment day" diarrhea."

+++ Shannon Richardson, 2013
"meanwhile quarters a gwan" should be "meanwhile a little waters a gwan" i.e. they were drinking overproof white rum."

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OTHER SELECTED COMMENTS
(These comments are presented in chronological order with the oldest comments posted first.)

From the viewer comment thread http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kca32orFys

Kwekwe, 2010
..."terminus is the place where all the buses stop and take another set of passenger beginning a new journey"

MsTkhan, 2010
"i just read that mannish water is considered an aphrodisiac and hence what this song is talking about in the chorus. once again, there goes my childhood innocence"

blakbeltjonez, 2012
..."but the tune is all in fun, many of Pluto's best songs are slightly outrageous although maybe not impossible, especially in JA."...
-snip-
JA=Jamaica

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Thanks to the musical legacy of Pluto Shervington.

Thanks also to the publisher of this featured sound file and thanks to all those whose comments are quoted in this post.

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